![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.chem.ucla.edu\/harding\/IGOC\/N\/nucleophilic_aromatic_substitution01.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThis is some very cool chemistry. \u00a0And this post is dedicated to all of those who think that the organic chemistry you learned in your class was useless.<\/p>\n
A professor and his graduate student at the University of Oregon have developed a hydrogen sulfide detector that can detect H2S in the parts per billion range (ppb). \u00a0 This detector would be very important in the study of biologically contaminated water samples. \u00a0H2S is a colorless gas that smells like rotten eggs and is world-renown for its ability to make people sick.<\/p>\n
This is very cool chemistry and it is performed using nucleophilic aromatic substitution. \u00a0Most of you are familiar with electrophilic aromatic substitution from second semester class, so some of you may recognize nucleophilic aromatic substitution. \u00a0Here is a quick example to refresh your memory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In this reaction, methoxide anion is displacing fluorine in order to create the new aromatic ring. \u00a0The defining characteristic of\u00a0nucleophilic aromatic substitution is that you need electron withdrawing groups on your aromatic ring to make the reaction occur. \u00a0In the above example, NO2 is our electron withdrawing group. \u00a0I am not sure what they are using in their probe (spoiler alert: i have not red the article yet), but i am sure it is something similar.<\/p>\n
The crux of the reaction, said the study’s \u00a0graduate student Leticia A. Montoya, is the reaction process in which the probe reacts with H2S to produce a distinctly identifiable purple compound. “This method allows you look selectively at hydrogen sulfide versus any other nucleophiles or biological thiols in a system,” Montoya said. “It allows you to more easily visualize where H2S is present.”<\/p>\n
The cite for JOC is:\u00a0Leticia A. Montoya, Taylor F. Pearce, Ryan J. Hansen, Lev N. Zakharov, Michael D. Pluth.\u00a0Development of Selective Colorimetric Probes for Hydrogen Sulfide Based on Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution<\/strong>.\u00a0The Journal of Organic Chemistry<\/em>, 2013; :<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is some very cool chemistry. \u00a0And this post is dedicated to all of those who think that the organic chemistry you learned in your class was useless. A professor and his graduate student at the University of Oregon have developed a hydrogen sulfide detector that can detect H2S in the parts per billion range […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[39,46,38],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","tag-hydrogen-sulfide","tag-organic-chemistry","tag-organic-chemistry-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\n