Seminar Series - Yunjie Xu

Deciphering Complex Chiral Phenomena Across Diverse Environments:

Multiple Chiral Spectroscopic Approaches

Yunjie Xu

Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2G2

Extracting and interpreting spectroscopic signatures obtained in complex environments can be highly challenging, especially when dealing with chiral phenomena, where misinterpretation is more prone to occur. To overcome this difficulty, we employ multiple chiral spectroscopic techniques in conjunction with theoretical modelling. By developing and applying new spectroscopic tools, we characterize chirality-related properties of systems across different size regimes, ranging from small chiral molecules to atomically precise metal clusters and nanoparticles, under varying conditions−from the gas phase to cold rare gas matrices, solution environments, and liquid-liquid interfaces. In this presentation, I will begin with our recent high resolution spectroscopic characterization of chiral-self recognition within binary molecular clusters formed in a jet expansion. I will then discuss our journey of discovering a new form of chiral Raman spectroscopy for systems under resonance. Building on this discovery, we unraveled multiple contributions to the observed chiral spectral features at the luminesce bands of europium complexes using a Raman optical activity instrument. We aim to extract new physical insights by emphasizing the underlying connection among these chiral events in different size regimes.