U.S.-Swiss Cooperative Research on Spectroscopy and Energy Redistribution in Methanol

该奖项支持大卫·S·佩里教授和阿克伦大学的一名研究生在瑞士洛桑的瑞士联邦理工学院分子物理化学实验室与T·R·里佐教授和他的研究小组合作进行化学研究。他们建议研究带电的甲醇分子内的能量再分配。他们将通过不同的方法研究三个不同的频率区域，这些方法利用美国和瑞士合作研究小组内部互补的专业知识和设备。具体地说，阿克伦将用直接吸收光谱研究基本区域，洛桑将用红外辅助光碎片光谱研究高泛音区域。长期以来，试剂振动能的性质和数量一直被认为是控制化学反应活性的关键因素。振动和转动能量的重新分配已知发生在几个时间尺度上。随着能量的增加，相关的相互作用首先表现为离散的微扰，然后表现为本征态的团块，最后表现为无法分辨的密集轮廓。这项合作将在广泛的能量和时间范围内研究特定的系统--甲醇，以增进对这一分析反应范围的理解和辨别。

This award supports Professor David S. Perry and a graduate student of the University of Akron to collaborate in chemistry research with Professor T. R. Rizzo and his research group at the Molecular Physical Chemistry Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. They propose to study energy redistribution within energized methanol molecules. They will examine three different frequency regions by various methods which take advantage of complementary expertise and equipment within the collaborating US and Swiss research groups. Specifically, the fundamental regions will be studied by direct absorption spectroscopies in Akron, and the higher overtone regions will be studied by infrared- assisted photofragment spectroscopy in Lausanne. The nature and quantity of reagent vibrational energy has long been recognized as a crucial factor in controlling chemical reactivity. Redistribution of vibrational and rotational energy is known to occur on several timescales. As energy is increased, the relevant interactions appear first as discrete perturbations, then as clumps of eigenstates, and finally as unresolvably dense contours. This collaboration will study a particular system, methanol, over a wide range of energies and time scales, in order to improve understanding and discrimination of that range of analytical responses.