In an effort to make absorption spectrophotometry available to high school chemistry and physics classes, we have designed an inexpensive visible light absorption spectrophotometer. The spectrophotometer was constructed using LEGO blocks, a light emitting diode, optical elements (including a lens), a slide-mounted diffraction grating, and a photodiode detector. The photodiode detector was mounted on a rotatable arm for wavelength selection based on elementary laws of diffraction. This simple design demonstrates basic physical principles (such as diffraction and absorption of light) that are frequently lost in commercial "black box" instruments. The homemade spectrophotometer's performance, as measured by comparison to a commercial spectrophotometer, was shown to be sufficiently quantitative to facilitate experiments in chemistry or physics classrooms.

Semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) nanoflake thin films are promising large-area electrodes for photo-electrochemical solar energy conversion applications. However, their energy conversion efficiencies are typically much lower than those of bulk electrodes. It is unclear to what extent this efficiency gap stems from differences among nanoflakes (e.g., area, thickness, and surface structural features). It is also unclear whether individual exfoliated nanoflakes can achieve energy conversion efficiencies similar to those of bulk crystals. Here, we use a single-nanoflake photoelectrochemical approach to show that there are both highly active and completely inactive nanoflakes within a film. For the exfoliated MoSe 2 samples studied herein, 7% of nanoflakes are highly active champions, whose photocurrent efficiency exceeds that of the bulk crystal. However, 66% of nanoflakes are inactive spectators, which are mostly responsible for the overall lower photocurrent efficiency compared to the bulk crystal. The photocurrent collection efficiency increases with nanoflake area and decreases more at perimeter edges than at interior step edges. These observations, which are hidden in ensemble-level measurements, reveal the underlying performance issues of exfoliated TMD electrodes for photo-electrochemical energy conversion applications.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) such as MoSe and WSe are efficient materials for converting solar energy to electrical energy in photoelectrochemical photovoltaic cells. One limiting factor of these liquid junction solar cells is that photogenerated oxidation products accumulate on the electrode surface and decrease the photocurrent efficiency. However, it is unclear where the reaction products accumulate on the electrode surface and how they impact the local photoelectrochemical response. This open question is especially important for the structurally heterogeneous TMD nanoflake thin-film electrodes that are promising for large-area solar energy conversion applications. Here, we use a single-nanoflake photoelectrochemical and Raman microscopy approach to probe how the photogenerated I/I products impact the photocurrent collection efficiency and the onset potential in MoSe-nanoflake|I/I|Pt photoelectrochemical solar cells. We observed localized I/I deposition on all types of MoSe nanoflake surface motifs, including basal planes, perimeter edges, and interior step edges. Illuminated nanoflake spots with the highest photocurrent collection efficiency are the first to be limited by I/I formation under high-intensity illumination. Interestingly, I/I formation occurs on illuminated surface spots that have the lowest photocurrent onset potential for iodide oxidation, corresponding to the highest open circuit voltage ( V). The V shifts could be attributed to variations in the surface reaction kinetics or doping density across the nanoflake. Our results highlight important limiting factors of nanoflake thin-film TMD liquid junction photovoltaics under concentrated solar illumination intensities.

A closed-loop feedback system is used to determine the optimal pulse shapes for manipulating the branching ratio of carbon monoxide following ionization by an intense laser pulse. We focus on manipulating the C + +O and C+O + branching ratios of excited states of transient CO + . The feedback control system consists of a high resolution time-of-flight spectrometer coupled via a genetic feedback algorithm to an acousto-optical programmable dispersive filter that is incorporated into the ultrafast laser system. Using the spectrometer resolution to distinguish dissociation pathways and select a specific pathway to drive the algorithm, we are able to demonstrate enhanced control of some fragmentation channels. Principal control analysis indicates that the more specific feedback results in numerically simpler optimal pulse shapes. The combination of a more specific target and reduction in pulse complexity could lead to more straightforward investigations of the control mechanism. Analysis of the pulse shapes in conjunction with measurement of the fragment kinetic energy release distributions obtained from the optimized laser pulses is used to probe the dissociative ionization mechanisms.

The reactions of phenyl radicals with propene have been studied at collision energies of 84 and 108 kJ/mol using the crossed molecular beams technique. The branching ratios between methyl radical elimination forming C8H8 and H-atom elimination forming C9H10 were found to be 10 ± 1:1 at 84 kJ/mol and 3 ± 1:1 at 108 kJ/mol. By using "soft" 9.9 eV vacuum ultraviolet photoionization for product detection, we were able to observe both product channels with negligible fragmentation of C9H10 to C8H8(+). Our finding that CH3 elimination is dominant is consistent with conclusions from a recent study employing a pyrolysis molecular beam reactor using photoionization detection. However, our C8H8/C9H10 branching ratios are significantly larger than inferred from previous CMB experiments and RRKM calculations. For comparison, we have also studied the reactions of phenyl radicals with trans-2-butene at Ecoll = 97 kJ/mol. In this case, the symmetry of trans-2-butene makes both alkene addition sites chemically equivalent. The intermediate formed in the reaction with trans-2-butene is similar to the 2-carbon addition intermediate in the reaction with propene. We observed only methyl elimination in the reaction with trans-2-butene, with no evidence for H-atom elimination, consistent with conclusions that C-C bond fission is the most favorable channel in these systems. Analogies between phenyl radical reactions with propene and trans-2-butene are used to provide insight into the mechanisms in the propene reaction.