SPECTROSCOPIC INVESTIGATIONS OF EXOTIC CARBON, SILICON AND SULFUR MOLECULES

在这个由化学系化学结构、动力学和机制计划资助的项目中，哈佛-史密森天体物理中心的Charles Alcock、Michael McCarthy和Patrick Thaddeus教授将对奇异的碳、硅和硫分子进行光谱研究，特别是正电荷和负电荷的分子离子。利用高灵敏度的实验室仪器，他们试图发现和表征关键的反应中间体，这些中间体被认为在工业过程中发挥重要作用，包括燃烧和半导体生长过程，以及天文化学。此类研究也具有根本意义：它们有助于对元素周期表中不同元素之间的成键进行比较研究，为化学键的丰富结构提供了进一步的证据，并为理论化学建立了重要的基准。更广泛的影响包括将研究和教育整合到一种环境中，让学生的主动性得到发挥，并鼓励独立调查。由于碳和硅化学在燃烧、材料科学和天文学等不同领域发挥着重要作用，拟议中的研究应该对科学研究和技术创新的一些领域产生影响。这些研究的结果最终可能使重要的工业过程能够通过光谱手段进行监测和优化，并有助于更好地理解如何从简单的起始材料合成复杂分子。

In this project funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms Program of the Chemistry Division, Professors Charles Alcock, Michael McCarthy, and Patrick Thaddeus of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will undertake spectroscopic studies of exotic carbon, silicon, and sulfur molecules, with particular emphasis on positively- and negatively-charged molecular ions. Using highly sensitive laboratory instrumentation, they seek to discover and characterize key reactive intermediates that are believed to play important roles in industrial processes, including combustion and semiconductor growth processes, and in astronomical chemistry. Such studies are of fundamental interest as well: they contribute to comparative studies of bonding between different elements in the Periodic Table, providing further evidence of the rich architecture of the chemical bond, and establish important benchmarks for theoretical chemistry. The broader impacts include integrating research and education in a setting that gives scope to student initiative and encouragement to independent investigation. The proposed studies should have an impact in a number of areas of scientific research and technological innovation, because of the important role that carbon and silicon chemistry play in fields as diverse as combustion, materials science, and astronomy. The results of these studies may ultimately enable important industrial processes to be monitored and optimized by spectroscopic means, and lead to an improved understanding of how complex molecules can be synthesized from simple starting materials.