David Nesbitt
University of Colorado Boulder, CO·Chemistry
Every gas molecule that dissolves into a liquid, or escapes from one, must pass through the gas-liquid interface, an extremely thin surface layer about a billionth of a meter thick. This happens when oxygen and carbon dioxide cross the lungs into the blood, when the ocean surface exchanges gases with air, and in atmospheric aerosols.
- Fields
Chemistry
Physics
- Topics
gas-liquid interface
interfacial chemistry
molecular beam scattering
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Measure how fast molecules such as HCl, DCl, CO, CO2, OCS and NO scatter from liquids including water, salty water, glycerin and oils, using supersonic molecular beams and high-resolution laser spectroscopy.
- Determine how cold incoming molecules gain vibrational and rotational energy and speed from liquid surfaces, and why some leave hotter than the bulk liquid, to probe how rough, soft or hydrophobic the interfacial layer is.
- Extend gas-liquid scattering studies to extreme liquids such as molten salts and molten gold at 1,100 °C, to compare the collision dynamics and chemistry of molecules at very different interfaces.
More about the research
Yet this interface is one of the least understood forms of matter. The chemical intermediates that matter most there are present in tiny amounts, so studying them needs very sensitive detection methods.
Why it matters
Gas uptake and release at liquid surfaces shapes processes as different as breathing, ocean surface chemistry, atmospheric aerosol chemistry, ozone hole formation and global climate change. Measuring how molecules collide with and cross these interfaces adds basic understanding of a little-studied phase of matter. That understanding could eventually inform models of these environmental and physiological processes.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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.
Arthur Suits
University of Missouri-Columbia, MO·Chemistry
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.
Matthew Gebbie
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Chemistry·Early-career
Determine how collective assembly of organic ions in ionic liquid electrolytes influences the rate and selectivity of electrochemical CO2 reduction to carbon monoxide.
The school
University of Colorado Boulder: 36 labs on PI Pages, $718M a year on research, 447 research doctorates a year.
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