Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Hyperthermal H2 Induced C–H Bond Cleavage: A Novel Approach To Cross-Linking Of Organic Molecules, Tomas Trebicky

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The development of simple and effective methods of incorporating molecular moieties with desirable properties into new functional materials is one of the ultimate goals of material scientists. The work presented in this thesis demonstrates an easy way to accomplish this using a beam of gaseous H₂, which we call hyperthermal hydrogen induced cross-linking (HHIC). We prove theoretically and experimentally that when the kinetic energy of H₂ is raised to ~20 eV, it becomes a light-mass projectile which is energetic enough to knock hydrogen atoms off of organic molecules, but not other heavier atoms. By developing a reactor …