Research Interest

MECHANISTIC STUDIES OF PHOTOCHEMICAL AND THERMAL REACTIONS OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN SOLUTION; TIME-RESOLVED LASER SPECTROSCOPY; PHOTOINDUCED PHENOMENA IN THE SOLID STATE
Many important phenomena that interact to determine the outcome of a chemical reaction occur in the time regime from 10-13 to 10-6 seconds. These dynamic processes include electron and energy transfer, bond dissociation and formation, unimolecular rearrangement, diffusion, and interactions between reactants and between reactant and solvent. Our research primarily focuses on studies of reacting organic molecules and interactions that they have with their environment. A method on which we rely is timeresolved laser spectroscopy. We have focused on studies of reaction intermediates whose lifetimes are as short as 10 ps. Laser systems that produce pulses of light as short as 120 femtoseconds—with wavelength tunability from the ultraviolet through the visible—provide us with the means to get answers to tantalizing questions about structure and reactivity for species which exist in the subpicosecond time regime. The short-lived intermediates are detected via electronic absorption or emission spectroscopy. We synthesize compounds designed to reveal mechanistic intricacies when probed spectroscopically.