Professor Charles Harris is supported by a grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program to conduct experimental and theoretical studies of the effects of solvation on the rates of chemical reactions in solution. He will measure unimolecular dissociation and bimolecular recombination rates on picosecond and femtosecond timescales using a variety of experimental methods such as transient pump-probe electronic absorption spectroscopy, transient Raman scattering, and transient IR spectroscopy. The systems he will study include triatomics, pseudotriatomics, mono- and di- metal carbonyls, and substituted polyenes. The solvents used in these studies are primarily monatomic rare gas liquids. He will also perform molecular simulations of the systems being studied using Generalized Langevin and Generalized Brownian dynamics. %%% Theories dealing with chemical reactions in the gas phase are quite well developed. Much less is known about the factors which influence chemical reactions occurring in solution, and this is where most important chemical reactions occur. In these very fundamental studies, Harris will explore the effects which solvent molecules have on reactions in solution which are initiated by absorption of a photon of light. The combination of experiment and theory will lead to a better understanding of the factors affecting chemical reactions in solution.
