In this dissertation, I present electronic spectra of a few polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs): tetracene, pentacene, pyrene, benzo[g,h,i]perylene and benzo[a]pyrene using resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) and zero kinetic energy (ZEKE) photoelectron spectroscopy. The work of tetracene and pentacene also combine a laser desorption source with a ZEKE spectrometer, demonstrating...
In this dissertation, I describe spectroscopic studies of jet-cooled polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and one nitrogen substituted PAH (PANH) using pulsed field zero kinetic energy (ZEKE) photoelectron spectroscopy and resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) spectroscopy. Recently, there has been a demand for far-infrared (FIR) spectral information of astrophysically relevant molecules...
Lamellar x-ray diffraction was studied from thin films of L-α-1,2-dipalmitoyl lecithin (DPL) and a 1:1 mixture (BrDPL) of L-α-l-palmitoyl-2-(9- bromopaimitoyl) lecithin and its 10-bromo analog. The specimens had high lamellar order, with an upper bound on the mosaicity of 6 mrad (0.4°) for DPL and BrDPL. With various water contents,...
The core-electron ionization potentials for mono- and
di(trifluoromethyl)benzene, for chlorofluoromethanes and for
chlorine have been measured in order to give information on
the electron distribution in these molecules and to investigate
differences between the inductive effect of fluorine
and that of CF3. For trifluoromethylbenzene the measured
ionization potentials in eV...
High-resolution mass spectrometry was used to measure a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in real time as they were produced by the ubiquitous marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus WH8102 during a 24-hour light/dark cycle. Ethenone, acetaldehyde, ethanol, isoprene, acetic acid, dimethyl sulfide (DMS), acetone, phenol, and several as-yet unidentified compounds were...
A molecular approach to metal oxides allows to the study to fundamental bonding and formation behavior for such metals. Moreover, the molecular nature of such oxides or metal-oxo clusters allows the possibility of exploitation of the properties of the parent oxides. The tetravalent metals, in specific, (M=Zr, Hf, Ce, Th,...
In this dissertation, the spectroscopic properties and thermodynamic stability of a class of materials known as metal oxo and hydroxo clusters are studied. In aqueous solutions, many metals can aggregate into discrete clusters of metals bridged by oxo or hydroxo ligands. These clusters are of particular interest to us for...
In this report, three studies are presented that utilize computations to predict transformations, identities, and properties of environmental organic molecules. Each study shows how computations can lead to models of chemical behavior. The importance of this research is rooted in the need for understanding how human behavior and health intersect...