UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1240

Overall Research Project Description An undergraduate project is available for students in chemistry or physics who are interested in the application of advanced magnetic resonance techniques to investigate organic radicals and their dynamics in liquids and mixed-phase materials.
Organic radicals are molecules that carry an unpaired electron and can be probed with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy.
The characterization of stable radical species in liquids via EPR provides valuable information on the molecular structure as well as on the magnetic interactions of radicals with surrounding atoms and molecules. Those properties are crucial to understanding the mechanisms of chemical reactions and to designing new materials and quantum sensors.
Many investigations have been conducted at low frequencies (< 34 GHz) and magnetic fields (< 1.5 T). However, with the unique instruments at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, we will perform EPR in the range of frequencies 120-336 GHz and provide new insight into radicals properties that are currently unknown.
Furthermore, we will use radicals as probes for local interactions in heterogeneous materials, namely materials where solid and liquid phases coexist. To this aim, we are developing a set of magnetic resonance methods (both electron paramagnetic resonance and nuclear magnetic resonance) as well as quantum chemistry tools to investigate the dynamics in the close proximity of the solid-liquid interface.