During the 1st year of my Ph.D. in the early 1970s, I attended a course in which our teacher described catalysis of reactions by high concentrations (5-6 M) of LiClO4 in ether [1,2]. Ever since then, I planned to study the effect of external electric fields on chemical reactivity. The stimulation bore fruits in the late 1990s onwards… As such, my talk will discuss the potential of using oriented-external-electric-fields (OEEFs) as effectors of chemical change [1,2]. An OEEF along the direction of electron reorganization from reactants to products, will catalyze nonpolar reactions, while OEEF orientations off this “reaction axis” will control selectivity patterns and chiral discrimination [1-3]. The field’s direction will similarly affect bonds, molecular structures and aggregation [1-3]. Covered topics will involve control of; chemical-reaction rates, regioselectivity, exo/endo selectivity, spin-state selectivity, mechanistic selection, chiral discrimination, and OEEFs as tweezers and catalysts. We postulate that as experimental techniques mature, chemical syntheses may become an exercise in zapping oriented molecules with OEEFs! For different ways of harnessing electric fields see [3].

Oriented electric fields as future smart reagents in chemistry

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.