Infrared spectroscopy is the measurement of the interaction of infrared radiation with matter by absorption, emission, or reflection. It is used to study and identify chemical substances or functional groups in solid, liquid, or gaseous forms. It can be used to characterize new materials or identify and verify known and unknown samples. The method or technique of infrared spectroscopy is conducted with an instrument called an infrared spectrometer which produces an infrared spectrum. An IR spectrum can be visualized in a graph of infrared light absorbance on the vertical axis vs. frequency or wavelength on the horizontal axis. Typical units of frequency used in IR spectra are reciprocal centimeters, with the symbol cm−1. Units of IR wavelength are commonly given in micrometers, symbol μm, which are related to wave numbers in a reciprocal way. A common laboratory instrument that uses this technique is a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. Two-dimensional IR is also possible as discussed below.
Raman spectroscopy ; is a spectroscopic technique typically used to determine vibrational modes of molecules, although rotational and other low-frequency modes of systems may also be observed. Raman spectroscopy is commonly used in chemistry to provide a structural fingerprint by which molecules can be identified.
Dudley Robert Herschbach is an American chemist at Harvard University. He won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Yuan T. Lee and John C. Polanyi "for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes". Herschbach and Lee specifically worked with molecular beams, performing crossed molecular beam experiments that enabled a detailed molecular-level understanding of many elementary reaction processes. Herschbach is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Molecular physics is the study of the physical properties of molecules, the chemical bonds between atoms as well as the molecular dynamics. Its most important experimental techniques are the various types of spectroscopy; scattering is also used. The field is closely related to atomic physics and overlaps greatly with theoretical chemistry, physical chemistry and chemical physics.
Resonance Raman spectroscopy is a Raman spectroscopy technique in which the incident photon energy is close in energy to an electronic transition of a compound or material under examination. The frequency coincidence can lead to greatly enhanced intensity of the Raman scattering, which facilitates the study of chemical compounds present at low concentrations.
Mostafa A. El-Sayed is an Egyptian-American physical chemist, a leading nanoscience researcher, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a US National Medal of Science laureate. He was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Physical Chemistry during a critical period of growth. He is also known for the spectroscopy rule named after him, the El-Sayed rule.
William Esco Moerner is an American physical chemist and chemical physicist with current work in the biophysics and imaging of single molecules. He is credited with achieving the first optical detection and spectroscopy of a single molecule in condensed phases, along with his postdoc, Lothar Kador. Optical study of single molecules has subsequently become a widely used single-molecule experiment in chemistry, physics and biology. In 2014, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
David William Cross MacMillan is a Scottish chemist and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, where he was also the chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2010 to 2015. He shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Benjamin List "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis".
Anna I. Krylov is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California (USC), working in the field of theoretical and computational quantum chemistry. She is the inventor of the spin-flip method. Krylov is the president of Q-Chem, Inc. and an elected member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science and the Academia Europaea.
Physical organic chemistry, a term coined by Louis Hammett in 1940, refers to a discipline of organic chemistry that focuses on the relationship between chemical structures and reactivity, in particular, applying experimental tools of physical chemistry to the study of organic molecules. Specific focal points of study include the rates of organic reactions, the relative chemical stabilities of the starting materials, reactive intermediates, transition states, and products of chemical reactions, and non-covalent aspects of solvation and molecular interactions that influence chemical reactivity. Such studies provide theoretical and practical frameworks to understand how changes in structure in solution or solid-state contexts impact reaction mechanism and rate for each organic reaction of interest.
Richard J. Saykally is an American chemist. He is currently the Class of 1932 Endowed Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He has received numerous awards for his research on the molecular characteristics of water and aqueous solutions.
The Raman microscope is a laser-based microscopic device used to perform Raman spectroscopy. The term MOLE is used to refer to the Raman-based microprobe. The technique used is named after C. V. Raman who discovered the scattering properties in liquids.
Lasse Jensen is a professor of theoretical chemistry at Pennsylvania State University whose works have appeared in such chemistry journals as the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Journal of Chemical Physics and the Chemical Society Reviews among others. He got his bachelor's degree from University of Copenhagen in 1998 and two years later obtained master's from the same place. Four years later he got his Ph.D. from the University of Groningen and till 2007 worked as a postdoc at the Northwestern University along with George C. Schatz. He is well-recognized by many honors and awards for the theoretical investigations of plasmon-enhanced vibrational spectroscopies and the development of a hybrid atomistic electrodynamics-quantum mechanical model. As of 2017 he is author or coauthor of over 100 peer-reviewed articles, generating more than 6400 career citations and an h-index of 45.
Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is a specialist approach to surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in which enhancement of Raman scattering occurs only at the point of a near atomically sharp pin, typically coated with gold.
Heather Cecile Allen is a professor and research chemist, who leads the Allen Group at Ohio State University. Dr. Allen's research focuses on interfacial phenomena, particularly those involving water and air. Her work has broad application ranging from medicine to climate change. She also develops nonlinear optical spectroscopy and microscopy instruments for the examination of interfacial surfaces.
Gereon Niedner-Schatteburg is a German Physicist and Chemist. He is Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Kaiserslautern. Since 2011 he acts as director of the DFG funded transregional collaborative research center SFB/TRR 88 3MET.de.
Center for Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit or CaSTL Center is a National Science Foundation Center for Chemical Innovation.
Scanning Quantum Dot Microscopy
Anne B. McCoy is a theoretical chemist. She is the Natt-Lingafelter Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington, and her research interests include vibrational spectroscopy, hydrogen bonding, and charge-transfer bands.
Christy F. Landes is an American physical chemist who is the Kenneth S. Pitzer-Schlumberger Chair at Rice University. She seeks to understand the structure-function relationships in biological processes. She was appointed a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow in 2019.
