Group 14 reactive intermediates

该计划涉及短寿命分子的化学研究，这些分子作为硅，锗和含锡分子反应的中间体。 这些“活性中间体”通常只存在一小部分秒，但它们的化学性质通常主要决定了给定的化学反应如何发生，以及它如何有效地进行。反应中间体及其化学的研究对于理解键合和结构的基本方面，化学反应如何发生，以及设计对社会有用的新化学过程或材料非常重要。 我们的工作包括直接检测活性中间体，并在它们因化学反应而消失时对其进行监测。 它涉及测量它们的反应速率，并最终确定这些反应发生的机制。由于这些分子通常由于其非常高的反应性而很快消失，因此我们使用脉冲激光从我们首先在实验室合成的稳定分子中产生它们，并使用快速时间分辨光谱方法来监测它们的形成和衰变。它们以这种方式形成是光化学反应的结果，因此要成功，我们还必须了解“稳定”前体分子的光化学。这是研究各种化学和光谱技术。 一旦确定了以众所周知的方式反应的给定反应性中间体的有效前体，那么就有可能利用化学来设计可能对社会有用的新材料或工艺，这是我们工作的长期目标之一。 我们的大部分工作涉及研究含有硅、锗或锡的高反应性分子，这些分子在本质上不稳定的键合排列中，所有这些在有机化学中都有类似物。 我们正在探索控制这些分子的反应性的各种因素，它们的反应机制以及它们如何随分子结构而变化，并对涉及第14族元素的类似键合安排之间的相互关系有更好，更详细的了解。

The program involves the study of the chemistry of short-lived molecules which are involved as intermediates in the reactions of silicon-, germanium-, and tin-containing molecules.  These "reactive intermediates" typically exist for only a small fraction of a second, but it is their chemistry that is usually primarily responsible for how a given chemical reaction takes place, and how efficiently it does so. The study of reactive intermediates and their chemistry is very important in understanding fundamental aspects of bonding and structure, how chemical reactions take place, and for designing new chemical processes or materials that are useful to society.  Our work involves the direct detection of reactive intermediates and monitoring them as they go away due to chemical reaction.  It involves measuring the rates of their reactions, and ultimately defining the mechanisms by which these reactions take place. Because these molecules typically disappear very quickly due to their very high reactivity, we use pulsed lasers to generate them from stable molecules that we first synthesize in the laboratory, and fast time-resolved spectroscopic methods to monitor their formation and decay. Their formation in this way occurs as a result of a photochemical reaction, and so to be successful, we must also understand the photochemistry of the "stable" precursor molecules. This is studied by a variety of chemical and spectroscopic techniques.  Once an efficient precursor to a given reactive intermediate which reacts in well-understood ways is identified, then it is possible to exploit the chemistry for the design of new materials or processes which may be useful to society, which is one of the long-term goals of our work.   Most of our work involves the study of highly reactive molecules containing silicon, germanium, or tin in intrinsically unstable bonding arrangements, all of which have analogues in organic chemistry.  We are exploring the various factors that control the reactivities of these molecules, the mechanisms of their reactions and how they vary with molecular structure, and developing a better, more detailed understanding of the inter-relationships between like bonding arrangements involving the Group 14 elements.