Gas Phase Ion Chemistry of PAHs and Giant PAHs: Models for Graphene Interactions and Supported Catalysis

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With this award, the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms (CSDM-A) Program of the Division of Chemistry is funding Professors Samy El-Shall and Michael Mautner of Virginia Commonwealth University and Professor Samuel Abrash of the University of Richmond to investigate the structure and reactivity of complex organic molecular ions in the gas phase. The systems will be studied with a variety of mass spectrometry methods. Specific systems to be studied include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) ions as well as Pd-graphene catalysts for polymerization of acetylene. In an educational project supported by this award, Prof. El-Shall is developing curriculum to expand graduate education in chemistry to areas at the intersection of science and public policy. The students supported with this award will come from a diverse group of students from both Virginia Commonwealth University as well as undergraduate students the University of Richmond. With support from this award, Prof. El-Shall will work to develop new curriculum, based partly upon his recent experiences as a Jefferson Science Fellow with the US Department of State, to highlight the ways in which science and technology can inform public policy.Professor Samy El-Shall and his research group will study an interesting group of chemical systems. In one set of experiments, Dr. El-Shall and his group will extend their past work on the chemical properties of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and polycyclic aromatic nitrogen heterocycle (PANH) ions. These ions are implicated in a number of contexts: from interstellar space to potential intermediates in the formation of graphene and soot. In the next phase of research on these systems, the El-Shall group will study: (1) the reactivity of small PAH and PANH ions with small unsaturated and polar molecules; (2) the reactions of protonated PAHs; (3) the structure and energetics of dimer ions of PAH and PANH compounds; (4) the molecular properties and ion chemistry of so-called "giant" PAH compounds, containing hundreds of carbon atoms; and (5) related chemistry on the polymerization of acetylene with Pd in the gas phase. The experimental methods that will be used revolve around variations of mass-selected ion mobility measurements in specialized equipment in the El-Shall laboratory.