Research in our lab involves the development of IRMPD FT-MS and uv-vis spectroscopic techniques and their application to problems in aqueous geochemistry and prebiotic chemistry in particular.
At the heart of our research program are two interconnected laboratories: a UHV IRMPD FT-mass spectrometer and a high-pressure/high-temperature uv-vis spectroscopic facility. Central to the latter is a set of custom-built high-PT Au-lined spectroscopic cells designed to probe the speciation, stability, and reactivity of a broad range of aqueous organic and inorganic species under extreme prebiotic and geochemical conditions. These cells utilize single-crystal sapphire viewports and fiber-optic probes, enabling in-situ monitoring of aqueous systems up to 450°C and 200MPa. This system also includes a novel fiber-cavity ring-down spectroscopy (FLRDS) setup that uses broadband fiber-loop optical cavities operating in the 350-1100 nm range. This approach significantly improves detection limits for absorption measurements of biomolecules at extreme PT conditions.
Complementing this facility, we also employ a custom-modified 7-Tesla Bruker FT-ICR mass spectrometer equipped with a Nd:YAG-pumped OPO/OPA tunable IRMPD laser system covering the 1600-3900 cm⁻¹ range. This setup enables the isolation and probing of gas-phase metal complexes, solvated ion clusters, and molecular clusters under UHV conditions. We employ this system to examine the speciation and structure of molecular complexes and clusters in low-density vapor-phase environments. These experiments are complemented by DFT and ab initio calculations to better understand the structures and properties of these molecular species.