Untangling the Energetics and Dynamics of Reactions of Ground State Silylidyne Radicals with Hydrocarbon Molecules

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

With this renewal award, the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms A Program (CSDM-A) of the Division of Chemistry supports Professor Ralf I. Kaiser of the University of Hawaii in a project that will investigate the mechanism and energetics of the reactions of a diatomic silicon species with hydrocarbon molecules. These experiments will be carried out by crossing beams of the reacting molecules in the gas phase and allowing them to interact. Experiments will be combined with sophisticated computational studies to provide mechanistic and thermodynamic data for these reactions. Since molecules containing silicon are important components of the interstellar environment, significant advances in our understanding of astrochemistry are predicted to result from this project. In connection with these studies, the principal investigator will organize symposia on interstellar and gas phase chemistry. The proposed research will investigate the energetics, dynamics, and potential energy surfaces of the diatomic radical, silylidyne (SiH), with hydrocarbon molecules employing crossed molecular beam experiments. The data resulting from these experiments will be combined with ab initio and quasi classical trajectory (QCT) calculations to determine reaction mechanisms, the structure of products and intermediates and thermodynamics over a broad range of collision energies. These studies will enable a comparison of the chemical dynamics of the silylidyne radical (SiH) with those of the isoelectronic methylidyne radical (CH).