Investigating Radical Intermediates of Bimolecular Addition Reactions

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In this award, funded by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Division of Chemistry, Professor Laurie Butler of the University of Chicago, together with her post-doctoral fellows, graduate, and undergraduate students, investigate how the products of elementary chemical reactions are controlled by the energetics and dynamics of short-lived radical intermediates. Specific reaction systems to be studied include (1) the reaction of hydroxyl radical with allene, (2) the stereoelectronic preference in reactions involving bond fission beta to a radical center and (3) the reactions of sulfur containing species. The results are of fundamental interest to chemists and many of the classes of reactions to be studied are important in combustion and in atmospheric chemistry. The results from these experiments will also serve to benchmark emerging theoretical methods. Minute changes in the geometry or in the energy of molecules as they react can have profound effects in determining the outcome of a chemical reaction. Prof. Butler and her research group are engaged in studying these effects in chemical intermediates -- the transitory chemical species midway between reactants and products. The results from these experiments will also serve to benchmark emerging theoretical methods.