U.S.-Germany Cooperative Research in Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

这个奖项支持教授大卫M。大学的赫拉克勒斯 和他的两个研究生合作， Alfred Benninghoven教授的分析化学研究 和他在德国的明斯特大学的研究小组。 他们一起 将研究聚合物在离子和中性条件下的断裂 轰击和聚合物的气相分解。 他们将 还开发了测定分子量分布的方法 聚合物样品直接从固体。 这项研究由美国联合支持，德国合作社 国际项目部科学项目和 化学系分析与表面化学专业， 将继续与表面科学家PI 以发展电子光谱学而闻名 分析和他在二次电离质谱方面的工作 （西姆斯），以及一位世界级的德国化学家，他发明了一种特殊的 飞行时间西姆斯仪的设计， 络合物光谱灵敏度和中等分辨率 样品 赫拉克勒斯博士已经得到了第二个仪器 因此，合作将使美国的合作伙伴能够迅速达到 这一复杂技术的最新发展。 德国科尔- 实验室将获得西姆斯采样的额外专业知识， 聚合物 聚合物是长链分子，其使用已经导致 人类设计结构材料和润滑剂的能力 满足各种需求，不受大自然的限制 更有限的剧目。 聚合物通常是“多分散的” 即，制造聚合物的结果是一组相关分子 结构相似但长度不同。 理解这些 长度差异需要对固体聚合物进行取样， 改变链长分布或分散性， 任务 聚合物科学家一般需要更好的方法， 研究固体中的聚合物结构 将抽样方法联系起来 （由Hercules博士开发）连同结构测量 技术（由Benninghoven博士开发）将是一个重要的 对基础研究和应用研究的贡献 化学.

This award supports Professor David M. Hercules of the University of Pittsburgh and two of his graduate students to collaborate in analytical chemistry research with Professor Alfred Benninghoven and his group of the University of Muenster, Germany. Together they will study fragmentation of polymers subjected to ion and neutral bombardment, and gas phase decomposition of polymers. They will also develop methods for determining molecular weight distributions of polymers sampled directly from solids. This research, supported jointly by the U.S.-Germany Cooperative Science Program of the Division of International Programs and the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program in the Chemistry Division, will continue the collaboration between the PI, a surface scientist known for his development of electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis and for his work on secondary ionization mass spectrometry (SIMS), and a world class German chemist who originated a particular design of time-of-flight SIMS instrument, which provides high sensitivity and moderate resolution for spectra from complex samples. Dr. Hercules has obtained the second of these instruments, so collaboration will allow the US partners to quickly reach the state of the art in this complex technology. The German col- laborators will obtain added expertise in SIMS sampling of polymers. Polymers are long chain molecules, whose use has resulted in humanity's ability to design structural materials and lubricants to suit a variety of needs, without being restricted by nature's more limited repertoire. Polymers are generally "polydisperse" i.e. the result of making a polymer is a group of related molecules of similar structure but different length. Understanding such length differences requires sampling the solid polymer without changing the chain-length distribution or dispersity, a difficult task. Polymer scientists in general require better methods for studying polymer structure in solids. Linking the sampling methods (developed by Dr. Hercules) together with the structural measurement techniques (developed by Dr. Benninghoven) will be a significant contribution to fundamental and applied research in analytical chemistry.