Donna Blackmond
| Donna Blackmond | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 19, 1958 Pittsburgh, PA, United States |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields |
Chemical Engineering Chemistry |
| Institutions |
Imperial College London University of Hull University of Pittsburgh University of Essen |
| Education |
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1980 |
Donna Blackmond, Ph.D., (born April 19, 1958) is an American chemist whose work focuses on prebiotic chemistry, specifically, the origin of enantiopurity (homochirality) and kinetics of asymmetric catalytic reactions. Notable works include the development of Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis (RPKA), analysis of non-linear effects of catalyst enantiopurity, biological homochirality and amino acid behavior.[1]
Biography
Blackmond was born on April 19, 1958 in Pittsburgh, PA, where she attended University of Pittsburgh and received her undergraduate and master's degree in Chemical Engineering. She received the Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1984. She became a professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh shortly after graduating. Blackmond remained in academia for 8 years before moving on to the Associate Director position at Merck & Co., Inc. Her main responsibility at the company was to set up a laboratory for research and development in the kinetics and catalysis of organic reactions. Blackmond is now a Professor of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Her most current research applies the quantitative aspects of her chemical engineering background to the synthesis of complex organic molecules by catalytic routes, particularly asymmetric catalysis.[1]
Areas of Research
Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis
Blackmond has pioneered the methodology of Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis (RPKA), which is used for rapid determination of concentration dependences of reactants.[1] RPKA allows for in situ measurements to produce a number of rate equations that enable analysis of a reaction using a minimal number of experiments. The purpose for this type of analysis is to help understand what the driving force of a reaction might be and describe possible mechanistic pathways.[2] This technique distinguishes rate processes occurring on the catalytic cycle from those occurring off the cycle. Notable applications of RPKA include asymmetric hydrogenation, asymmetric organocatalytic reactions, palladium catalyzed carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen bond forming reactions, and transition-metal catalyzed competitive reactions.[1]
Nonlinear effects of catalyst enantiopurity
Nonlinear effects describe the non-ideal relationship between enantiomeric excess (ee) of products of a reaction and the ee of the catalyst, a phenomenon first observed by Henri Kagan. Kagan developed mathematical models to describe this non-ideal behavior, MLn models.[3] Blackmond has performed studies that have led to an understanding of reaction rate and its relationship to catalyst ee. Many proposed mathematical models have been tested in the Blackmond lab, which have helped determine possible mechanistic features of reactions, including the Soai reaction.[4] The Soai reaction is of abiotic synthetic interest because it is an autocatalytic reaction, which rapidly produces a large amount of enantiopure products.[5] Blackmond was the first to use Kagan's ML2 model to study the non-linear effects of this reaction. She was the first to conclude that a homochiral dimer was the active catalyst in promoting homochirality for the Soai reaction.[4]
Biological homochirality and amino acid phase behavior
More recently, Blackmond has extended kinetic models to describe the origin of biological homochirality. She has shown solutions of mostly enantiopure amino acids can be produced from nearly racemic mixtures via solution-solid partitioning of the enantiomers>. The discovery that eutectic mixtures could be manipulated, depending on the components of the mixture, allows for changes to the crystal structure and solubility of substances. Amino acids can solidify in two ways, as a mixture of D and L enantiomers or as a single enantiomers.[6] Partitioning of molecules occurs between the liquid and solid phases, such that enantiopure amino acids will get "stuck" in either phase.
Achievements and Awards
Royal Society of Chemistry Award in Physical Organic Chemistry, 2009
Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, 2007
Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, 2005
Miller Institute Research Fellow at University of California, Berkeley, 2003
The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Award in Process Technology, 2003
Organic Reactions Catalysis Society’s Raul Rylander Award, 2003
Woodward Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, 2002-2003
North American Catalysis Society’s Paul H. Emmett Award, 2001
NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, 1986–91
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Donna Blackmond". The Scripps Research Institute. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
- ↑ Blackmond, Donna (4 July 2005). "Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis: A Powerful Methodology for Mechanistic Studies of Complex Catalytic Reactions". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 44 (28): 4302–4320.
- ↑ Girard, Christian; Kagan, Henri (1998). "Nonlinear Effects in Asymmetric Synthesis and Stereoselective Reactions: Ten Years of Investigation". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 37 (21): 2922–2959.
- 1 2 Blackmond, Donna (23 June 2010). "Kinetic aspects of non-linear effects in asymmetric synthesis, catalysis, and autocatalysis". Tetrahedron: Asymmetry. 21 (11-12): 1630–1634.
- ↑ Soai, Kenso (28 December 1995). "Asymmetric autocatalysis and amplification of enantiomeric excess of a chiral molecule". Nature. 378: 767–768.
- ↑ Klussmann, Martin; Mathew, Suju; Iwamura, Hiroshi; Wells, David; Armstrong, Alan; Blackmond, Donna (24 October 2006). "Kinetic Rationalization of Nonlinear Effects in Asymmetric Catalysis Based on Phase Behavior". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 45 (47): 7989–7992.