V. Ramamurthy
Professor and Chair, Organic Chemistry

Ph.D., University of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1974
Postdoctorate, University of Western Ontario, London, 1974-75; Columbia University, New York, 1975-78

E-mail: murthy1@miami.edu

Link to our laboratory website:
http://umchemistry.cox.miami.edu/MurthyGroup

Controlling Photochemistry with Cations and Confinement Photochemistry in Bowls, Baskets, Cages and Cavities

Life sustaining highly specific chemical reactions occur in the confined and organized medium of protein. Our projects aimed at achieving similar selectivity in (photo)chemical reactions explore the use of readily available hosts that bear similarity to biological media. In our laboratory, spatially confined cavities provided by crystals, zeolites, polymers (nafions), and water-soluble cyclodextrins (natural and functionalized), organic hosts, micelles and dendrimers are currently being explored as reaction media. Photophysical and photochemical probes as well as structural tools are generously utilized in our research to define the characteristics of confined reaction cavities prior to employing them as reaction media.

Our research interests involving synthesis of organic molecules, X-ray crystallography, solid state NMR, spectroscopic structural tools such as UV, IR and NMR, 2D-NMR, steady state and time resolved emission spectroscopy, and computational methods provide well-rounded experimental skills to students. Our projects encompassing concepts from currently popular topics such as nano-chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and green chemistry serve to train students in the broader areas of physical organic chemistry and photochemistry.

Key words:organic photochemistry, physical organic chemistry, solid-state chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, nanochemistry, green chemistry.

Selected Publications

Water-Soluble Dendrimers as Photochemical Reaction Media: Chemical Behavior of Singlet and Triplet Radical Pairs Inside Dendritic Reaction Cavities
Lakshmi. S. Kaanumalle, M. Pattabiraman, N. Jayaraman and V. Ramamurthy, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 8999-9006.

Controlling Photochemistry With Distinct Hydrophobic Nano-Environments
L. S. Kaanumalle, C. L. D. Gibb, B. C. Gibb and V. Ramamurthy, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 14366-14367.

Asymmetric Photoreactions Within Zeolites: Role of Confinement and Alkali Metal Ions
J. Sivaguru, A. Natarajan, L. S. Kaanumalle, J. Shailaja, S. Uppili, A. Joy and V. Ramamurthy, Acc. Chem. Res., 2003, 36, 509-521.

Alkali Ion Controlled Excited State Ordering of Acetophenones Included in Zeolites: Emission, Solid State NMR and Computational Studies.
J. Shailaja, P. H. Lakshminarasimhan, A. Pradhan, R. B. Sunoj, S. Jockusch, S. Karthikeyan, S. Uppili, J. Chandrasekhar, N. J. Turro and V. Ramamurthy, J. Phys. Chem. A 2003, 107, 3187.

Enhanced Enantio- and Diastereoselectivity via Confinement and Cation Binding: Yang Photocyclization of 2-Benzoyladamantane Derivatives Within Zeolites.
N. Arunkumar, A. Joy, L. S. Kaanumalle, J. R. Scheffer and V. Ramamurthy, J. Org.Chem.,2002, 67, 8339.

Light Induced Geometric Isomerization of 1,2-Diphenylcyclopropanes Included Within Y Zeolites: Role of Cation-Guest Binding.
L. S. Kaanumalle, J. Sivaguru, P. H. Lakshminarasimhan, R. B. Sunoj, J. Chandrasekhar and V. Ramamurthy, J. Org. Chem.,2002, 67, 8711.

Configuration Interaction and Density Functional Study of the Influence of Lithium Cation Complexation on Vertical and Adiabatic Excitation Energies of Enones.
R. B. Sunoj, P. Lakshminarasimhan, V. Ramamurthy and J. Chandrasekhar, J. Comput. Chem. 2001, 22, 1598.

Controlling the Reactive State Through Cation Binding: Photochemistry of Enones within Zeolites.
Sundararajan Uppili, Shinsuke Takagi, R. B. Sunoj, P. Lakshminarasimhan, J. Chandrasekhar, and V. Ramamurthy, Tetrahedron Letters.,2001, 42, 2079.

Enantioselective Photoreduction of arylalkyl ketones via restricting the reaction to chirally modified zeolites.
J. Shailaja, K. J. Ponchot and V. Ramamurthy, Org. Letters, 2000, 2, 937.

Heavy-Cation-Induced Phosphorescence of Alkanones and Azoalkanes In Zeolites As Hosts: Induced S 1 (n p *) to T 1 (n p *) Intersystem Crossing and S 0 to T 1 (n p *) Absorption.
S. Uppili, V. Marti, A. Nikolaus, W. Adam, P. S. Engel, N. J. Turro and V. Ramamurthy, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2000, 122, 11025.