Public Lecture: Searching for Trolls under the Electron Bridge presented by Elizabeth Ryland

Plants draw energy for all their chemical reactions from sunlight. Why can't we? In theory, this can be done by building a molecular bridge: Attach a molecule that absorbs light and gives the energy to electrons to a molecule that accepts the electrons and uses them to catalyze the desired chemical reaction. With this strategy, we can design complexes that, for example, use sunlight to convert water to hydrogen fuel. Electrons cross the molecular bridge at high speed under the subtle influence of quantum mechanics. Often, they do not make it all the way across because they’ve been captured, stuck, or reflected back (or maybe eaten by bridge trolls). To counter this, we must investigate the details of the electrons' rapid dash across the bridge. In this lecture, I will explain how we are using SLAC's new experimental capabilities, such as ultrafast X-ray pulses, to design bridges that smoothly transport electrons and drive chemical reactions important to society.

About the speaker:

Elizabeth Ryland is a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford PULSE Institute, where she uses SLAC's X-ray free-electron laser to study important chemical reactions relevant to solar energy and catalysis. She received her bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech University and did her doctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she built a table-top version of an X-ray laser. She then worked at the Naval Research Lab before joining SLAC in 2021. Ryland has since performed X-ray experiments at research facilities across the globe to understand better how molecules turn sunlight into energy.

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