Title: Using Liquid Jets to open new windows on solution chemistry and reactivity

Abstract: Intermolecular interactions in liquids often control electronic structure, and therefore reactivity and excited state dynamics, but these interactions are complex to quantify. Experiments are required to challenge the latest theoretical approaches.

Liquid microjet photoelectron spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful approach to access solvent and solute electronic structure - both in the liquid and at the gas-liquid interface. Using steady-state photoelectron spectroscopy, we have investigated Birch reaction anion intermediates in solvents relevant to ground state chemical synthesis. Time-resolved experiments with liquid microjets aim to explore excited state reactivity differences “on” and “in” water for heteroaromatic building blocks.
 

See more of Dr. Bradforth's research on his website: https://dornsife.usc.edu/stephen-bradforth/