Benita Barton

 

Biography

Benita Barton earned her PhD in 1997. Thereafter, she worked at Intramed, a pharmaceutical company, for 6 months in 1997, and at Druggist Group Research (DGR) for the remaining 6 months of 1997. She joined Port Elizabeth Technikon as a lecturer in 1998 and remained there until 2004. She relocated to Botswana in late 2004 and remained there until 2007, whereafter she returned to RSA. She joined Nelson Mandela University in 2012. She currently teaches Organic Chemistry across the spectrum, supervises 3 Honours student projects, 4 MSc student projects and 2 PhD student projects, and co-supervises one Honours student project, all of these students specializing in Supramolecular Chemistry. She also co-supervises an MSc BPharmacy student.

 

Areas of Expertise

• Supramolecular chemistry
• Separation strategies for isomeric mixtures
• Organic chemistry synthesis
• NMR spectroscopy

 

Education

• PhD, Chemistry, 1997
• MSc, Chemistry, 1994
• BSc(Hons), Chemistry, 1993

 

Currently Teaching

CHA420 - Analytical Methods_NMR Spectroscopy

CHO420 - Organic Chemistry - Green Chemistry

CHO430 - Organic Chemistry Practicals + Organic Chemistry Projects

CHOV300 - Organic Chemistry NMR Spectroscopy, Mass Spectrometry, Conformational Analysis, Carbohydrates + Organic Chemistry Practicals

ZFC101 - Organic Chemistry for Pharmacists + Organic Chemistry Practicals            

CHOV102 - Organic Chemistry Practicals  

 

Selected Publications

1. Benita Barton, Mino R Caira, Cedric W McCleland and Benjamin Taljaard, "14-Hydroxy-14-phenyldibenzo[a,j]xanthene as a lattice host: crystal and molecular structure of its (1:1) complex with diethyl ether",  J. Chem. Cryst., 29(11), 1999, 1179-1186.
2. Benita Barton, Mino R. Caira, Cedric W. McCleland and Benjamin Taljaard, "Synthesis of N,N'-bis(9-phenylxanthen-9-yl)ethylenediamine and an investigation of its host-guest inclusion potential", J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. 2, 2000, 865-869.
3. CW McCleland, SS Ravindran, N Skiti, B Barton and J Bacsa, “Synthesis and crystal structure of a novel camphor based thioacetal”, J. Chem. Research (S), 2001, 405-407;  CW McCleland, SS Ravindran, N Skiti, B Barton and J Bacsa, J. Chem. Research (M), 2001, 1056-1069.

4.    Benita Barton, Nkululeko S. Hlohloza, Sonia M. McInnes and Bernard Zeelie, “Catalysts and process for the production of benzyl toluenes”, Organic Process Research & Development, 2003, 7, 571-576.

5.    Benita Barton, Petra F. Hoffmann and Bernard Zeelie, “The investigation of a novel conversion of hydroxybenzaldehydes and acetophenones into hydroquinone monoalkyl ethers”, Journal of Chemical Research (S), No. 7, 2003, 386-387;  Benita Barton,* Petra F. Hoffmann and Bernard Zeelie, Journal of Chemical Research (M), No. 7, 2003, 0729-0745.

6.    S Gouws, B Barton, PLR Loyson and B Zeelie, “Electrochemical production of alkoxy-substituted phenols”, Electrochimica Acta, 2008, Vol 53, Issue 13, 4544-4549.

7.    P. Loyson, C. Imrie, S. Gouws, B. Barton and E. Kruger, "Bmim ionic liquids as media for the electrochemical oxidation of 2,6-di-t-butylphenol", J. Appl. Electrochemistry, 2009, 39(7), 1087-1095.

8.    Benita Barton, Mino R. Caira, Eric C. Hosten and Cedric W. McCleland, "A computational, X-ray crystallographic, and thermal stability analysis of TETROL and its pyridine and methylpyridine inclusion complexes", Tetrahedron, 2013, 69, 8713-8723.

9.     Benita Barton, M. R. Caira, E. C. Hosten, C. W. McCleland and S. Weitz, "Clathrates of TETROL: selective inclusion of methylcyclohexanones in their energetically unfavorable axial methyl conformations", Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 13353-13355.

10.   Benita Barton, M. R. Caira, E. C. Hosten, C. W. McCleland and S. Weitz, "Clathrates of TETROL: further aspects of the selective inclusion of methylcyclohexanones in their energetically unfavorable axial methyl conformations", J. Org. Chem., 2015, 80, 7184-7192.

11.  Benita Barton, Sasha-Lee Dorfling and Eric C. Hosten, "Cyclohexanone-driven discriminatory behaviour change of host compound (+)-(2R,3R)-TETROL for the isomeric methylcyclohexanone guests", Crystal Growth & Design, 2017, 17, 6725-6732.

12.  Benita Barton,* Mino R. Caira, Lize de Jager and Eric C. Hosten, N,N′-Bis(9-phenyl-9-thioxanthenyl)ethylenediamine: Highly Selective Host Behavior in the Presence of Xylene and Ethylbenzene Guest Mixtures, Crystal Growth & Design, 2017, 17, 6660-6667.

13.   Benita Barton, Lize de Jager and Eric C. Hosten, "Host proficiency of N,N'-bis(9-phenyl-9-thioxanthenyl)ethylenediamine for pyridine and the methylpyridine guests - a competition study", Supramolecular Chemistry, 2018, 30, 61-71.

14.   Benita Barton, Eric C. Hosten and Pieter L. Pohl, Host (−)-(2R,3R)-2,3-Dimethoxy-1,1,4,4-tetraphenylbutane-1,4-diol and Guests Aniline, N-Methylaniline and N,N-Dimethylaniline: A Selectivity Study, Aust. J. Chem., 2018, 71, 133-141.

15.   Benita Barton, Sasha-Lee Dorfling and Eric C. Hosten, Hydrogen bonding, the driving force for increased host selectivities in two-solvent mixed complexes of TETROL comprising both favoured (aniline) and disfavoured guests (o-toluidine or toluene), Crystal Growth & Design, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.8b00364, 2018, 18, 3569-3575.

16. Benita Barton, Ulrich Senekal and Eric C. Hosten, Comparing the host behaviour of roof-shaped compounds trans-9,10-dihydro-9,10-ethanoanthracene-11,12-dicarboxylic acid and its dimethyl ester in the presence of mixtures of xylene and ethylbenzene guests, CrystEngComm, 2021, 23, 4560-4572,  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CE00594D

17.  Benita Barton, Brandon Barnardo and Eric C. Hosten, Selectivity behaviour of two roof-shaped host compounds in the presence of xylene and ethylbenzene guest mixtures, CrystEngComm, 2021, 23, 7278-7288.

18.  Benita Barton, Mino R. Caira, Ulrich Senekal and Eric C Hosten, trans-9,10-Dihydro-9,10-ethanoanthracene-11,12-dicarboxylic Acid: Complete Host Selectivity for Guest Compound para-Dichlorobenzene During Crystal Growth from Mixed Isomeric Dichlorobenzenes, Cryst. Growth Des. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.2c00204.