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Experiments and computations have been carried out on a wide variety of polyols.The synthesis of a heptaol [(HOCH2CH2CH(OH)CH2)3COH] was carried out and the two diastereomers were separated. A subsequent and more efficient route was developed which makes gram quantities of this polyol available for studies. The gas-phase acidity of this compound was measured as was the adiabatic electron dissociation energy of the conjugate base (in collaboration with Dr. Xue-bin Wang). This polyol was also found to serve as a catalyst in condensed media.