Macromolecular Science
and Engineering Center

  • Anne J. McNeil
  • Deparment of Chemistry
  • Macromolecular Science & Engineering Center
  • 2817 Chemistry, 930 N. University Ave
  • Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Short Biosketch

Anne McNeil received her B.S. (1999) in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary and her Ph.D. (2005) in Chemistry from Cornell University. As a graduate student she examined the structure and reactivity of lithium enolates under Professor David B. Collum. She then did a post-doctoral stint (2005-2007) in the laboratory of Professor Timothy M. Swager at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she examined the effects of through-space arene-arene interactions in conjugated polymers. She joined the faculty of UM in July 2007 and her group is focused on creating new functional organic materials and exploring the fundamental mechanisms involved in their synthesis, assembly, and operation.

Awards/Honors

Current Research

Research in the McNeil group focuses on creating new organic materials and exploring the fundamental mechanisms involved in their synthesis, assembly, and operation. Two areas of current interest include generating functional supramolecular assemblies and developing new polymerization methods. Group members design and synthesize new organic/organometallic molecules and polymers for each targeted application, and gain insight into these systems by performing detailed mechanistic and structure-property studies using standard spectroscopic and characterization techniques.

Functional Supramolecular Assemblies

Our goal is to create robust functional materials by covalently polymerizing supramolecular assemblies, and investigate their applications in catalysis, sensing, and photovoltaics. In particular, we are interested in monomers with extended aromatic systems because π-π stacking interactions promote self-assembly and provide the critical cofacial architectures necessary for charge- and exciton-transport. In addition, we are developing related polymers to probe cooperative effects in response to enantiopure stimuli. The novelty of these approaches is that, in each case, the materials' functional properties can be enhanced due to the organized assembly.

New Polymers and Synthetic Methods

Another major thrust of our research group is to develop new synthetic methods for polymerizations, relying heavily on insight gained through rigorous mechanistic studies. In particular, we are interested in metal-catalyzed living polymerizations of π-conjugated monomers. Conjugated polymers are an important class of organic materials but their syntheses are often limited in both substrate scope and efficiency, and the mechanisms are often poorly understood. In addition, we are pursuing "green" methods to copolymerize CO2 with various monomers using organic and inorganic salts as the CO2 source. One advantage to this approach is eliminating the need to handle high pressures of a gaseous CO2.

List of Recent and Top Cited Publications

  1. Collum, D. B.; McNeil, A. J.; Ramírez, A., "Lithium Diisopropylamide: Lessons from Solution Kinetics and Implications for Organic Synthesis" Angew. Chem. Int. Ed 46, 3002-3017 (2007)
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  2. McNeil, A. J.; Müller, P.; Whitten, J. E.; Swager, T. M., "Conjugated Polymers in an Arene Sandwich" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128, 12426-12427 (2006)
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  3. McNeil, A. J.; Collum, D. B., "Reversible Enolization of β-Amino Carboxamides by Lithium Hexamethyldisilazide" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127, 5655-5661 (2005)
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  4. McNeil, A. J.; Toombes, G. E. S.; Gruner, S. M.; Lobkovsky, E.; Collum, D. B.; Chandramouli, S. V.; Vanasse, B. J.; Ayers, T. A., "Diastereoselective Alkylation of β-Amino Esters: Structural and Rate Studies Reveal Alkylations of Hexameric Lithium Enolates" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 16559-16568 (2004)
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  5. McNeil, A. J.; Toombes, G. E. S.; Chandramouli, S. V.; Vanasse, B. J.; Ayers, T. A.; O'Brien, M. K.; Lobkovsky, E.; Gruner, S. M.; Marohn, J. A.; Collum, D. B., "Characterization of β-Amino Ester Enolates as Hexamers via 6Li NMR Spectroscopy" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 5938-5939 (2004)
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Teaching