Studies of Water and Aqueous Solvation by Recombination of Cluster Ions

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In this project in the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Coe will study aqueous cluster ions using a novel merged cation-anion fast beam apparatus. Water and aqueous solvation will be examined through the reaction of mass-selected beams of oppositely charged cluster ions. Recombination rate constants are measured as a function of cluster size and center-of-mass collision energy to reveal the effect of clustering solvent molecules. Several new experiments are proposed in order to examine larger cluster size and determine the effect of solvent number. Reactions of charged species in solution lie at the heart of many chemical reactions, but very little hard information has been available about the detailed role of the solvent in influencing the course of a chemical reaction. Prof. Coe will address this question by studying molecular-scale species known as clusters, which consist of solvent molecules attached to a central species which has an electrical charge. Using a unique experimental apparatus he can determine, for example, how many solvent molecules there must be around the central species in order to keep positively charged materials from reacting immediately with negatively charged species. This will help to answer the more general question of how many molecules are needed to define what chemists mean by a solution of one substance in another.