Researchers in the Kudisch Lab utilize ultrafast spectroscopy as a central tool to uncover the physical chemistry that underlies modern progress in synthetic photochemistry. The following three research thrusts span the spectroscopic study of novel photoreagents used in photoredox catalysis, polymer recycling, and more. To us, widespread application of these new photonic toolbox reactions is implicitly intertwined with their mechanistic understanding, thus necessitating a detailed knowledge of these photoreagent excited-states.
Research Thrusts
Radical Excited States
Radical excited states would pack a powerful redox punch on paper, but their lifetimes are on the order of picoseconds! What are the vibronic underpinnings of this phenomenon?
LMCT-initiated photoreactions
Ligand-to-metal charge transfer transitions can generate reactive ligand radicals in a flash—so what factors limit their photoreactivity in real systems?
Developing new Spectroscopic methods and tools
Even modern ultrafast spectroscopies can’t watch a chemical reaction in the same way we draw an elementary step on paper—can we develop a way to turn the invisible, visible?