Presidential Young Investigator Award/Cation Radical Photochemistry.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This Presidential Young Investigator Award given in the Organic Dynamics Program supports the research of Dr. Joshua L. Goodman of the University of Rochester. This work is aimed at describing accurately the properties of high-energy species that are formed in chemical reactions, and it will improve our basic understanding of how chemical reactions occur. The experiments that will be carried out by Dr. Goodman will span three areas: (1) the study of retinal proteins to determine how light energy drives chemical and biological reactions, (2) the investigation of relationships between structure and energy for organic reactive intermediates, and (3) the applicability of orbital symmetry selection rules to odd-electron photochemical reactions. The work will utilize time-resolved photoacoustic calorimetry, which allows measurement of microscopic volume changes of a system following perturbation by photoexcitation. The magnitudes of these volume changes can be related to reaction enthalpies and to volume changes involving reactive intermediates. The photoacoustic detection method will be extended to methods of activation other than photoinitiation.