Matthew Platz

About

Professor Matthew Platz is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The Ohio State University. He received his B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics from the State University of NY at Albany in 1973, and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Yale University in 1977 under Professor Berson. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago with Professor Closs before joining Ohio State University in 1978. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1984 and to Professor in 1989, eventually serving as the chair of the Chemistry Department in 1995. Professor Platz has been recognized with numerous awards, including being elected Melvin S. Newman Professor of Chemistry and appointed Distinguished University Professor in 2001. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar, and has received the College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award, the Cope Scholar Award, and the Remsen Award. His research focuses on physical organic chemistry and photochemistry, particularly the chemistry of short-lived, high-energy reactive molecules such as radicals, biradicals, carbenes, nitrenes, and reactive oxygen species. His laboratory synthesizes new precursors to reactive intermediates and studies their photochemistry using advanced spectroscopic and computational methods. His work aims to understand elementary rearrangement reactions, quantum mechanical tunneling processes, interactions of reactive intermediates…

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Photochemistry
• Computer science
• Information retrieval
• Computational chemistry

Selected publications

• A Perspective on Physical Organic Chemistry

  The Journal of Organic Chemistry · 2014-02-26 · 27 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  A perspective on the development of mechanistic carbene chemistry is presented. The author will point out questions that have been answered, and a next generation of questions will be proposed.

  PublisherDOI

• Mechanistic Aspects of Ketene Formation Deduced from Femtosecond Photolysis of Diazocyclohexadienone, <i>o</i>-Phenylene Thioxocarbonate, and 2-Chlorophenol

  The Journal of Organic Chemistry · 2012-11-28 · 24 citations

  articleSenior author

  The photochemistry of diazocyclohexadienone (1), o-phenylene thioxocarbonate (2), and 2-chlorophenol (3) in solution was studied using time-resolved UV-vis and IR transient absorption spectroscopies. In these three cases, the same product cyclopentadienyl ketene (5) is formed, and two different mechanistic pathways leading to this product are discussed: (a) rearrangement in the excited state (RIES) and (b) a stepwise route involving the intermediacy of vibrationally excited or relaxed carbene. F…

  PublisherDOI

• The Photochemistry of 4,5-Carbomethoxy-1,2,3-thiadiazole: Direct Observation of Thiirene Formation and Its Decay in Solution

  The Journal of Physical Chemistry A · 2013-05-10 · 10 citations

  articleSenior author

  The photochemistry of 4,5-carbomethoxy-1,2,3-thiadiazole in solution was studied at room temperature with use of UV-vis and IR transient absorption spectroscopies (λ(ex) = 266 nm). Ultrafast time-resolved techniques demonstrate that there is a very fast rise (<0.4 ps) of bis(carbomethoxy)thiirene in acetonitrile, and that it is the only intermediate formed. The lifetime of the thiirene is limited by dimerization to eventually form tetra(carbomethoxy)thiophene.

  PublisherDOI

• A New Method for C−H Functionalization of Aliphatic Compounds by an Unusual Photochemical Reaction of Diazoketones without Elimination of Nitrogen

  Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry · 2016-03-29 · 8 citations

  articleCorresponding

  Abstract Benzophenone‐sensitized reactions of 4‐diazotetrahydrofuran‐3(2 H )‐ones with H‐donors such as tetrahydrofuran, 1,4‐dioxane, cyclohexane and diethyl ether, occur without elimination of nitrogen and give rise to the corresponding N‐substituted hydrazones or bis‐hydrazonoethanes due to a formal insertion of the terminal N atom of diazo group into α‐C−H bonds of ethers and aliphatic hydrocarbons, with yields of up to 78 %. Long‐wavelength UV irradiation ( λ &gt;310 nm) is most suitable for…

  PublisherDOI

• Concomitant Nitrene and Carbene Insertion Accompanying Ring Expansion: Spectroscopic, X-ray, and Computational Studies

  The Journal of Organic Chemistry · 2014-01-10 · 8 citations

  article

  Reinvestigation of the thermolysis of azido-meta-hemipinate (I) yielded, in addition to known II, unusual products III and IV. These products are formed via a rare intramolecular nitrene insertion into an adjacent methoxy C-H bond followed by an intermolecular reaction during a ring-expansion and a ring-extrusion reaction followed by a carbene insertion. The structures of the new compounds were confirmed using a battery of techniques, including HRMS (ESI-QTOF) and 2D NMR as well as X-ray crystal…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Excited and Ground State Hydrogen Migration

  NSF · $394k · 2019–2023

• NIH Grant R01GM073666

  NIH · $877k · 2011

• NIH Grant R01GM034823

  NIH · $679k · 1995

Frequent coauthors

• Nina P. Gritsan

  170 shared

• Gotard Burdziński

  Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

  165 shared

• Christopher M. Hadad

  The Ohio State University

  113 shared

• Jin Wang

  Zhejiang University

  105 shared

• Jacek Kubicki

  Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

  80 shared

• Yunlong Zhang

  Changchun University of Chinese Medicine

  71 shared

• Weston Thatcher Borden

  60 shared

• William L. Karney

  University of San Francisco

  58 shared

Labs

• Organic Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryPI

Education

• PhD, Chemistry

  Yale University

  1977

Awards & honors

• Melvin S. Newman Professor of Chemistry
• Distinguished University Professor (2001)
• Alfred P. Sloan Fellow
• Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar
• The Distinguished Scholar Award (Ohio State University)

Similar researchers at Ohio State University

• Yiying Wuh-70
• Patrick Woodwardh-69
• Claudia Turroh-64