Travis Fridgen

Our research is focused on the study of the physical chemistry of organic and biological ions. We are interested in determining the detailed structures of ionic clusters such as proton- or metal cation-bound dimers of amino acids and DNA bases. One of the goals is to characterize strong ionic hydrogen bonding which occurs in nature as well as to probe the effects of weaker intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonding interactions on ion structure. By studying solvated clusters we will also be able to more fully understand the effect of solvent, such as water, on the structures of biologically relevant ions. Our main experimental method to probe the structures of these ions is by infrared multiple photon dissociation spectroscopy of trapped ions using a combination of Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Mass Spectrometry (FTICR-MS) and a tunable infrared laser or by cryogenic matrix isolation infrared spectroscopy.

Students in my group will have the opportunity to conduct research using a variety of experimental techniques such as electrospray ionization, matrix isolation, absorption spectroscopy, infrared multiple photon dissociation spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and computational chemistry. Instrumentation that we use include a 4 K cryostat capable of preparing solid neon matrices, a 0.125 cm^-1 resolution infrared spectrometer, a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) spectrometer, a high intensity tuneable infrared laser (OPO), and state of the art computational chemistry techniques.