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Refueling the Future — with Carbon Dioxide

Orientation of solvent molecules around a negatively charged gold-carbon dioxide

Graduate student Ben Knurr and Fellow Mathias Weber have added new insight into a catalytic reaction based on a single gold atom with an extra electron that transfers this electron into carbon dioxide molecules (CO2). This reaction could be an important first step future industrial processes converting waste CO2 back into chemical fuels. Read more »

J. Mathias Weber

J. Mathias Weber

Mathias Weber has known he would become a scientist ever since he was five or six years old and living in Pirmasens, Germany. As a child, he read as much about science as he could. His specific interest in the field of chemistry began when he was about 13 years old. He had convinced his parents to let him set up a chemistry lab in one room in the family home.  Read more »

Quantum Mechanics of Chemistry

David Nesbitt's lab Credit: Jeff Fal
Potential energy surface showing the transfer of a hydrogen atom from a chlorine
Hot (840 K) carbon dioxide molecules splash off the warm surface of a carbon- an
Hot (840 K) carbon dioxide molecules splash off the warm surface of a carbon- an

JILA scientists David Nesbitt and J. Mathias Weber investigate the makeup and inner workings of quantum dots, ions, and molecules. The scientists draw upon techniques from chemistry and physics to elucidate the role of quantum mechanics in the structure, dynamics, and energy flow through model chemical systems. Read more »

Good Vibrations

Cover of the April 1, 2010, issue of J. Phys. Chem. A. Credit: J. Phys. Chem. A.
Artist’s rendition of a process in which one end of a negative ion is heated wit

Mathias Weber and his team recently did the following experiment: They excited the methyl group (CH3) on one end of nitromethane anion (CH3NO2-) with an infrared (IR) laser. The laser got the methyl group vibrating with enough energy to get the nitro group (NO2) at the other end of the molecule wagging hard enough to spit out its extra electron. The figure here, which appeared on the April 1, 2010, cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, shows an artist’s conception of the process from start to finish. The figure includes two photoelectron spectroscopic images that clearly distinguish between the loss of the extra electron due to nitro-group vibrations versus an ordinary chemical reaction. Read more »

A Light Changing Experience

Exposure to UV light causes skin cancer by damaging DNA. Here, a UV photon is ab

The Weber group wants to understand how the individual building blocks of DNA interact with ultraviolet (UV) light. Such knowledge would be an important step toward gaining a detailed understanding of the molecular processes responsible for the UV-induced DNA damage that results in mutations and can lead to cancer or cell death. Read more »

One Ring to Rule Them All

Illustration of the charge distribution around (top) benzene (C6H6), (middle) pe

Benzene has a special ring structure that allows some of its electrons to be shared among all six carbon atoms in the ring. It turns out that chemists like Fellow J. Mathias Weber can adjust the charge density in the ring by exchanging hydrogen (H) atoms in the ring with other atoms or groups of atoms. Such exchanges can change the charge pattern in the ring "seen" by neighboring molecules. Read more »