Ultrafast Dynamics of the Formation of Organic Radicals at Organometallic Interfaces

Fossil fuels have been the major energy resource during the last century, and they will likely remain an important energy mean for the next few decades. Nanotechnology has already made its way into this industry in many ways. For instance, silica-based nanoparticles (NPs) are good candidates for enhanced oil recovery, and metal nanoparticles (MNPs) possessing localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) are employed particularly, for advanced imaging techniques during oil reservoir exploration, and for crude oil characterization. Despite these technical advances, the petroleum industry still suffer obstacles, such as metal corrosion, at the stages of reservoir exploration, well drilling, and transportation. To overcome this challenge, anionic surfactants and amino acids have been used as corrosion inhibitors. Here, we propose to study the ultrafast dynamics of electron and energy transfers at the aluminum (Al)/organic interface. In particular, we will investigate the photogeneration process of organic radical anions and cations resulting from charge transfer between MNPs and organic molecular adsorbates. Furthermore, because liquid and gas hydrocarbons are extracted from kerogens upon heating in shale fracking industry, we will investigate the process of energy transfer from MNPs to organic compounds. If these objectives are achieved, they will stimulate and increase the basic knowledge of fundamental aspects of interfacial charge and energy transfers between MNPs and organic molecules and hence, improve the use of MNPs in shale fracking and metal corrosion inhibition.