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Minghui
Chai (Assistant Professor) 
Ph.D. The University
of Akron, Akron, OH, 2000
M.S. Yunnan
University, Kunming, Yunnan, P.R.C., 1988
B.S. Anhui Normal
University, Wuhu, Anhui, P.R.C., 1985
Office: Dow
342
Phone: (989) 774 -
3955
Fax:
(989) 774 - 3883
E-mail:
minghui.chai@cmich.edu
Additional
Information at: Dr. Chai's Group Research Page
Teaching Emphasis:
Analytical
Chemistry, Instrumental Analysis, NMR Spectroscopy
NMR in Polymer and
Supramolecular Chemistry
Research Program and
Goals:
Our research
emphasizes on understanding the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
and on developing new NMR techniques and their application to the solution of
problems in Chemistry and Materials Science.
(1) NMR in
Dendrimer Chemistry: Dendrimers are highly ordered and hyper-branched
spherical polymers that can serve as ideal building blocks and scaffolds for
constructing nanostructures. We are investigating their host-guest chemistry,
their bioinorganic chemistry, and their ability to self-assemble. One great
application of dendrimers is in control-release drug delivery, where we are
using NMR as a major tool to study the dendrimer shape, conformation and
interactions with small molecules that may help to understand the dendrimer
encapsulation of drug molecules.
(2) NMR Studies
on Polymers and Polymer Supported Metal Nanoparticles: Versatile NMR
techniques will be applied to study both synthetic and natural macromolecules to
understand the fascinating properties of these materials and to gain the
information for the understanding of their functionalities as well as the
development of novel materials. Compared with traditional metal catalysts,
polymer supported nanoparticles have showed high efficiency in catalysis and
great feasibility in separation and recycle. These catalytic systems with
diamagnetic metals can be well investigated via NMR techniques since these
metals are internal probes for an insight structural study.
(3) NMR Method
Development: In order to investigate all the areas mentioned above, high
sensitivity and high resolution NMR techniques need to be implemented. This
research involves a thorough understanding of NMR in terms of its quantum
mechanics and the development of specialized computer programs. The new
techniques that we will develop enable to study the structure and interaction of
macromolecules without isotope labeled sample preparation.
Selected Publications:
Chai, M.; Saito, T.;
Pi, Z.; Tessier, C.; and Rinaldi, P. L. Characterization of
Poly(1-Phenyl-1-Silabutane) Tacticity via 1H/13C/29Si Triple Resonance 3D-NMR,
Macromolecules 1997, 30, 1240.
AlQaisi, S. M.;
Galat, K. J.; Chai, M.; Ray III, D. G.; Rinaldi, P. L.; Tessier, C. A.; and
Youngs, W. J. Synthesis of Neutral Tetranuclear and Octanuclear Macrocyclic
Platinum-Butadiyne Heterocyclynes, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120(46), 12149.
Chai, M.; Pi, Z.;
Tessier, C.; and Rinaldi, P. L. Preparation of Carbosilane Dendrimers and Their
Characterization Using 1H/13C/29Si Triple Resonance 3D-NMR Methods, J. Am. Chem.
Soc. 1999, 121(2), 273.
Sanow, L. M.; Chai,
M.; McConville, D. B.; Galat, K. J.; Rinaldi, P. L.; Youngs, W. J.; and Tessier,
C. A. Platinum-Silicon Four-Membered Rings of Two Different Structural Types,
Organometallics 2000, 19(2), 192.
Chai, M.; Niu, Y.;
Youngs, W. J.; and Rinaldi, P. L. 3D NMR Studies of DAB-16 Dendrimer,
Macromolecules 2000, 33, 5395.
Chai, M.; Niu, Y.;
Youngs, W. J.; and Rinaldi, P. L. Characterization and Conformational Study of
DAB Dendrimers in Solutions via Multidimensional NMR Techniques, J. Am. Chem.
Soc. 2001, 123(20), 4670.
Rankin, G. O.; Sun,
H; Hubbard, J. L.; Chai, M. Synthesis of Enatiopure
N-(3,5-Dichlorophenyl)-2-hydroxysuccinimides (NDHS) and
N-(3,5-Dichlorophenyl)-2-hydroxysuccinimide-O-sulfates (NSC), Synthesis, 2002,
15, 2165.
Chai, M.; Hu, S.;
Rinaldi, P. L. 1H/13C/29Si Triple Resonance 3D NMR Study of
Poly(dimethylsiloxane) MD3MH. In NMR Spectroscopy of Polymers in Solution and in
the Solid State, Cheng, H. N.; English, A. D. Eds.; ACS Symposium Book Series
834; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2002; Chapter 10.
Chai, M.; Puapaiboon,
U.; Taylor, R. T.; Rinaldi, P.L. Multidimensional NMR Studies on Polyurethane
Dendritic Wedges. In NMR Spectroscopy of Polymers in Solution and in the Solid
State, Cheng, H. N.; English, A. D. Eds.; ACS Symposium Book Series 834;
American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2002; Chapter 11.
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