Kendall N. Houk

TL;DR: An in-depth experimental and computational study of the mechanism has shown that the apparently attractive concerted [3,3]-pericyclic route is eschewed in favor of a direct N O cleavage to form a polar radical pair (PRP) with a substantial preference for recombination.

TL;DR: The mechanism accounts for several unexplained facets of nitrosothiol chemistry in solution, including the observation that the decomposition of an RSNO is accelerated by O(2), mixtures of O( 2) and NO, and other oxidants, that decomposition is inhibited by thiols and other antioxidants, and that decomosition often shows nonintegral kinetic orders.

TL;DR: The thermal stabilities of polysulfones with different lengths of the carbon-linker between sulfone groups have been explored in this paper, showing that these polymers undergo thermal degradation by the slower cyclic β-elimination processes.

TL;DR: Computations with density functional theory (B3LYP/6-31G(d)) have elucidated the origins of regioselectivities in the Diels-Alder reaction of vinylindene with a 1,4-quinone monoketal reaction that was employed as the key step in the synthesis of fluostatin C.

TL;DR: The 1-aza-2-azoniaallene salts, generated from α-chloroazo compounds by treatment with halophilic Lewis acids, undergo intramolecular C-H amination reactions to form pyrazolines in good to excellent yields.