NSF Young Investigator: Solvation and Chemical Dynamics at Immiscible Liquid Interfaces

Nancy E. Levinger由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）理论与计算化学项目的青年研究员资助，从事极性溶剂化和不混溶液体界面化学反应的实验研究。她将利用表面二次谐波产生（SSHG）在液/液界面对香豆素153进行初步研究，香豆素153是溶剂化动力学的经典探针。SSHG是研究界面化学的一种理想技术，因为信号完全来自界面而不受体介质的干扰。通过这种方法可以检测到分子旋转重定向和界面上电子转移反应的信息。将探索各种液/液界面，包括辛醇/水界面，辛醇/水界面是药物膜溶解度建模的重要模型系统。电子转移和异构化反应将在各种不混溶液体溶剂系统的液/液界面上进行研究，包括真正的膜结合生物重要蛋白质。广泛的化学反应发生在界面边界上。例如，从生物和医学界面问题，如麻醉化学，到工业规模的金属矿石跨界面分离，再到纳米电子和非线性光学材料的自组装单层和Langmuir-Blodgett膜的相对较新的研究。这些问题不仅基于界面的结构和组成，而且还基于界面上发生的动力学过程。因此，人们对界面的化学动力学有相当大的兴趣。Levinger已经开发了一种工具，可以直接探测这些界面上发生的化学动力学，并将把这种技术应用于各种重要的技术相关问题。

Nancy E. Levinger is supported by an NSF Young Investigator Grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program to perform experimental studies of polar solvation and chemical reactions at the interface between immiscible liquids. She will use surface second harmonic generation (SSHG) to perform initial studies on coumarin 153, a classic probe of solvation dynamics, at the liquid/liquid interface. SSHG is an ideal technique for studying interfacial chemistry because the signals arise solely from the interface without interference from the bulk medium. Information regarding molecular rotational reorientation and electron transfer reactions at interfaces can be examined by this method. A variety of liquid/liquid interfaces will be probed including the octanol/water interface which is an important model system for drug modeling of membrane solubility. Electron transfer and isomerization reactions will be studied at the liquid/liquid interface in a variety of immiscible liquid solvent systems including real membrane bound biologically important proteins. A wide range of chemistry occurs at interfacial boundaries. Examples range from biological and medicinal interfacial problems, such as chemistry of anesthesia, to industrial scale separations of metal ores across interfaces, to the relatively new investigations into self assembled monolayers and Langmuir-Blodgett films for nanoelectronics and nonlinear optical materials. These problems are based not only on structure and composition of the interface but also on kinetic processes that occur at interfaces. As such, there is considerable interest in chemical dynamics at interfaces. Levinger has developed a tool to directly probe the chemical dynamics occurring at such interfaces, and will apply this technique to a variety of important and technologically relevant problems.