This research, part of the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program, is designed to understand defect phenomena in hydrogen bonded systems. This research will lead to new insights into the mechanisms of ice crystal growth and nucleation, a field of importance to technologies varying from protection of agricultural crops to the understanding of the mechanisms of importance in transport of protons through cell walls. The influence of interfacial effects on defect activities near surfaces will be studied to establish the relationships between defect activities and the ability of ice like structures to grow from metastable phases. Ion pair studies in both protic and aprotic solvents will also be explored. The experiments will be performed using the techniques of infrared and Raman spectroscopy on room and low temperature systems. Emphasis will be paid to comparisons between matrix solvation spectra and the corresponding spectra obtained by others for vitrified aqueous systems.
