With this Chemical Bonding Center (CBC) Phase I, Step II award, the Division of Chemistry and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate jointly support the research of Shaul Mukamel, of the University of California Irvine, who will lead a collaborative effort involving researchers from UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara. This CBC will use an integrated experimental and theoretical approach to probe the inner workings of molecules in real-time with single atom resolution. The goal of these investigations is to characterize elementary events in chemistry such as the oxidation and reduction of a single molecule, the making and breaking of chemical bonds, and charge transfer and transport among molecules. These investigations will lead to a real-space, real-time picture of chemical processes at the most fundamental level by providing time-lapse sequences of chemical events as they occur. This capability will provide a new perspective into studies of molecular events for scientists and the public at large. The visual component of the science to be developed by this CBC makes it particularly well suited for broad public dissemination.
Chemical Bonding Centers are designed to focus innovative collaborative efforts that address a "big problem" which will lead to a major advance in chemistry or at the interface of chemistry and other sciences and will have the potential to attract broad scientific and public interest.
