In collaboration with the Atwood group, we are preparing a series of simple S containing compounds to coordinate to Hg and to precipitate it from solution. An REU student would prepare such a compound and see how effective it is as a Hg precipitator.

I have found that undergraduates learn the most when they can begin with a known synthetic sequence and then follow it up with novel reactions. They gain

experience and confidence when they prepare a known compound and can compare their results with those reported in the literature. They then experience the joys and frustrations of research at the frontiers of knowledge when they carry out reactions whose outcomes are less certain, and they have to identify both conditions that lead to single products and the identities of those products. For these reasons, the project I have described above is perfect for an REU experience.