Chemistry Departmental Seminar — Dr. Brian Clowers

About the event

Speaker:
Prof. Brian Clowers, Department of Chemistry, Washington State University

Title:
Manipulating Molecular Ion Trains: New Strategies for Targeted Gas-Phase Ion Chemistry

Abstract:
Impacting quality control efforts, statistical confidence, and signal to noise ratio for many analytical techniques, separation science is foundational across disciplines. While the capacity to isolate target chemical species and their associated signals has direct bearing on decision making, the efficient isolation of select molecules also provides a setting to conduct detailed physical and chemical experiments free from interference. By developing a series of innovative tools for separating and isolating molecular ions, the Clowers Research Group is pursuing a range of techniques to probe selective gas-phase ion chemistry under conditions previously unattainable. In this presentation I will detail salient examples of gas-phase hydrogen-deuterium exchange at elevated pressures and how these experiments offer new insights into the mechanisms of molecular solvation. Additional topics covered will include recent efforts by the research team to apply molecular ion storage techniques towards fundamental questions within the field of gas-phase ion chemistry. The independent implementation of the SLIM (i.e. structures for lossless ion manipulation) platform at WSU will feature prominently in our ion chemistry quest. This technology offers an unprecedented opportunity to isolate, store, and transform molecular species with implications spanning from structural biology to f-element separation chemistry.