Richard N. Zare (Stanford)

Title: "Making Molecules Using Water Microdroplets"

Water microdroplets markedly differ from bulk water, as this lecture hopefully will illustrate. As time permits, I will discuss a variety of organic and inorganic molecule syntheses: the conversion of toluene to benzyl radicals; the conversion of toluene to phenylacetic acid; the conversion of benzoic acid to phenol and aniline; the conversion of nitrogen (N₂) to ammonia (NH₃) and urea (NH₂CONH₂); the conversion of methane (CH₄) to methanol (CH₃OH); and other examples. I will claim that water microdroplet chemistry has many exciting possible applications of practical interest provided that we learn how to scale up these reactions. This work is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research through the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program (AFOSR FA9550-21-1-0170).