Dlott and Wieckowski Develop New Powerful Laser Spectrometer

Dlott and Wieckowski have developed a powerful laser spectrometer that uses nonlinear coherent vibrational spectroscopy (sum-frequency generation) to probe molecules in real time at electrochemical interfaces in a thin cell (TLE) configuration with a 25 µm gap. Using this new research technology graduate student Rachel Behrens and von Humboldt postdoctoral research associate Bjoern Braunschweig have observed the scan-rate dependent presence of reactive intermediates on a platinum electrode in a spectroelectrochemical cell using ethanol or formic acid fuels.