SGER: Single-Molecule Studies of Hidden Reactions

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With this SGER award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program supports the work of Professor Stephen Craig of the Department of Chemistry at Duke University. The research will use single molecule force measurements to directly observe the making and breaking of chemical bonds in a sequential bimolecular reaction. A two-step association - dissociation reaction will be investigated. The tip of an atomic force microscope will be functionalized with the leaving ligand facilitating the breaking of the bond to that ligand. In this way, the associative step will become rate determining allowing the rate of this hitherto kinetically invisible step to be measured. These single molecule spectroscopic studies of potential energy surfaces are expected provide important fundamental information that will impact on mechanistic investigations of organic, inorganic, and biochemical reactions.