The Structure and Properties of Weakly Bound Clusters
| dc.contributor.author | Zhou, Ce | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-10-07T20:40:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-10-07T20:40:02Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-10-07 | |
| dc.date.submitted | 2020-09-29 | |
| dc.description.abstract | In this thesis, two novel methods are introduced to advance the study of gas phase clusters. The structure similarity method is a computational technique that is able to quantify the structure difference for a pair of isomers, with a structure interpolation technique capable of finding intermediates in-between the isomer pair. A new experimental method, which couples differential mobility spectrometry with ultraviolet photodissociation spectroscopy (DMS-UVPD), is also developed and tested. Three test cases are discussed herein. These test cases showcase new theoretical techniques for mapping and visualizing potential energy surface (PES) and finding transition state (TS) structures, as well as experimental techniques of measuring UVPD spectra of DMS-MS isolated ion populations. Introduce of structure similarity, a technique developed for unsupervised machine learning (ML), enables effective domain of mapping PESs, which may subsequently be used to interpret experimental observations for systems of high geometric complexity. The experimental DMS-UVPD technique is shown capable of isolating ion species such that UVPD spectra may be recorded for characterization of analytes of interest. For the test cases described herein, these new methods provide meaningful (sometimes anti-intuitive) directions for future work. For the structure similarity method, its PES mapping capability is tested in Chapter 3 with a collection of protonated serine dimer cations, [Ser2 + H]+ to rationalize its infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) spectrum. Eventually, the spectral carrier is assigned to a non-global minimum (GM) isomer based on the partitioning information of the PES and spectral similarity. In Chapter 4, the accompanying structural interpolation method is employed to find TSs that can rationalize a regioselective alkylation reaction between a barbituric acid derivative and an alkyl-tricarbastannatrane complex. By combining the interpolation method together with chemical intuition, a total of 3 reaction channels are found, and the regioselectivity of the alkylation is identified as a kinetic effect. In Chapter 5, an acylhydrazone (AY) derivative, a photoswitch candidate, is examined using the DMS-UVPD technique. Experimentally, the protonated [AY + H]+ cation is injected into the instrument for DMS separation and laser interrogation, while theoretically, a number of neutral and protonated isomers are sampled. Eventually, separation of the ion population is observed and attributed to some ion-solvent cluster. Four isomers are found from theoretical calculation that may account for the UVPD spectra | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10012/16428 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.pending | false | |
| dc.publisher | University of Waterloo | en |
| dc.subject | serine dimer | en |
| dc.subject | tricarbastannatrane | en |
| dc.subject | acylhydrazone | en |
| dc.subject | DMS-UVPD | en |
| dc.subject | structure similarity | en |
| dc.subject | dissimilarity function | en |
| dc.subject | structure interpolation | en |
| dc.subject | tricarbastannatrane alkylation | en |
| dc.subject | gas phase clusters | en |
| dc.title | The Structure and Properties of Weakly Bound Clusters | en |
| dc.type | Doctoral Thesis | en |
| uws-etd.degree | Doctor of Philosophy | en |
| uws-etd.degree.department | Chemistry | en |
| uws-etd.degree.discipline | Chemistry | en |
| uws-etd.degree.grantor | University of Waterloo | en |
| uws.contributor.advisor | Hopkins, W. Scott | |
| uws.contributor.affiliation1 | Faculty of Science | en |
| uws.peerReviewStatus | Unreviewed | en |
| uws.published.city | Waterloo | en |
| uws.published.country | Canada | en |
| uws.published.province | Ontario | en |
| uws.scholarLevel | Graduate | en |
| uws.typeOfResource | Text | en |