Arthur Suits
University of Missouri-Columbia, MO·Chemistry
Many key reactions in flames, the atmosphere and the cold gas clouds between stars are driven by radicals: short-lived, highly reactive molecules with an unpaired electron. How these molecules react depends on their internal energy and quantum state, for example how they are vibrating or how the nuclear spins inside them are aligned.
- Fields
Chemistry
Physics
Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Topics
physical chemistry
chemical kinetics
reaction dynamics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Develop uniform-flow photoacoustic spectroscopy (UF-PAS), which senses molecules through sound waves produced when they absorb infrared light, as a broadly applicable probe of reactive intermediates in cold supersonic flows.
- Use chirped-pulse millimeter-wave spectroscopy in uniform flows (CPUF) to measure how vibrational excitation changes the low-temperature reactivity of radicals such as CN and CCH.
- Measure nuclear-spin-dependent and conformer-specific reaction rates of radicals such as propargyl and vinoxy, to test how symmetry and molecular shape constrain barrierless reactions.
- Compare state-resolved kinetic data with high-level theory to test emerging models of non-statistical, mode-selective reaction dynamics relevant to combustion and interstellar chemistry.
More about the research
Yet radicals are hard to detect and study in the lab, especially at the very low temperatures found in space. This research builds new ways to measure these reactions, state by state, in cold gas flows.
Why it matters
Computer models of combustion engines, Earth's atmosphere and interstellar clouds depend on accurate rates for reactions of short-lived radicals. These rates are often unmeasured at low temperature. The quantitative, state-resolved data from this work could provide benchmarks for chemical theory and could improve models of these environments. The new detection methods could also widen access to sensitive measurements of reactive intermediates.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Bernadette Broderick
University of Missouri-Columbia, MO·Chemistry
Measure which molecules and molecular shapes leave ices containing polar and nonpolar compounds, using temperature programmed desorption in the custom CPICE ultrahigh vacuum apparatus at temperatures down to 4 K.
Jay Amicangelo
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Chemistry
Record infrared spectra of hydrogenated radicals formed from hydrogen atoms and monosubstituted benzenes (X = OCH3, CH3, Cl, CN), trapped in 15 K argon matrices using a microwave discharge hydrogen source.
Jinjun Liu
University of Louisville, KY·Chemistry
Develop methods to produce magnesium-bearing carbon chains and clusters with odd numbers of carbon atoms, using laser ablation of magnesium with organic precursors and cooling in a supersonic molecular beam.
The school
University of Missouri-Columbia: 21 labs on PI Pages, $509M a year on research, 260 research doctorates a year.
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