This dissertation combines work in the areas of experimental physical chemistry and chemical education. In the area of physical chemistry, femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy is used to interrogate the time-dependence for energy redistribution, solvent reorientation, and dissociation dynamics in small gas-phase anion clusters. The chemical education research addressed in this manuscript include the development and validation of a survey to measure students\textquoteright beliefs about chemistry and the learning of chemistry and the development and testing of learning tutorials for use in undergraduate physical chemistry courses in thermodynamics and kinetics.
In the first part of this dissertation, the Cu(CD3OD) dynamics are investigated using a combination of femtosecond pump-probe experiments and ab initio calculations. Dissociation of this complex into Cu and CD3OD occurs on two distinct time scales: 3 and 30 ps, which arise, respectively, from the coupling of intermolecular solvent rotations and excited methyl rotor rotation into the Cu\textendashO dissociation component upon electron photodetachment of the precursor anion.
}, year = {2007}, publisher = {University of Colorado Boulder}, address = {Boulder}, }