Papers by Bridget Gourley
To understand the chemistry of the interfacial region of reverse micelles (RM), we studied RM sys... more To understand the chemistry of the interfacial region of reverse micelles (RM), we studied RM system made with the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), alkanol cosurfactants dissolved in cyclohexane with water core. Spectroscopic methods, specifically UV-Vis absorption of Coumarin 343 (C343) as a probe molecule, were used to determine basic properties of RM systems. However, the probe location was difficult to determine because the spectrum (absorbance), when dissolved in RM solution, didn’t match the spectra in any of the pure components. Our data suggests that the interfacial layer of RM cannot be thought of behaving only the characteristic of single one of the components; rather, it behaves as a mixture of multiple components with unique characteristics. The interfacial layer appears to have roughly three distinct regions. By combining two components at a time, our data shows that C343 is most likely to reside in the middle or outer interfacial regions, whic...
Reverse micelles (RM) are nanopools of water surrounded by surfactant molecules in a non-polar so... more Reverse micelles (RM) are nanopools of water surrounded by surfactant molecules in a non-polar solvent. Our studies investigated properties of RM probe molecules in the interfacial boundary between water and non-polar solvents. Reichardt’s dye, a probe molecule, was used to uncover properties of RM. UV/vis spectroscopy of Reichardt’s dye reveals information about polarity and the dye’s approximate residential location and also helps confirm molecular orbital energy diagram. We discovered an interesting phenomenon with Reichardt’s dye in RM. Surprisingly, the UV/vis spectrum of Reicahrdt’s dye in CTAB RM with octanol as a cosurfactant exhibits decreasing absorbance and a blue shift. Reichardt’s dye in solely octanol shows an irreversible color change and similar UV/vis spectrum. Consequently, we conclude that Reichardt’s dye resides near the interfacial layer/solvent boundary. Other cosurfactants do not result in the time dependent behavior suggesting a more dynamic interaction betwe...
ACS Symposium Series, 2018
ACS Symposium Series, 2018
This research project focuses on the distinctive environments of undergraduate liberal arts insti... more This research project focuses on the distinctive environments of undergraduate liberal arts institutions and the challenges faced by senior women faculty on these campuses to attain leadership roles and professional recognition. The project involves the formation of five-member alliances of senior women faculty members at different institutions for the purpose of horizontal mentoring. Three of the alliances focus on full professors in chemistry, the fourth involves full professors in physics. We have formed these alliances to test a horizontal mentoring strategy that aims to enhance the leadership, visibility, and recognition of participating faculty members. Alliance members participate in discussions, workshops, and activities focused on career and leadership development through periodic gatherings of alliance members at various locations across the country and the use of online collaboration tools to promote electronic communication within each alliance and to network the allianc...
ACS Symposium Series, 2010
Our research project focuses on the distinctive environments of undergraduate liberal arts instit... more Our research project focuses on the distinctive environments of undergraduate liberal arts institutions and the challenges faced by senior women faculty on these campuses to attain leadership roles and professional recognition. The project involves the formation of five-member alliances of senior women faculty members at different institutions for the purpose of -€œhorizontal mentoring.-€ Three of the alliances are comprised of full professors of chemistry, the fourth involves full professors of physics. We have formed these alliances to test a -€œhorizontal mentoring strategy-€ that aims to enhance the leadership, visibility, and recognition of participating faculty members. Alliance members participate in discussions, workshops, and activities focused on career and leadership development through periodic gatherings of alliance members at various locations across the country and through electronic communication via online collaboration tools. The alliances are networked to augment the peer-support structure with a larger cohort of senior women scientists. Outreach activities on home campuses extend the impact of the career development expertise attained by project participants. This NSF-ADVANCE-PAID project is also working to identify and create resources that address career development issues for senior women at liberal arts institutions and disseminate best practices on horizontal mentoring strategies for academic women. We have explored how our institutional structure and culture can profoundly influence the career challenges of academic women and how our mentoring strategy can operate particularly effectively for women from liberal arts colleges
ACS Symposium Series, 2010
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2006
The location and interactions of solutes in microheterogeneous environments, such as reverse mice... more The location and interactions of solutes in microheterogeneous environments, such as reverse micelles, critically influence understanding of many phenomena that utilize probe molecules to characterize properties in chemical, biological, and physical systems. The information gained in such studies depends substantially on the location of the probe used. Often, intuition leads to the assumption that ionic probe molecules reside in the polar water pool of a system. In this work, the location of a charged polar transition metal coordination complex in a reverse micellar system is determined using NMR spectroscopy. Despite the expected Coulomb repulsion between the surfactant headgroups and the negatively charged complex, the complex spends significant time penetrating into the hydrophobic portion of the reverse micellar interface. These results challenge the assumption that ionic probe molecules reside solvated by water in microheterogeneous environments and suggest that probe molecule location be carefully considered before interpreting data from similar systems.
The Journal of Chemical Physics, 1991
Using an IR picosecond pulse train, ultrahigh vibrational excitation in a Morse oscillator is ach... more Using an IR picosecond pulse train, ultrahigh vibrational excitation in a Morse oscillator is achieved. Following a suggestion by Paramonov and Savva, pulse-train parameters can be chosen such that within 100 pulses (about 20 ps) there is significant excitation into the eighth excited vibrational state. We improve on their work by (1) using physically realistic matrix elements and potential parameters; (2) using Floquet theory to more efficiently perform the numerical calculation; (3) discussing the molecular excitation sensitivity to pulse-train parameters: pulse spacing, pulse width, central laser frequency, and peak laser fluence; and (4) showing that the vibrational excitation is a coherent multicolor, multiphoton process.
Journal of Chemical Education, 2010
In this work, two projects under the broad umbrella of laser-molecule interaction studies are pre... more In this work, two projects under the broad umbrella of laser-molecule interaction studies are presented. The first project is a classical analysis followed by a semiclassical quantization of a diatomic molecule irradiated by a continuous wave (cw) infrared (IR) laser. The second project is a theoretical study of a diatomic irradiated by a picosecond IR pulse train. Both projects help elucidate the dynamics of the energy acquisition process. The diatomic coupled to a cw laser study uses a Birkhoff-Gustavson normal form (BGNF) analysis to semiclassically quantize the conservative Hamiltonian for the full system. In transforming the Hamiltonian into second order normal form in order to apply the BGNF algorithm, a novel approach for preserving the nonlinearity of the molecular oscillator is presented. The power series expansion is truncated at fourth order. The classical Chirikov resonance behavior of the system is lost in the transformation. Quantum Rabi oscillations in the molecular a...
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Papers by Bridget Gourley