Exploring photochemical reactions in complex environments

The outcome of many photochemical reactions are dependent on a multitude of factors, including the surrounding solvent or protein environment. The environment encompassing chromophores in the condensed phase is not inert, and interacts with the system on a several timescales via different mechanisms.

To unravel a deeper understanding of the precise system-bath interactions which alter photochemical reaction dynamics requires molecular level information from studies in the 'wet and noisy' condensed phase environment. These will be probed using ultrafast laser spectroscopies such as 2D electronic and 2D electronic-vibrational spectroscopy which combine broadband spectral resolution with ultrafast (sub-20 fs, where 1 fs = 1 x 10^-15 s) time resolution. Alongside these multidimensional techniques, complimentary transient absorption and time-correlated single photon counting measurements will also be made. This arsenal of experimental techniques will be used to investigate an array of different molecules important to biosensing or photomorphogenesis in plants will be studied.

The project falls within the Gas and Solution Phase Reaction Dynamics and Biophysics EPSRC research areas, and is aligned to the Physics of Life Grand Challenge.