Professor Hua Guo

Professor Hua Guo

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

University of New Mexico

Abstract

"Sudden Vector Projection Model, Mode Specificity and Bond Selectivity Made Simple"

Dynamics of chemical reactions shed important light on chemical transformation, which might or might not be statistical. Non-statistical dynamics are often observed in gas phase reactions, but also in some gas-surface reactions. An important manifestation is mode specificity, and the associated bond selectivity, which exhibit differing reactivity for excitations in different reactant modes or bonds. More than half a century ago, Polanyi suggested propensities based on the location of the prevailing transition state, but these rules of thumb provide no guidance on the efficacies of different vibrational modes in a polyatomic molecule and on rotational excitation. We have recently proposed the Sudden Vector Projection (SVP) model, which attributes the ability of a reactant mode (or a bond) for promoting the reaction to the projection of the corresponding normal mode onto the reaction coordinate at the transition state. The premise of the SVP model is based on the observation that collisions typically occur so much faster than intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR), so that a large projection signifies strong coupling with and facile energy flow into the reaction coordinate, and vice versa. The SVP model has been successfully applied to a large number of gas phase and gas-surface reactions, as serves as a guide for understanding mode specificity and bond selectivity in reactions.

Hua Guo

Hua Guo is a Distinguished Professor at Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the University of New Mexico. His research interests include dynamics and kinetics of chemical reactions in the gas phase and at gas-solid interfaces, as well as heterogeneous catalysis. He has published more than 600 articles in various journals. Hua Guo received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in China and his D.Phil. degree in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Sussex (U.K.) in 1988 under the supervision of John Murrell, FRS. After a postdoctoral appointment with George Schatz at Northwestern University, he started his independent career at University of Toledo. In 1998, he moved to University of New Mexico and rose through the ranks to become a Distinguished Professor in 2015. He was elected to APS fellow in 2013 and AAAS fellow in 2021. He serves on several editorial boards, including Senior Editor of J. Phys. Chem. A/B/C and Reviewing Editor of Science.