The Department of Chemistry

Faculty

Philip Coppens

Philip CoppensSUNY Distinguished Professor
Henry M. Woodburn Chair
Office: 732 Natural Sciences Complex
Phone: (716) 645-4273
Fax: (716) 645-6948
E-mail: coppens@buffalo.edu
Laboratory website: http://harker.chem.buffalo.edu/group/index.html
Information on the Coppens Research Group

Education:

  • B. S., University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1954)
  • Ph.D., University of Amsterdam (1960)
  • Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Nancy, France (1989)
  • Corresponding Member, Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences

Awards and Honors:

  • AAAS Fellow (1993)
  • Martin Buerger Award of the American Crystallographic Association (1994)
  • Harker Award of the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (1995)
  • Schoellkopf Award of the Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society (1996)
  • Gregori Aminoff Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1996)
  • Nishikawa Special Prize of the Crystallography Society of Japan (2005)
  • Ewald Prize of the International Union of Crystallography (2005)
  • National Science Foundation, Creativity Award (2005-2007)

Specializations:

1. Studies of Laser-Generated Transient States by X-ray Diffraction and Infrared Spectroscopy.
2. Spectroscopy and Crystallography of Metastable States of Transition Metal Nitrosyl Complexes.
3. Use of Synchrotron Radiation in Crystallography.
4. Experimental Mapping of the Electron Density in Biomolecules.
5. Theoretical Calculations on Transition Metal Complexes and Small Peptides.

Research Summary:

Our work combines crystallography, chemical synthesis, theoretical chemistry and spectroscopy in a comprehensive approach to chemical research. It includes the development of new methods for the study of solids by X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy. Using synchrotron radiation and excitation by laser-light at low temperature we determine the geometry of molecular species that exist for only microseconds or less. We also study chemical reactions in complex solids and examine how the molecule changes and the kinetics of change as the reaction proceeds.

We use the methods of crystal engineering to synthesize new supramolecular solids. They are used to study the properties of molecules embedded as guest in the cavities of molecular frameworks. As in solutions this allows molecular dilution, but with the distinction that a periodic array is maintained.

As X-rays are scattered by the electrons, X-ray diffraction can be used to map the electron distribution in solids, thus shedding light on the chemical bonding in molecules. Recently, we have focused attention on the derivation of the electrostatic potential and other electrostatic properties, such as dipole and quadrupole moments. The electrostatic properties are of importance for the understanding of chemical reactivity, the lattice energy of crystals, the folding of biological macromolecules, and the interactions between enzymes and substrates.

Selected Recent Publications:

  1. Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal E -> Z and Z -> E Isomerizations of 3-Chloroacrylic Acid within the Nanocavities of a Supramolecular Framework, Shao-Liang Zheng, Marc Messerschmidt, and Philip Coppens, Chem. Commun. (2007), in press.
  2. Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal E to Z Isomerization of Tiglic Acid in a Supramolecular Framework, Philip Coppens, Shao-Liang Zheng, and Marc Messerschmidt, Acta Crystallogr. B (2007), in press.
  3. A kHz Heat Load Shutter for White-Beam Experiments at Synchrotron Sources, Milan Gembicky, Shin-Ichi Adachi and Philip Coppens, J. Synchrotron Rad. 14, 295-296 (2007).
  4. Hydrogen-bond Quenching of Photodecarbonylation in the Solid State and Recovery of Reactivity by Crystal Engineering, Jing Zhang, Milan Gembicky, Mark Messerschmidt, and Philip Coppens, Chem. Commun. (2007), in press.
  5. Response to Spackman’s "Comment on the paper 'On the calculation of the electrostatic potential, electric field and electric field gradient from the aspherical pseudoatom model', by Volkov, King, Coppens & Farrugia (2006)", Anatoliy Volkov and Philip Coppens, Acta Crystallogr. A 63, 201-203 (2007).
  6. Improving the Scattering Factor Formalism in Protein Refinement. Application of the University at Buffalo Aspherical-Atom Databank to Polypeptide Structures, Anatoliy Volkov, Marc Messerschmidt, and Philip Coppens, Acta Crystallogr. D 63,160-170 (2007).
  7. A Theoretical Databank of Transferable Aspherical Atoms and its Application to Electrostatic Interaction Energy Calculations of Macromolecules, Paulina M. Dominiak, Anatoliy Volkov, Xue Li, Marc Messerschmidt, and Philip Coppens, J. Chem. Theory Comput. 3, 232-247 (2007).
  8. On the Design of Ultrafast Shutters For Time-Resolved Synchrotron Experiments, Milan Gembicky, and Philip Coppens, J. Synchrotron Rad. 14, 133-137 (2006).
  9. The Effect of the Environment on Molecular Properties: Synthesis, Structure, and Photoluminescence of Cu(I) Bis(2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline) Nano-Clusters in Eight Different Supramolecular Frameworks, Shao-Liang Zheng, Milan Gembicky, Marc Messerschmidt, Paulina M. Dominiak, and Philip Coppens, Inorg. Chem. 45, 9281-9289 (2006).
  10. Supramolecular Solids and Time-Resolved Diffraction, Philip Coppens, Shao-Liang Zheng, Milan Gembicky, Marc Messerschmidt, and Paulina M. Dominiak, CrystEngComm 8, 735-741 (2006).

For more of Philip Coppens' Publications, please click here.

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The Department of Chemistry