PALESTRA 3

29/11/2021

Part-I: IR-Induced and Tunneling-Driven Reactions in Cryogenic Matrices

 

Part-II: How to Write a Scientific Paper

 

     By request of the organizers, this talk comprehends two parts: In Part-I, some of the most recent results on IR-induced and tunneling-driven reactions in cryogenic matrices obtained in our research group will be surveyed; in Part-II, which is more oriented to young researchers and students, the process of writing a scientific paper will be analyzed and some clues will be provided that may be used in order to make this task more fruitful.

 

    Abstract for Part-I: Thought first presented to the scientific community as early as in 1963 by Hall and Pimentel [1], infrared-induced chemistry of matrix-isolated molecules only gained importance when high-selectivity in controlling the chemical reactions could be achieved by introduction of narrowband IR excitation [2,3]. Since then, IR-induced chemistry has been developing and, nowadays, it can be used to control the molecular conformation with both high selectivity and efficiency and also to induce (or facilitate) other types of chemistry [4,5]. At low temperature, IR-induced chemistry and tunneling are, frequently, associated. We have been involved in this type of investigations for more than 20 years, and in this first part of this talk I will present a summary of some of our most relevant achievements in the field obtained in the Laboratory for Molecular Cryospectroscopy and Biospectroscopy (LMCB) of the University of Coimbra:

 

- Efficient control of the molecular conformations by means of narrowband tunable IR excitation, including the generation of rare, elusive conformers otherwise inaccessible to experimentation;

 

- Application of the research strategy to more complex systems, like dimers;

 

- Controlling the conformation of selected fragments in a molecule by vibrationally exciting remotely located in space antennas;

 

- Using vibrational excitation to facilitate tunneling reactions, including processes involving cleavage of chemical bonds and heavy-atom tunneling;