Project title: Transforming strong bonds: Orbital-specific x-ray spectroscopy will tell us how to
Main applicant: Philippe Wernet, Division of Molecular and Condensed Matter Physics
Grant amount: 2 960 000 SEK for the period 2020-2023
Funder: Project grant from the Swedish Research Council
This project aims at understanding photochemical C-H bond activation with metal complexes. The idea is to use various time-resolved x-ray spectroscopic methods to detect and characterize at an unprecedented level of detail short-lived intermediates where a photo-activated metal complex weakly binds an organic molecule. For this we want to probe the system all the way from the initial femtosecond excited-state dynamics to the slower dynamics in solution. The proposed research will remove the information gap due to hitherto missing probes and validate fundamental chemical concepts of frontier-orbital interactions in short-lived metal-alkane complexes. The resulting mechanistic understanding will build the basis for a rational design of future photocatalysts for C-H activation. Ultimately, this will help developing new concepts and strategies for making accessible cheap chemical energy in low-cost feedstocks for chemical industry by providing more reactive compounds. The unique combination of methods and concepts in our project from atomic, molecular and chemical physics is ideally suited for a PhD student to be trained in and to contribute to a highly disciplinary research area using state-of-the-art short pulse x-ray sources including the new superconducting LCLS-II x-ray free-electron laser in Stanford that will offer unprecedented peak brilliance and average flux. This new PhD student will be incorporated in our newly built group at Uppsala University.
