“Hydrogen Bonding Studies with Simple Pyrrole Derivatives.”

Michael Huggins, a distinguished chemistry professor at the University of western Florida visited UNCG yesterday (22^nd November) to give a speech on “Hydrogen Bonding Studies with Simple Pyrrole Derivatives.”  He works mostly with undergraduate students and focuses on hydrogen bonding, sensor development, Liquid Crystals, Inhibitor synthesis and Industrial contacts.  He spoke about “Supramolecular Chemistry” which is chemistry beyond just the molecule, but is mostly the study of  molecules held together by non-covalent bonds. He and his undergrads have been involved an experiment for seven years working with Dipyrrinone Structures, which comprise of predominantly polar functional groups but are non-polar.  He explained how the experiment was done over the years and the results of these experiments by showing graphs, NOE spectrometry, and NMR’s. He also spoke about repulsions, and bulky groups in the experiments which caused steric hindrance. I found this part interesting because I actually knew what he was talking about! All in all it was a great lecture and he finished by proudly showing the audience his campus and giving us a little history.