David Waldeck is supported by a grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program to study solvent-solute interactions and their influence on solute reorientation in solution. Waldeck will employ a number of unique non-linear spectroscopic techniques to measure the rotational correlation function of the solute. These experiments will be used to gain important inights into the orientation and temporal evolution of the solute-solvent complex, and the frictional forces which a solute molecule experiences in solution. %%% Successful completion of these studies will result in an improved molecular level understanding of solute-solvent friction, the motion of solute molecules in solution, and the effects of solute-solvent interactions on chemical reactivity.
