Ionization-induced dynamics in water and aqueous solutions uncovered via ultrafast time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy and theoretical modeling

  • MP Department Seminar
  • Date: Nov 8, 2024
  • Time: 09:30 AM - 10:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Dr. Ludger Inhester
  • CFEL-DESY-Theory Division, Center for Free-Electron Laser Science CFEL, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg
  • Location: Building K, Haber-Villa, Faradayweg 8, 14195 Berlin
  • Room: Seminar Room
  • Host: Department of Molecular Physics
  • Contact: hergenhahn@fhi-berlin.mpg.de
Ionization-induced dynamics in water and aqueous solutions uncovered via ultrafast time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy and theoretical modeling
Our understanding of the immediate response of matter to ionization is crucial for many fields.
Experimental developments in ultrafast x-ray spectroscopy and experimental setups with liquid jets provide novel insights into the creation of ions and radicals through ionizing radiation
and how they further interact with a liquid environment.
The species and their evolution are of immediate relevance for corrosion effects, space travel, and medical applications.
To interpret time-resolved ultrafast x-ray spectroscopy experiments, ab-initio modelling of the involved dynamics and the connected evolving spectroscopic features is often imperative.
In my talk, I will report our research on tracking fundamental reaction processes via ultrafast x-ray absorption spectroscopy and ab-initio calculations.
My talk will cover the primary steps in the radiolysis of water, where our techniques resolves the immediate creation of the OH radical and the hydronium cation [1].
Further insights into the solvation process of electrons in liquid water are presented.
Moreover, I will show how our investigations recently uncovered that the primary processes induced by ionization in an aqueous urea solutions is a proton transfer reaction between neighboring urea molecules [3, 4].
I will also address very recent experiments approaching the attosecond regime that are able to investigate collisional ionization cascades in liquid water [5].

[1] Loh, Z.-H., Doumy, G., Arnold, C. et al. Science 367, 179 (2020)
[2] Sopena, A. M., Li, S. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 146, 3262-3269 (2024)
[3] Shakya, Y., Inhester, L. et al. Struct. Dyn. 8, 034102 (2021)
[4] Yin, Z., Chang, Y.-P. et al. Nature 619, 749-754 (2023)
[5] Li, S., Lu L. et al. Science 383, 1118-1122 (2024)
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