ICTP Seminar Series in CMSP

[Condensed Matter Section]

ICTP Seminar Series in Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics
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THURSDAY 10 March at 11:30 a.m.
Luigi Stasi Seminar Room, 1st floor, Leonardo Building


Roberto BINI
Chemistry Department of the University of Florence and European Laboratory
for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS)


"Reactivity and dynamics of molecular systems under high-pressure conditions"

_Abstract:_
Abstract:
Pressure is extremely efficient in tuning the interactions in soft
material such as the molecular ones. As a result, important changes of the
structural, dynamical and chemical properties can be induced even in
relatively low pressure regimes. After a general introduction directed to
outline the importance of high pressure in nature and the instruments
necessary to create high pressure conditions in laboratory, the attention
will be focused on two different, although connected, problems: the
chemical transformations of simple model systems under pressure and recent
challenging experiments directed to understand the dynamics of ultrafast
processes driven by pressure. As the reactivity is concerned, the complex
interplay of structural properties, lattice dynamical processes and
electronic arrangement will be discussed through several examples pointing
to the importance of disentangling the effects of pressure, temperature
and laser (or x-ray) radiation on the reaction activation to understand
the reactivity at the molecular level. The second part of part will be
devoted to the application of ultrafast spectroscopic techniques to
samples compressed in high-pressure devices. These experiments are
extremely challenging having so far precluded the studies of ultrafast
dynamics (reaction intermediates, phase changes, structural
rearrangements) driven by pressure. Recent results on the dynamics of
liquid water, water solutions and ices demonstrate the feasibility and
potentiality of this approach in monitoring non equilibrium states under
high pressure conditions.