SILS: Troy Van Voorhis
Electron and Energy Transfer in Molecules and Materials
Taylor Auditorium, Frick Chemistry Lab B02
Host: The Hammes-Schiffer Lab
Speaker Details:
Haslam and Dewey Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Electronic reactions play a key role in understanding a host of physical processes – electron transfer reactions that power electrochemistry, energy transfer reactions that drive photosynthesis and electron spin dynamics that govern magnetism, just to name a few. In this talk, we will discuss how the “reactant” and “product” states for these types reactions can be clearly defined using the electron density as the fundamental variable. In particular, we will highlight the utility of diabatic electronic states in qualitatively and quantitively describing these fascinating systems. We will show how this picture leads to a unified description of electron transfer in photochemistry, energy transfer in molecular devices and singlet fission in solar cells.