Travis Fridgen

Our research focus is on the physical chemistry--structure, thermochemistry, and reactivity (fragmentation pathways and uni- and bi-molecular kinetics)--of bare and hydrated metal ion coordinated biological ions, such as amino acids, nucleobases, and carbohydrates, isolated in the gas phase. 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. One of the main and unique experimental method used to probe the structures of these ions is 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.