Breaking and Making Bonds
Physical Chemistry
Our group is focused on measuring thermodynamic information although we obtain kinetic and often dynamic information about chemical reactions as well. Using an instrument called a guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometer (GIBMS)/we examine how reactions of cations and molecules change as a function of the available kinetic (sometimes electronic) energy. When the reaction is endothermic (requiring extra energy)/we can measure a threshold for the process/which directly provides the thermodynamic information of interest. We have applied this technique to a range of systems/simple atom + diatom reactions (most recently of lanthanide and actinide elements)/hydration of metal ions/up to fragmentation of small biomolecules.
Stream Leaders
Peter Armentrout, PhD
Distinguished Professor, Chemistry