This award is made as the starter grant increment of Dr. Lynmarie A. Posey's Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Chemistry Award in support of her research at Vanderbilt University. The research is concerned with the behavior of solvated transition metal ions in a microsolution environment. Investigating the details of the local microscopic forces between an ion and its nearest neighbors presents an experimental challenge because the influence of the bulk solvent on measurable properties often overshadows local effects. In this research, an electrospray ion source coupled with mass spectrometry will allow divalent transition metal cations to be isolated in a controlled solvent environment as gas phase clusters, which can then be probed using laser spectroscopy. Restriction of the local environment should reveal vibrationally resolved electronic absorption spectra, providing structural information as well as the strength of the metal-ligand bond and perturbation of the ligand by the strong field of the ion. %%% The enhanced understanding of ion-solvent interactions will challenge theoreticians to develop more accurate potential energy surfaces and ultimately provide a foundation for learning how to manipulate the chemical reactivity of solvated ions.
