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Dr. Gillies obtained
a B.A. in chemistry at West Chester University and went to the
University of Michigan for graduate study with Professor R.
L. Kuczkowski. He was the recipient of the Fajan's Award presented
biennially for the most outstanding Ph.D. thesis in chemistry.
From 1973 to 1976 he was a postdoctoral fellow with the late
Professor E. B. Wilson at Harvard University. Dr. Gillies has
been a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Standards
and Technology, and he spent a sabbatical leave in 1997 at the
Justnus Liebig Universitūt in Giessen, Germany working in the
area of millimeterwave spectroscopy.
Van der Waals Complexes
Our research involves generating weakly bound complexes in
pulsed supersonic gas pulses and investigating the rotational
spectra of these complexes with a Fourier transform microwave
spectrometer. The spectroscopic analyses provide accurate structures,
data related to the internal dynamics and electrical properties
of the complexes. We have concentrated on studies of van der
Waals complexes composed of species which are important in cycloaddition
reactions. The work includes ozone-ethylene, ketene-ethylene
and fulminic acid-acetylene where it is possible to relate the
experimental geometry of the complex to the reaction potential
surface of the cycloaddition reaction.
Transient Chemical Species
Pulsed beam methods are being developed to study transient
chemical species generated in supersonic expansions using a
Fourier transform microwave spectrometer. The emphasis has been
to utilize the very high spectral resolution and molecular specificity
of this spectroscopic technique combined with the extreme gas
cooling of the pulsed beam to investigate the mechanisms of
simple chemical reactions. A recent example carried out in collaboration
with Professor Gillies at Siena College and Professor Block
at SUNY, Albany involves direct in situ detection of the lachrymator
factor in onion and isotopic studies designed to elucidate the
mechanism of its formation.
J. Z. Gillies, C.
W. Gillies, F. J. Lovas, K. Matsumura, R. D. Suenram, E. Kraka
and D. Cremer, "Van der Waals Complexes of Chemically Reactive
Gases: Ozone-Acetylene" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 113,
6408 (1991).
R. D. Suenram, G.
T. Fraser, F. J. Lovas and C. W. Gillies, "Microwave Spectra
and Electric Dipole Moments of X4-1/2 VO and NbO" J. Mol.
Spectrosc. 148, 114 (1991).
G. T. Fraser, F.
J. Lovas, R. D. Suenram, J. Z. Gillies and C. W. Gillies, "Microwave
and Infrared Spectra of C2H4...HCCH: Barrier to Twofold Internal
Rotation of C2H4" Chemical Physics 163, 91 (1992).
C. W. Gillies, J.
Z. Gillies, F. J. Lovas and R. D. Suenram, "The Rotational Spectrum
and Structure of a Weakly Bound Complex of Ketene and Acetylene"
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115, 9253 (1993).
F. J. Lovas, R. D.
Suenram, C. W. Gillies, J. Z. Gillies, P. W. Fowler, and Z.
Kiesel, "The Microwave Spectrum, Structure and Internal Motions
of Ketene-Ethylene Complex" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 116,
5285 (1994) |
