The modern research environment is multidisciplinary and cross functional, requiring individuals to be expert in their own fields while working in collaboration with scientists from other disciplines to solve complex problems. We are modifying the New Jersey City University lab curriculum to mirror this reality by introducing “course clusters” consisting of lab courses from the chemistry and biology curricula that are coupled together to solve a research problem. Our initial effort has linked the organic chemistry II lab class with the microbiology lab class to identify antimicrobial compounds based on a hydroxamic acid motif. Hydroxamic acids and their alkylated derivatives are important functional groups in many natural products and drugs as well as important synthetic intermediates for the preparation of ketones. They are typically formed by an acyl substitution reaction, a fundamental reaction in organic chemistry that is taught as part of the organic curriculum. Although there are numerous procedures for their preparation, many take a significant amount of time for the reaction to reach completion or utilize very reactive reagents, which makes them unsuitable for use in an undergraduate lab setting. We have developed a safe, rapid microwave-assisted procedure based on a known method utilizing carbonyl diimidazole for the synthesis of alkylated hydroxamic acid derivatives that is suitable for use in an undergraduate organic lab setting. We will discuss this procedure as well as its application in our labs.

Synthesis of alkylated derivatives of hydroxamic acids via a safe, rapid microwave-based procedure suitable for the undergraduate laboratory

256th National Meeting (2018)

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