MRI: Acquistion of Equipment Enhancing the Ultrafast Spectroscopy Capabilities of the Center for Photochemical Sciences at BGSU

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program, the Ohio Laboratory for Kinetic Spectrometry and the Center for Photochemical Sciences at Bowling Green State University will acquire ultrafast spectroscopy instrumentation. The instrumentation comprises an ultrafast amplified laser system, two optical parametric amplifiers covering wavelengths from the deep ultraviolet to the infrared, as well as new pieces of apparatus for vibrational spectroscopy to be used with existing laser systems. The infrastructure will be used to advance a number of research projects in the chemical, biological and materials sciences: 1) high quantum efficiency coordination polymers for OLED applications; 2) ultrafast electronic dynamics in Pt(II) acetylide complexes; 3) proton-coupled electron transfer in chemical and biological systems; 4) single-molecule chemical imaging of interfacial electron transfer; 5) organic reaction mechanisms; 6) electronic dynamics in metal - peptide nanoassemblies; 6) solution organic photochemistry; and 7) photoaffinity labeling tools for the study of complex biological systems and nucleic acid damage. In addition, the instrumentation will be made available to a broad range of external users as part of the impressive photochemical user facility at Bowling Green State University. Young scientists working at the facility will have exposure to cutting-edge spectroscopic instrumentation, helping them gain expertise with an important class of research tools.Photochemistry is the study of the interaction of matter with light, and the subsequent distribution of the absorbed energy into a material. Photochemical infrastructure, like that supported in this award, helps scientists better understand how materials interact with light. This has profound implications in a wide variety of important areas -- from the conversion of sunlight to electrical energy to the damage of DNA by ultraviolet light. A better understanding of photochemistry helps society better harness the beneficial nature of the light-matter interaction, while mitigating its harmful aspects.