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CRF Researchers win 2005 Shirley Award for scientific achievement CRF researchers received the 2005 David A. Shirley award at the Advanced Light Source Users Meeting in October. The Shirley award is given annually for the year's outstanding scientific achievement at the Advanced Light Source. Craig Taatjes and Nils Hansen of the CRF, Terry Cool (Cornell University), Phillip Westmoreland (University of Massachusetts) and the Flame Team were given the 2005 award "for the surprising and far-reaching discovery of enols in flames." The research team detected for the first time a type of organic compound called enols that appear among the hundreds of intermediate chemical species formed when hydrocarbon fuels are burned. Enols are detected by distinguishing between different isomers–molecules with identical composition but different structure. Enols are less-stable isomers of carbonyl (keto) compounds, which are well-known combustion intermediates. The technique used at the Advanced Light Source leverages the different ionization energies possessed by different isomers. To isolate enols, tunable VUV light was used to ionize the molecules emitted by a laminar "flat flame" burner. The photoions were collected and analyzed using time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The results show previously unsuspected enol chemistry in a wide range of combustion systems. This discovery could conceivably have an impact on prevailing models of hydrocarbon oxidation and could someday lead to cleaner-burning fuels, more efficient engines, and enhanced modeling of planetary atmospheres and interstellar chemistry. C.A. Taatjes, N. Hansen, A. McIlroy, J.A. Miller, J.P. Senosiain, S.J. Klippenstein, F. Qi, L. Sheng, Y. Zhang, T.A. Cool, J. Wang, P.R. Westmoreland, M.E. Law, T. Kasper, and K. Kohse-Hoinghaus, "Enols are common intermediates in hydrocarbon oxidation," Science 308, 1887 (2005) |
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