In our College students are required not only to take undergraduate courses but also to carry out research in one of the major research centers in Moscow.

Since September 1996 I have been doing research in Institute of Physical Chemistry in the Laboratory of Polymers Adhesion with Prof. Vladimir V. Arslanov. Following problems were set up before me:
A. To arrange Langmuir-Blodgett trough (Pic. 2).
B. To form stable monolayers on aqua surface using different compounds.
C. To work out methods for monolayer transferring from liquid to solid substrate.
D. Creating multilayer systems.
E. Studying obtained supramolecular structures.

Molecules of calix[n]arene (Pic.1) were chosen for preliminary research.

From compounds mentioned above only D formed stable monolayers on phase interface (air/water). Best results for monolayer transfer from water to solid substrate were achieved after sodium chloride addition to aqueous phase. The process of binding sodium cation with calix[4]arene molecule is shown below (Pic.2).

However, despite successful solving of formulated problems (A - D) the project was closed down. The primary reasons for project curtail were:
1. Lack of adequate equipment for multilayers study.
2. The absence of possibility to synthesize calix[n]arene molecules with required substitutes R^I and R^II (Pic.1).

For most of the Summer of 1997 I worked with Prof. Jordan Poler in University of North Carolina, Charlotte. The project was instrumental in nature. We created a new kind of ellipsometer on the basis of Ocean Optics^® spectrometer and LabView^® software (Pic.3). Ellipsometer was required for further investigation of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films.

Since September 1998 I commenced work in N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry under guidance of Alexander D. Dilman in Prof. S. L. Ioffe research group. Novel convenient method for the synthesis of b-nitro oximes by C,C-cross coupling of terminal N,N-Bis(silyloxy)enamines with nitronate anions have been described by the group recently (Synthesis, 1999, #10, p.1767). On the basis of this method I developed new way to g-nitro alcohols from simple aliphatic nitro compounds (Scheme 1).

Structural quest in Beilstein database demonstrated absence of almost all synthesized compounds. All data are prepared and will be published soon.