EMSL: Monthly Report - December 2006/January 2007

EMSL Monthly Report: April/May 2007

Awards & Recognition

EMSL User Selected to Serve on the Editorial Board for Laser Chemistry. WP Hess of PNNL's Fundamental Science Directorate has been selected to serve on the editorial board of the publication Laser Chemistry. With his peers on the board, including experts from universities, research foundations, and government councils, Hess will be involved in decisions regarding accepting or rejecting scientific articles submitted for publication in the journal. Laser Chemistry is an international journal that focuses on fundamental studies and applications within the field of laser chemical physics and spectroscopy. Hess was selected to serve on the editorial board because of his experience in laser-induced reactions in solids and at surfaces, including his ongoing studies in laser desorption from wide-band gap materials, metal oxides, and semiconductors.

EMSL User Featured in Battelle World. A Zelenyuk of PNNL's Fundamental Science Directorate was featured in the May 7, 2007, issue of Battelle World. While conducting research at EMSL, Zelenyuk co-invented SPLAT II, which is a second-generation single particle laser ablation time-of-flight mass spectrometer. SPLAT II is a unique, portable instrument that enables scientists to study nanoparticles in both the laboratory and the field. The instrument's particle measurement capabilities provide extremely high sensitivity with unprecedented precision. Combined with a differential mobility analyzer, SPLAT II offers unparalleled details of particles, in real time, by simultaneously measuring shape, size, density, hygroscopicity, fractal dimension, and composition of each individual particle, down to 50 nanometers in diameter. SPLAT analysis can be applied in a wide range of areas including air pollution, climate, human health, bioterrorism, and emerging nanotechnologies.

EMSL Users Featured in Chemical & Engineering News. EMSL users A Boldyrev and L-S Wang were featured in the May 7, 2007, issue of Chemical & Engineering News. Their computational studies and gas-phase photoelectron spectroscopy experiments confirmed the existence of delocalized bonding involving the d atomic orbitals of transition metals. Research on the planar Ta3O3- cluster provides the first experimental evidence of a d-aromatic molecule and suggests that d aromaticity exists in other planar transition-metal complexes.

Professional/Community Service

On April 27, EMSL Director AA Campbell and PNNL user JE Amonette hosted Dr. T Machonkin and several of his undergraduate chemistry students from Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington. Campbell gave a tour of EMSL and Amonette assisted the students in collecting X-band electron paramagnetic resonance data for a series of transition metal samples in various solvents.

On May 22, laboratory professor J Hylden and students A Guerara, J Benegas, and C Neilsen from Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington, toured the EMSL High-Field Magnetic Resonance Facility and ran experiments.

On May 23, EMSL staff member DR Sisk from the EMSL Instrument and Development Laboratory participated in a sumo robot competition at Southridge High School in Kennewick, Washington. The competition was sponsored by Southridge teacher J Hendrick's Engineering Technology Academy in which students learn fundamental engineering through a variety of tasks such as constructing autonomous robots. The annual competition promotes science and engineering education and pits students against technical professionals while providing a fun environment to motivate students to pursue technical fields.