Dr. Michael Ver Haag
Department of Chemistry
Iowa State University
Aimes, Iowa

Monday, April 23, 2012
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

In the search for ways to investigate boron binding to saccharides a tool (CREPES) has been created to generate the complete set of rotational configurations of any molecule. Current computational power of even modest clusters allows the use of ab initio methods to look at potential energy surfaces in a thorough, automated way. The interplay between automation and chemical intuition allows for the exploration of configurational space. This methodology is applied to look at the formmation of boro-esters with saccharides that are important in plant cell wall structure.