Robert Ditchfield
Professor of Chemistry Emeritus
The accuracy of electronic structure methods has now reached a point where such techniques are used rather widely by all kinds of chemists to investigate molecular properties. These methods not only provide information which supplements that obtained from a variety of spectroscopic techniques, but they can also yield important insight about arrangements of nuclei that are difficult to obtain experimentally. My research focusses mainly on developing and applying theoretical techniques that will enable one to understand how various ground and excited state properties depend on molecular electronic structure. Of particular interest are those properties which reflect how the molecular electronic structure responds to the application of external magnetic and/or electric fields. Magnetic shielding tensors have been calculated for many types of nuclei in a wide range of molecular environments.
Contact
Department(s)
Chemistry
Education
- B.Sc. University of Sheffield
- D.Phil. University of Sussex
Selected Publications
Lancaster, C. R. D., Hunte, C., Kelley, J., Trumpower, B. L., and Ditchfield, R. "A Comparison of Stigmatellin Conformations, Free and Bound to the Photosynthetic Reaction Center and the Cytochrome bc1 Complex." J. Mol. Biol. 368, 197 (2007).
Circumannular long range orbital interactions affect thefree energy of activation for the inversion of groups on nitrogen in3-imino-2,2,4,4-tetramethylcyclobutanones, James J. Worman, Robert Ditchfield,Allen Chong, Grzegorz Mloston, and Martha Wozicka, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., Book of Abstracts, 229thACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA (2005), ORGN-474.
Hydroxycarbocation - π interaction: A computational andexperimental study of protonation of aromatic ketones, Bobbijo van Beusichem,Celeste P. Viscardi, Thomas A. Spencer, Jr., and Robert Ditchfield, Abstr. Pap. J. Amer. Chem. Soc., (2000), ORGN-497.
Benzobicyclo[4.2.1]nonene model system for study ofcarbocation-π interaction, Janeta V. Popovici-Muller, Robert Ditchfield, andThomas A. Spencer, Jr., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., Book of Abstracts, 219th ACS National Meeting, SanFrancisco, CA (2000), ORGN-508.J. Am. Chem. Soc.
Works In Progress
“Carbocation-π Interaction: The 1,1-Dimethylallyl Cation and Benzene,” “A Comparison of Stigmatellin Conformations, Free and Bound to the Photosynthetic Reaction Center and the Cytochrome bc 1 Complex”