This award, made in the Organic Dynamics Program supports the research of Drs. Charles DePuy and Veronica Bierbaum at the University of Colorado/Boulder. The focus of the research will be Flowing Afterglow-Selected Ion Flow Tube (FA-SIFT) studies of cations in the gas phase. Emphasis will be on the gas phase reactions of methyl cations and several different boron hydride cations with hydrocarbons. Reaction pathways will be determined by isotopic labelling studies. The FA-SIFT technique will also be used to determine carbon-hydrogen bond dissociation energies of several new molecules and to examine rearrangements of carbanions in the gas phase. This research will help describe the intrinsic behavior of reactive ions in the gas phase, unencumbered by solvent. Such studies are of particular importance in the atmosphere, plasmas, and interstellar space
