Full-Collision and Half-Collision Studies of the Dynamics of Model C-H Bond Activation Processes

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Professor William Breckenridge of the University of Utah is supported by the Experimental Physical Chemistry program to perform experiments on the activation of C-H bonds in gaseous clusters containing metal centers. This proposal seeks to discover mechanisms by which C-H bond breaking occurs in gas phase clusters mimicking two situations: side-on interactions of metal electrons with C-H bonds as would occur in organometallic compounds, and C-H bond activation on the surfaces of metal oxides. The clusters will be studied using various laser probes such as laser-induced fluorescence, and multiphoton ionization spectroscopy. The problem of structure and dynamics in simple metal-hydrocarbon systems is made quite relevant in this proposal by the comparison to real world problems in catalysis. The breaking of C-H bonds is of great interest in a variety of important technological processes such as hydrocarbon cracking, catalysis, synthesis of chemicals from natural gas, hydrogenation and organic synthesis.