When Photons Strike Molecules: Femto-Snapshots Of Reaction Kinetics
Monday, April 6, 2015 - 15:20
in Physics & Chemistry
All plants store solar energy in the form of carbohydrates with the help of a metallic compound. Chemically storing sunlight would also be ideal for society's energy needs but developing this requires a better understanding of exactly what happens when photons strike molecules. The primary processes run on timescales of only a few hundred femtoseconds (one femtosecond = 10-15s). An international collaboration has been able to map the evolution of the chemical bonds in these kinds of ultrafast processes on the level of orbitals. Using quantum chemical calculations, they were successful in interpreting the data and obtaining a detailed picture of the intermediates and reaction kinetics. read more