Mason Smith, Southern Utah University
The alkene functional group is commonly found in many important organic molecules. The restriction to rotation of a carbon-carbon double bond leads to isomeric molecules that can have similar physical properties and can be difficult to separate by conventional techniques. Therefore, it is important that synthetic reactions produce one alkene isomer in excess to avoid a potentially difficult separation. Here we present our study of a stereospecific palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction for the production of alkyl-substituted trans-alkenes.