Shining Light into Mass Spectrometers as a New Tool for Investigating Photochemistry: From Platinum Complexes to Ionic Liquids

The isolation and study of complex molecular systems (e.g. biological molecules) away from their complex condensed-phase environments can provide valuable simplification, allowing the detailed study of intrinsic properties.  Over recent years, my research group has worked on combining trapping mass spectrometers with lasers in order to characterize the spectroscopic properties of complex molecular systems in a highly-controlled gas-phase environment.  My group have developed laser-interfaced mass spectrometers that allow a wide variety of chemical systems to be transferred into the gas-phase using electrospray ionization, unambiguously identified via mass-selection then stored in an ion-trap where they can be interrogated with lasers.  In this talk, I will focus on results using UV laser excitation to study the intrinsic photophysics and photochemistry of systems ranging from bio-inorganic complexes (nucleobase-platinum complexes as models for photodynamic therapy) through to new materials (ionic liquids).

Link to webpage of speaker: https://www.york.ac.uk/chemistry/staff/academic/d-g/cdessent/