			15min:

PROBING SEMIMETAL ATOM CHEMISTRY IN HELIUM NANODROPLETS WITH IR SPECTROSCOPY.

C. MICHAEL LINDSAY AND ROGER E. MILLER, Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599.

A high-temperature oven has been developed to thermally evaporate germanium and silicon atoms and to dope them into helium droplets. After the subsequent pick-up of a molecule such as HCN, HCCCN, or H₂O, a barrierless association reaction occurs, usually resulting in the insertion of the semimetal atom into one of the bonds of the reactant molecule. After reaction, the products are characterized by high-resolution infrared beam depletion spectroscopy which can be used in conjunction with ab initio calculations to determine the structure of the products.