Structure and Reactivity of Gas Phase Transition Metal Species

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In this project of the Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Prof. James Weisshaar of the University of Wisconsin at Madison will conduct a broad program of fundamental measurements on the reactivities and electronic structures of metal-hydrocarbon molecules as function of temperature, pressure, and the electronic state of the neutral reactant molecule. Specifically, research will be pursued in three areas: 1) a survey of the chemical kinetics involving neutral transition metal atoms, 2) a study of the absorption and desorption of small molecules on, or from, size specific clusters of transition metal atoms by means of time-resolved bimolecular collisions, and 3) application of the new technique of mass-analyzed threshold ionization to obtain mass-specific spectra for small aggregates of metal atoms and clusters formed by metal atoms and organic molecules. %%% Saturated hydrocarbon molecules, such as, for example, methane and ethane, are abundant sources of carbon, but they are rather inert. Their chemical reactivities can, however, be significantly enhanced under low energy conditions by catalysts of transition-metal atoms such as nickel, platinum, rhodium, and others. The physical chemistry of this activation process is not well understood and this research is devoted to improve our knowledge of the interactions between metal atoms and hydrocarbon molecules. This will be done by conducting the experiments under controlled conditions in the gas phase, in which the perturbing effects of possible solvents are absent. This research is of an interdisciplinary nature and its results will affect our understanding of solution-phase organo-metallic chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, and surface chemistry. Furthermore, the data obtained in these investigations will be of use in the development of theoretical models and techniques for the calculation of interaction potentials between metal atoms and hydrocarbon molecules.