Kinetics

The Chemical Kinetics Program at the CRF comprises a wide range of research activities. Our goal is to understand the chemical processes that control combustion–specifically the microscopic mechanisms involved in individual chemical transformations, the rates at which they proceed, and the products they produce–so that we can learn how flames burn, why engines knock, and how to minimize pollution. We develop new laser-based methods for studying chemical kinetics and apply these methods to the investigation of basic combustion reactions.

We also work with computational chemists within the CRF and outside so that we can use their electronic structure calculations and theoretical characterization of reactive intermediates to guide and interpret our experimental observations. A goal in our program is to investigate and apply new detection methods for precise and accurate kinetics measurements. We emphasize absorption-based techniques, since many radicals critical to combustion are not amenable to fluorescence detection.