High repetition-rate 2D SFG Spectrometer

水在生化过程和技术应用中都是必不可少的溶剂。在这里，水不仅仅是一个被动的背景，而是生化过程的结构和功能的基础，在生化识别和质子转移过程中起着积极的作用。在溶剂中，水的独特之处在于它的氢键网络，它在很短的时间内波动。表征氢键网络的波动是理解水分子性质的关键。当水与生物分子或表面接触时，氢键网络的性质发生变化，这决定了界面水分子的性质。生物分子和工艺界面通常表现出具有疏水和亲水结构域的复杂结构，它们以不同的方式影响氢键网络。先进的时间分辨超快光谱已经对散装水中的氢键网络提供了很好的理解，但我们对界面处的水还没有同样的理解。提出的研究将填补这一知识空白，并提供关于表面水的氢键网络的快速动力学的缺失信息。为了做到这一点，我们需要执行表面特定版本的先进体时间分辨超快光谱方法。拟议购买的设备将使这种实验成为可能。此外，所提出的实验将表征水的氢键网络的超快动力学作为表面化学的函数。这将通过检查固体-水界面来完成，其中固体表面的表面化学可以通过使用不同的自组装单层使表面功能化而改变。这种自组装的单层结合在表面上，通过改变尾部的化学功能，可以使固体表面亲水、疏水或混合以模拟复杂的生物或技术表面。拟议的设备采购将使界面水的先进表面比时间分辨光谱实验成为可能。这些实验将表征界面水的氢键网络的超快动力学，并提供对界面水作为表面化学功能的分子水平的详细理解。这将为获得生化和技术系统中发生在水合表面上的化学过程的详细理解提供这些缺失的信息。

Water is essential as a solvent for biochemical processes and in technological applications alike. Here water is not merely a passive background but is fundamental to the structure and function of biochemical processes and play an active role in biochemical recognition and proton transfer processes. What makes water unique among solvents is the hydrogen-bonded network, which fluctuate on a very short timescale. Characterizing the fluctuations of the hydrogen-bonded network is key to understand the molecular properties of water. When water is in contact with a biomolecule or at a surface, the properties of the hydrogen-bonded network is changed, which determine the properties of the interfacial water molecules. Biomolecules and technological interfaces typically exhibit complex structures with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains, which influence the hydrogen-bonded network is different ways. Advanced time-resolved ultrafast spectroscopy has provided a good understanding of the hydrogen-bonded network in bulk water, but we do not have the same understanding for water at interfaces. The proposed research will fill this knowledge gap and provide the missing information about the rapid dynamics of the hydrogen-bonded network of water at surfaces. In order to do so, we need to perform surface-specific versions of the advanced bulk time-resolved ultrafast spectroscopic methods. The proposed equipment purchase will make such experiments possible. Furthermore, the proposed experiments will characterize the ultrafast dynamics of the hydrogen-bonded network of water as a function of the surface chemistry. This will be done by examining solid-water interfaces, where the surface chemistry of the solid surface can be varied by functionalizing the surface with different self-assembled monolayers. Such self-assembled monolayers bind to the surface and by varying the chemical functionality of the tails, can make the solid surface hydrophilic, hydrophobic, or mixed to mimic complex biological or technological surfaces.The proposed equipment purchase will make advanced surface-specific time-resolved spectroscopic experiments of interfacial water possible. These experiments will characterize the ultrafast dynamics of the hydrogen-bonded network of interfacial water and provide a detailed molecular-level understanding of interfacial water as a function of the surface chemistry. This will provide this missing information for obtaining a detailed understanding of chemical processes in biochemical and technological systems alike, which occur on hydrated surfaces.