Kinetics & Mechanisms Facility

Overview

Knowledge and understanding of the elementary steps in a chemical reaction are of critical importance in all areas of chemistry, including free radical chemistry. The Centre's new kinetics and mechanisms facility will provide unrivalled capabilities for studying the kinetics of radical reactions through:

• expertise in computational chemistry, spectrometry, and free radical kinetics, analysis and synthesis, and
• dedicated infrastructure, such as Laser-Flash Photolysis instrumentation, gel permeation chromatography, and impressive supercomputer infrastructure through the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC), facilities at the University of Sydney and the Victorian Life Sciences Peak Supercomputer Initiative.

It is through a deeper understanding of the kinetics of important chemical reactions that innovative technologies and new solutions to problems such as pollution and disease will arise.

Research projects

The Kinetics and Mechanisms Facility aims to provide the expertise and infrastructure to determine the kinetic and mechanistic properties of a reaction experimentally and to estimate the kinetics of a reaction through computational methods. This cutting edge facility allows previously elusive details of radical reactions to be analysed.

Examples of the current research being conducted under this theme are:

• Understanding and enhancing radical reactions used in the preparation of complex polymers with unique properties; and
• Understanding and combating radical reactions from atmospheric pollutants that cause irreversible damage to biological and man-made molecules.