Helium Nanodroplet Isolation Spectroscopy (HENDI) is an excellent method for probing molecules and reaction systems effectively due to the unique characteristics it possesses such as superfluidity below a threshold temperature, optical transparency and weak interaction strength. The ultra-low temperature of this experiment also helps with the study of reactive species as low activation barriers remain thermally inaccessible. HENDI involves trapping species of interest in He nanodroplets in order to spectroscopically study them in their ground electronic and vibrational states.

 

The seminar details the instrumentation required for this experiment and species currently being studied in the Douberly Lab - ethynyl radical and the interaction of triplet oxygen radicals with unsaturated hydrocarbons. These are of interest in combustion, atmospheric, and astrochemical contexts. Generation of these radicals and complexes and the interesting aspects of their spectroscopic analysis are also to be discussed in the seminar.