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Robert Continetti
Dissociation dynamics of transient species, three-body reaction dynamics, novel mass-spectrometric methods |
| Contact Information |
| Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry |
| Office: UHA 3020E |
| Phone: (858) 534-5559 |
| Fax: (858) 534-9856 |
| Email: rcontinetti@ucsd.edu |
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| Education and Appointments |
| 1992 |
Postdoc, University of California, Berkeley
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| 1989 |
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
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| 1983 |
B.A., Johns Hopkins University
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| Awards and Academic Honors |
| 2006 |
Kurt Shuler Scholar in Physical Chemistry |
| 2000 |
Fellow, American Physical Society |
| 1997 |
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship |
| 1996 |
Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award |
| 1994 |
David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Sciences and Engineering |
| 1992 |
Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award |
| Research Interests |
Transient species, including reactive free radicals and molecular clusters, play central roles in governing the chemical behavior of complex systems. We seek to characterize these species by using a variety of techniques, including mass spectrometry, photoelectron and photofragment spectroscopies and the measurement of scattering cross-sections. These experiments provide critical tests of modern electronic structure and dynamics calculations, and in the case of three-body dissociation, new types of experimental data on the dynamics of these processes.
Our studies of reactive free-radicals, transition-states and multi-body dissociation dynamics use the photoelectron-photofragment coincidence technique developed here. These experiments are carried out using fast, mass-selected anion beams with short-pulse tunable laser photodetachment. The photoelectron kinetic energy and angle of recoil is measured using imaging techniques, which determines the internal energy in the neutral molecule or cluster under study. If the neutral is unstable and dissociates, then the kinetic energy and angular distributions of the products are recorded using time- and position-sensitive detectors. Analysis of these experiments is carried out in conjunction with ab initio electronic structure, Franck-Condon and dynamics calculations.
One application of these techniques is to the dynamics of hydroxyl radical reactions important in combustion and atmospheric processes. We have also extended this technique to three-body and four-body dissociation processes, respectively, of O3(D2O) and O8. Another important research focus has been reactive organic intermediates such as alkoxides and alkoxy radicals.
We have also built a novel multiple-ion-beam MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer, demonstrating a new approach in very high-throughput mass spectrometric analysis using some of the concepts learned from our studies of many-body dissociation dynamics. We are currently developing a supercritical CO2 source for formation of molecular beams of non-volatile species. |
| Primary Research Area: |
Interdisciplinary Specialties: |
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Physical/Analytical Chemistry
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Atmospheric and Environmental
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| Selected Publications |
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Photoelectron-Multiple-Photofragment-Coincidence Spectrometer. With K.A. Hanold, A.K. Luong, and T.G. Clements. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 70, 2268
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Three-body Dissociation Dynamics of Excited States of O3(D2O). With A.K. Luong, and T.G. Clements. J. Phys. Chem. 103, 10237
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Predissociation Dynamics of HCO2-/DCO2 studied by the Dissociative Photodetachment of HCO2-/DCO2- + hv-: H/D + CO2 + e-. With T.G. Clements, J. Chem. Phys. 115, 5345
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Dissociation Dynamics and Stability of Cyclic Alkoxy Radicals and Alkoxide Anions. With L. S. Alconcel, H.-J. Deyerl and M. S. DeClue. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123, 3125
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A Multiple-Ion-Beam Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer. With A. Rohrbacher. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 72, 3386
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Four-body reaction dynamics: Complete correlated fragment measurement of the dissociative photodetachment dynamics of O8-. With T.G. Clements, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 033005-1
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Exploring the OH + CO -: H + CO2 potential surface via dissociative photodetachment of (HOCO)-. With T.G. Clements and J.S. Francisco. J. Chem. Phys. 117, 6478-6488 (2002).
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