We are pioneering the development of experimental techniques and semi-empirical theoretical techniques for obtaining such data. In addition to combustion, these studies are important to technological fields, such as manufacturing of petrochemicals, optical fibers, carbon black, as well as to metal refining, plasma processing, chemical vapor deposition and modeling of the atmosphere. The work includes design and construction of chemical reactors, experimentation, and development of reaction system models. These thermostatted reactors are constructed of ceramic and metal parts to allow operation in the 300 to 1800 K temperature regime. Students involved with these projects gain experience with light sources, such as lasers, flash lamps, and electrical discharge lamps, combined with electro-optical detection techniques, to determine the time history of reactants.
Mass spectrometry is used for larger reactants and product identification.
The theoretical work is based on quantum mechanics and uses standard computational chemistry packages. Obtaining a better understanding of the temperature and pressure dependence of reaction rate coefficients is a major goal of this work.