Chemistry International
Vol. 22, No. 3
May 2000
Reports
from Commissions and Division Committees
Commission
on Physical Organic Chemistry (III.2)
Summary of Minutes of Commission Meeting at IUPAC
General Assembly, Berlin, Germany, 810 August 1999
Because IUPAC future activities will be exclusively
based on projects, the Commission has devoted most of its time to examination
of the status of ongoing projects and to the discussion of proposals
for new projects. The Commission was pleased to see that the projects
"Guidelines for publication of research results from force-field
calculations", "Critical compilation of scales of medium effects",
and "Glossary of terms used in theoretical organic chemistry"
have all been completed, and that the first two have already been published
in PAC. It was noted, however, that further work is still necessary
to complete the Glossary of Terms in Supramolecular Chemistry. Very
sensitive to environmental problems, the Commission has given particular
attention to the ongoing project on Green Chemistry, led by Prof.
Tundo, for which a Working Party had already been established.
A White Book on Green Chemistry will be produced
soon containing a Symposium-in-Print, organized in collaboration with
the Subcommittee on Organic Synthesis of the Division of Organic Chemistry.
This project was also examined in a joint meeting of the Commission
with the project Working Party and Division VI (Chemistry and the Environment),
which was also attended by the IUPAC Secretary General, Dr. E. D. Becker.
The project, which is in line with almost all of IUPACs goals,
was fully endorsed by the Commission, and Division VI promised all possible
support. In the same area, a new project concerning environmental degradation
of organic compounds was proposed by Prof. Nudelman. The aim of the
project is the evaluation of available chemical information on the chemical
and photochemical fate of organic pollutants in the environment. The
project was considered interesting, but too broad. It was suggested
that the project should be better defined before presentation. In the
field of education, the Commission has dedicated an entire meeting to
the discussion of the project for an international organic chemistry
curriculum proposed by Prof. Nudelman. Profs. Takeuchi and Bradley of
the Committee on Teaching of Chemistry (CTC) also attended this meeting.
The aim of this project is to establish updated organic chemistry curricula,
which should facilitate exchange of students and transferability of
courses and curricula. The project was considered very useful and received
the support of the Commission; however, in order to be approved by IUPAC,
some goals of the project should be revised in the light of the criticism
expressed by the CTC and the Division of Organic Chemistry.
Prof. Abbouds proposal for a new project "Critical
compilation of hydrogen bonding acidity and basicity scales for solutes"
was discussed and fully endorsed. The possibility of undertaking projects
in the near future concerning the second part of the "Critical
compilation of scales of solvent parameters: Materials", "Strength
of strong acids", and a "Bioorganic glossary" was also
discussed.
A joint meeting with the Commission on Photochemistry
(III.3) also took place, during which the two Commissions exchanged
information concerning their respective ongoing projects and future
plans in the light of the forthcoming restructuring of IUPAC. The next
meeting of the Commission will take place in connection with the 15th
IUPAC Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry
(Göteborg, Sweden, 813 July 2000).
> Link
to Commission
Charles L. Perrin
Chairman
IUPAC Commission on Physical Organic Chemistry III.2
Enrico Baciocchi
Secretary
IUPAC Commission on Physical Organic Chemistry III.2