Thermochemistry of Metal Ligand Bonds

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In this project in the Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Armentrout will continue work studying the gas-phase dynamics and chemistry of organometallic ions, especially second- and third-row transition metals, reacting with atomic ions. The main outputs of these investigations are bond energies between the metals and various ligands, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. An extensive part of the proposed work will examine the effects of sequential ligation on the thermochemistry and reactivity of metal centers. Flowing afterglow ion production and guided ion-beam mass spectrometry will be used to obtain kinetic and thermodynamic data. Better correlations between gas-phase studies and condensed-phase organometallic and catalytic reactions should result from these experiments. By studying reactions involving electrically charged molecules containing transition metal atoms, Armentrout can determine many properties of the corresponding neutral species, such as the strength of bonds between these atoms and attached units called ligands. Such information is useful for understanding many processes, such as condensed-phase and catalytic reactions on surfaces as well as metal interactions with nucleic acids, which are significant in DNA replication, transcription, and messenger RNA translation.