News/n/views from UOregon Professor Mike Haley 🇺🇸🏳️🌈+related chemical research at UO & beyond. Lover of cool science & all chemistry that's pi-electron-rich (#PiSky ⌬). He/him – foodie/vino/travel/gardening/Frenchton owner (or owned by the Frenchton?)
Michael Haley – UOregon Chemistry
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BIG congratulations to my longtime collaborator, conference organizer co-conspirator, and very dear friend @mpetrukhina.bsky.social for winning the George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon & Petroleum Chemistry. Well deserved!!! 👏 🎉 🥂
ACS announces 2026 national award winners cen.acs.org/people/award...
The "Designed π-Systems" symposium at Pacifichem2025 is a wrap! Having been on the organizing team since 2005, it’s time for new blood. I have zero doubt that Aiko, Ramesh, and Wes will do a great job. While bittersweet, I "ride off into the sunset" knowing that this symposium will be in good hands!
Plants, plants & more plants—early April and the "pre-garden" is growing strong 💪! Now waiting for it to be consistently above 45 F/7 C at night before I stick them in the ground. That said, lettuces & other greens have already supplied my first full pot of 100% homegrown salad! #chemistswhogarden
Hmmmm.... it would seem to me this company needs to hire someone to "prroofread" their marketing emails....
Aloha from the big island of Hawaii - road trip circumnavigating the northern half of the island today before our Pacifichem symposium later in the week. Incredible scenery - happy students, happy advisor! Importantly, the weather cooperated - mostly. Alternating between clouds and sun - no rain!
Yukon gold harvest time – 10+ pounds of 'taters from one wine barrel – not too shabby! The first pic was from 4 weeks ago. The tops had died back to very few leaves, which suggested that it was time to harvest. The other wine barrel has green beans, which I have been enjoying since mid-May.
Now out in Chem. Sci., 15 years of chemistry distilled down to 22 pages – my group's magnum opus. Great job by Efrain, Gabby & Josh! Many thanks to
@aromaticist.bsky.social, @judywuchem.bsky.social, Juan Casado, Carlos Gomez-Garcia & myriad other collaborators.
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
#pisky
Decided this past weekend it was time to pull the trigger, so garden beds 1 & 3 are fully planted – tomatoes, peppers & eggplant in bed 1 and lettuce, fennel, tomatillo, garlic, bok choy & cherry tomatoes in bed 3. Bed 2 still a work in progress... The bok choy this year is delicious!
In my happy place—garden 2026 is in the ground! While it's only the beginning of March, winter has skipped Oregon this year. I've planted cool weather veggies–arugula, mizuna, lettuce, mixed greens, onions, bok choy, spinach, maché and garlic. Tomato starts are in the windowsill of my bedroom!
At long last—a GREAT effort by Megan & Nolan finally out in JACS after a 2+ year gestation. We found quadruply hydrogen-bonded DADA azaphosphinine homodimers are preferred over the theoretically more stable DDAA dimers, and they possess STRONG homodimerization constants.
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Michael Haley – UOregon Chemistry
Michael Haley – UOregon Chemistry
Michael Haley – UOregon Chemistry
Michael Haley – UOregon Chemistry
Inclusion of a fused pyridine ring onto the core motif of an azaphosphinine heterocycle, as well as functionalization with an N-acetamide group, furnishes a chiral, quadruple hydrogen bonding face that is capable of strong homodimerization. Eleven different azaphosphinine derivatives were prepared with variable electron donor and acceptor functionalization. Contrary to simple DA azaphosphinine dimers, trends from substituent effects showed that the hydrogen bond acceptors (A) were more sensitive to the substituents than the hydrogen bond donors (D). With electron donating groups appended onto the azaphosphinine scaffold, dimerization constants rose to as high as 209 M–1 in 10% DMSO-d6 in water-saturated CDCl3. X-ray crystallographic data unexpectedly showed that the quadruply hydrogen bonding system preferred the theoretically less stable donor–acceptor–donor–acceptor (DADA) H-bond orientation despite having the capability to tautomerize to the potentially more stable DDAA structure. Computational analysis revealed that maintaining pyridine aromaticity was more stabilizing than the secondary interactions that would be created from a DDAA dimer. Additionally, these molecules associate as the first examples of R,R- and S,S-azaphosphinine homodimers, compared to the R,S-heterodimers typically found for simple azaphosphinines. This observation was explained by computational analysis, which found a geometric difference between the nitrogen atoms adjacent to the phosphorus chiral center of the Homo and Hetero dimer, leading to a stronger hydrogen bonding interaction in the Homo dimer. Further understanding of this quadruply hydrogen bonding core will allow us to explore further applications that integrate this strongly hydrogen bonding system into larger and more complex supramolecular frameworks such as supramolecular polymers or capsules.
Over the past ∼15 years our group has performed multiple structure/properties relationship studies to assess how logical structural refinement can affect the antiaromaticity/diradicaloid continuum. Us...