Dr. Kit Bowen is supported by a grant from the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to study photodissociation and photodetachment spectroscopy in size-selected gas-phase cluster anions. Chosen clusters are representative, on a microscopic scale, of real macroscopic solvent-solute systems. These studies will provide a wealth of useful information regarding the chemical physics of the solvation process. Bowen plans to apply various spectroscopic tools including photoelectron, photodissociation and photodestruction spectroscopy to probe size-selected gas-phase cluster anions which include anion-neutral complexes, solvated electron-like cluster anions, and metal cluster anions. The planned experiments will map the variation of sequential solvation energies and electron affinities as a function of cluster size as well as the evolution of anionic basicity with increasing degrees of solvation. One emphasis of these studies will be to compare various solvent systems, with water and ammonia cluster anions receiving continued attention and with cluster anions of alcohols, amines, ethers, and xenon being studied spectroscopically for the first time.
