Instruments and Facilities

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Nanosecond Laser Flash Photolysis Apparatus

Laser flash photolysis (LFP) is a technique that allows us to follow reactions that occur within tens of nanoseconds (1 nanosecond = 1 x 10-9 second).  LFP is used to detect and obtain the rates of reaction of highly unstable reactive chemical species known as reactive intermediates.  It is important to understand reactive intermediates because many seemingly simple chemical reactions momentarily form these species before yielding the final products we can store in bottles.  This apparatus as configured can detect reactive intermediates whose lifetimes under normal circumstances are only nansoseconds or mircoseconds.  A 10 nanosecond pulse from a Nd-YAG laser is used to generate the reactive intermediate.  A UV-visible or an emission spectrophotmeter is then used to detect the species.