Wesley Transue, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh

The Hunt for Phi Interactions: Magneto-Optical Insight into f Orbital Splittings

Abstract

Everything around us is held together by chemical bonds, the links that join atoms into molecules. Chemists have long known that these bonds come in a small family of types that are characterized by patterns of increasing complexity. Each type (σ, π, δ) has been experimentally detected except the last: a “phi” (φ) bond. This φ bond is so intricate that it can only be built from a special, many-lobed kind of electron cloud, an “f orbital,” found only in a handful of the heaviest elements on the periodic table. Whether it truly exists at all remains one of the most basic unanswered questions in chemistry, and our laboratory has developed a way to detect it. Using specialized “magneto-optical” techniques, which measure how a material absorbs light while held in a powerful magnetic field at extreme cold, we will study uranium compounds, among the only materials capable of forming this elusive bond, and make the first direct measurement of a φ bond. Beyond completing a fundamental picture of how atoms connect, a clearer understanding of how these heavy elements bond has real-world reach: it underpins efforts to safely separate and dispose of radioactive waste and to design the exotic materials that may power future quantum computers. The project also trains the next generation of chemists in a rare combination of laboratory skills that spans chemistry and physics. 

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