October 30, 2013 - 12:29pm
Prof. Garrett-Roe's was awarded an ACS PRF grant for his research proposal, entitled "Ultrafast Vibrational Spectroscopy (2D-IR) of Ionic Liquids." Ionic liquids are a promising platform for selective, high capacity, low energy-cost gas separation technologies. Progress in their development, however, is hindered by a lack of fundamental understanding of the structure and dynamics of these complex fluids as well as how they solvate molecular adsorbates. Ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy (2D-IR) will investigate both the bonding between cation and anion as well as the picosecond dynamics of CO2 in imidazolium ionic liquids. These experiments will directly test the existence of the long-lived ion pairs and how CO2 interacts wth the sorbents, guiding rational synthesis of improved materials.