Elliot Bernstein of Colorado State University is supported by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to study radical-closed shell molecule reactions relevant to atmospheric and combustion chemistry. Specifically, Prof. Bernstein will study radicals prevalent in mildly oxidizing environments such as methyl, hydroxy, and nitrate radicals and their reactions with ethylene. He will generate the radical-molecule complex initially in its ground electronic state, where the barrier is high enough to inhibit reaction, then optically excite the complex to an excited (barrier-less) electronic state to initiate reaction. He will employ time-resolved optical/mass spectrometric techniques to follow the reaction. Finally, ab initio calculations will be exploited to generate reaction potential energy surfaces. The implications of this line of research are many-fold. These studies will provide important details about reaction dynamics; the reactions to be studied are particularly relevant in the areas of combustion and atmospheric chemistry. The cluster environment will yield unique details not readily obtainable in the gas- or bulk-phase, and new techniques for generating radicals in clusters will be explored and developed.
