Laboratoire Collisions Agrégats Réactivité - UMR5589

Reactive species and molecular complexes are ubiquitous in many areas of chemistry, playing a central role in both astrochemistry and atmospheric chemistry. Various experimental techniques have been developed to capture their spectroscopic signatures and to obtain invaluable information about their structures, physico-chemical properties, and the chemical reactions and dynamical processes in which they are involved. Over the past few years, my research has primarily focused on applying the matrix isolation technique, complemented by laser-based methods, to address questions concerning the role of reactive species and molecular complexes in astrochemical and atmospheric environments. In this seminar, I will present examples of our work involving the application of matrix isolation to : (i) photo-induced molecular reactivity in water ices leading to the formation of complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium ; (ii) the photolysis and photoisomerization processes of benzene derivatives isolated in rare-gas and water matrices, relevant to atmospheric chemistry ; and (iii) the characterization of the vibrational signatures and photostability of chlorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Cl-PAHs). Finally, I will also discuss some results on the structures of water complexes of xylene derivatives.