Research Interests

Burton's research interests lie mainly in synthetic and mechanistic organic chemistry: particularly in the development of new synthetic reagents. Many of the research problems in his group utilize polyfluorinated substrates; and part of this interest in fluorocarbon systems lies in a comparison of the chemistry, particularly reaction mechanisms, of fluorocarbon derivatives with the corresponding hydrocarbon compounds.

One area of interest has been the development of fluorine-containing organometallic reagents.

The trifluoromethylcopper reagent is a unique CF2 transfer agent. On warming to 85-95¡C, insertion of CF2 units oligomerizes the trifluoromethyl- copper reagent and provides a unique pathway to the longer chain perfluoroalkylcoppers.

With aryl organometallics, the reagent selectively transfers the CF2 unit to the aryl organometallic.

The mechanism of these unique processes and applications in organic synthesis is currently under investigation.

Another area of current effort in this group is the development of synthetic methodology to partially fluorinated substrates. A very large area of interest centers on the introduction of one or two fluorine atoms into biologically important compounds. This often induces an important change in the system without completely transforming its character.

Single-Electron Transfer (SET) reactions as useful routes to biologically active partially fluorinated substrates are another area of current effort in this group. A unique nickel catalyst has been developed both for SET initiation as well as for selective reduction. These partially fluorinated functionalized compounds exhibit excellent biological activity as multisubstrate inhibitors and suicide enzyme inhibitors.