Warwick researcher awarded prestigious ERC Starting Grant to explore how we might control chemical reactions with mirrors
The €2 million project, led by Dr. Adam Wright at the University of Warwick, is set to investigate one of chemistry's strangest recent discoveries: that reactions can behave differently simply when taking place between two mirrors.
Over the past decade, researchers around the world have reported that placing molecules inside an ‘optical cavity’ (a chamber formed by two closely spaced mirrors) can shift the outcome of a chemical reaction, favouring some products over others, or altering the reaction rate. The effect arises when light confined in the cavity merges with molecular vibrations to form hybrid quantum states known as ‘polaritons’, part light, part matter.
Dr. Adam Wright, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics, University of Warwick said: “The prospect of controlling reactions at the level of chemical bond, with just mirrors, is certainly tantalising. However, there is still no theory that can explain the mechanism by which polariton chemistry works. Results obtained from reactions taking place in solution have proven very challenging to model due to the complexities associated with solvents.”
The new ERC-funded POLCHEMGAS project will sidestep that problem by studying polariton chemistry in the gas phase for the first time.
Dr Wright continued: “This project will build on work I carried out as a postdoc at Princeton University, where I made gas-phase molecular polaritons for the first time. I’m really excited to contribute to the field of polariton chemistry again!”
The team will use a specialised cooling chamber, housing the mirror cavity, to prepare gas-phase molecular polaritons under carefully controlled conditions. This will allow the results to be compared directly with theoretical predictions. The formation of polaritons will be confirmed by shining light through the cavity and measuring how it changes, while a fast light-detection technique will track how each reaction unfolds in real time.
The project aims to deliver the clearest test yet of how and why optical cavities alter chemistry, providing a foundation for using confined light as a practical, predictable tool for controlling chemical reactivity.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
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