MRI: Acquisition of Transient Absorption Spectrometer for Multidisciplinary Research in Chemistry, Materials Science and Solar Energy Conversion

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) and support from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation Program (CRIF), Professor Elizabeth Young from Amherst College and colleagues Alexi Arango (Mount Holyoke), Michael Barnes (University of Massachussetts-Amherst) and Sankaran Thayumanavan (University of Massachussetts-Amherst) will acquire a transient absorption spectrometer with a femtosecond Ti:sapphire amplifier system for a five-college consortium (Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Hampshire Colleges and University of Massachusetts-Amherst). In general, tunable Ti:sapphire lasers that emit red and near-infrared light are used to irradiate a substance to investigate how they respond to short energy pulses. This provides information on the molecular structure and interactions between atoms. The ultrafast (femtosecond) methods allow study of important biological mechanisms such as the charge transfer dynamics in photosynthesis reaction centers that have important implications in how plants utilize solar energy to produce food.This award will enhance research and education at all levels, especially in areas such as (a) investigation of charge separation (CS) and recombination (CR) dynamics in organic photovoltaic materials; (b) studys of covalently-linked donor-acceptor (D-A) molecules based on BODIPY photooxidant and CS and CR in thin-film bilayer photovoltaic assemblies; and (c) studies of exciton dynamics in crystalline and semicrystalline polymer aggregates.