Colorado State University NSF-REU Summer
Program in Materials Chemistry Research:
Synthesis, Characterization, and Device Fabrication
|
|
Elliot R. Bernstein
For more information, visit our group webpage…
Research in the Bernstein
group focuses on studies of small clusters in the gas phase. The projects are
motivated by the need to generate detailed information on the effects of
environment or solvation on individual molecules, and by the need to obtain path
and energy specific information concerning bimolecular chemical reactions and
catalysis. We address both of these issues through the use of laser
spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy of clusters generated by supersonic
expansion of their components. Current projects involve chemical reaction in
clusters, metal oxide cluster chemistry with small gas phase molecules, and the
solvation and conformational changes of neurotransmitters.
One potential undergraduate
project would explore metal oxide clusters (VxOy, TipOq,
ZrnOm) that are generated by laser oblation of the
respective metals and reaction with O2 in He or Ar. Clusters MxOy
are expanded and cooled into a vacuum and then passed through a reaction cell
containing H2O, SO2, NOx, or N2O at
10-2 to 10-5 Torr. Reactivity/adsorptivity of clusters
can be modeled from the mass spectral data. Optical spectroscopy,
photodepletion/photodesorption spectroscopy, and density functional theory
calculations are carried out for the clusters to determine their geometric and
electronic structures. The REU student would develop both theoretical and
experimental aspects of this project.