MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a Microfocused Dual-Source X-ray Diffraction System

This award supports the acquisition of a microfocused dual-source X-ray diffractometer to facilitate research in the areas of synthetic organic, inorganic, and organometallic chemistry, catalysis, advanced materials synthesis and fabrication, medicinal chemistry, and structural biology. This X-ray diffractometer allows accurate and precise measurement of the full three-dimensional structure molecular compounds and solid-state materials which is critical to understanding both composition and reactivity. The high-sensitivity copper source is essential for the many samples that are rich in light atoms such as hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, that form only small or weakly diffracting crystals, or that require the assignment of absolute configuration. The complementary molybdenum source is well suited to structure determinations of metal-rich inorganic and metal-organic samples. This X-ray diffractometer will enhance the educational and research-training of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students who become the next generation of scientists skilled in structural analysis. Housed in the UCSD X-ray Crystallography Facility, a longstanding regional and national resource for data collection, structure determination, teaching, and training, the instrument supports education and hands-on laboratory experience in X-ray crystallography. The facility is the primary structural-analysis laboratory for both UCSD and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and provides data-collection and structure-solution services to regional institutions including the University of San Diego, Point Loma Nazarene University, and San Diego State University. By broadening access to modern crystallographic instrumentation to researchers who lack ready access to both standard and synchrotron X-ray sources, the instrument has substantial regional and national broader impacts for both research and workforce development in structural chemistry of both molecules and materials. The research enabled by the acquisition of this instrument spans a wide range of areas including synthetic chemistry, materials science, catalysis, and structural biology supporting users across UCSD, TSRI, and regional institutions. Specific research projects supported include i) the synthesis and reactivity of coordinatively unsaturated transition-metal complexes and the development of isocyanide coordination networks featuring catalytically-active low-valent metal nodes, ii) the atomically-precise coordination-driven assembly of supramolecular glycomolecules for probing carbohydrate-protein recognition and targeted drug delivery, iii) the synthesis and post-synthetic modification of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), including low-valent and polymer-composite frameworks and the design of metal-binding inhibitors of therapeutically relevant metalloenzymes, iv) the de novo design of functional metalloproteins and highly ordered protein-based assemblies and biomaterials, v) the development of fluorine-rich N-heterocyclic carbene main-group adducts and stimuli-responsive frustrated-Lewis-pair polymers and vi) the invention of enantioselective olefin difunctionalization reactions and bench-stable low-valent organometallic precatalysts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.