THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY GROUP

ORGANOSILICON COMPOUNDS IN SOL-GEL PROCESSES

Organosilicon compounds are involved in sol-gel processes for manufacturing ceramics, glasses, monodispersing powders, films, catalyst, etc, processes that are monitoring using IR and Raman techniques, among others. Furthermore, some of them have pharmaceutical applications. Our work on this family of compounds is focused on the molecular and electronic structure and vibrational spectra of single molecules and hydrogen bonded networks (intermediates in sol-gel processes), reactions energetics, the influence of solvents...

MOLECULAR SYSTEMS OF BIOLOGICAL INTEREST

In general, biological molecules  are chiral . Together with IR and Raman techniques, Vibrational Circular Dichroism (VCD) is an powerful one  in order to elucidate the molecular structure of this kind of molecules: Presence of enantiomers, different conformers, hydrogen bonds,... To get an IR, Raman / VCD relationship as complete as possible, from experimental and quantum mechanical points of view, is our task. We have begun studying terpenoids (due to its spectral features, they are good compounds to carry out the relationship structure / IR, Raman, VCD spectra)  and carbohydrates.

OTHERS

Along with our main research lines, we are analysing archaeological samples using MicroRaman Spectroscopy, in collaboration with the Andalousian Iberian Archaeology Institute at the University of Jaén.

By other hand, different works are made in collaboration with other research group inside and outside the University of Jaén.

FACILITIES

All our experimental work is made with a FT-IR Bruker Vector 22 spectrophotometer (our laboratory), a FT-Raman Bruker RF 100/S  spectrometer, a Jasco FT-VCD FVS-4000 spectrometer equipped with MCT and InSb detectors, and a Renishaw Confocal Raman Microscopy spectrometer (Research Central Service at the Universiyt of Jaén).

Our theoretical work is made with a PC with a processor AMD 64 bits, a Fujistsu-Siemens Celsius-V810 workstation with two AMD Opteron processors and 8 GB RAM memory, and a workstation with four AMD Opteron processors and 16 GB RAM memory (our laboratory) and the Central Server at the University of Jaén.