Regents Professor Franklin Professor Biography Michael A. Duncan was born in Greenville, SC, and attended Furman University. He received his Ph.D. (1982) at Rice University with Prof. Richard Smalley. He held an NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (Boulder, CO) with Prof. Stephen Leone. He joined the University of Georgia faculty in 1983, and is now Franklin Professor and Regents' Professor. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society. He was Senior Editor for the Journal of Physical Chemistry for the period of 1998-2015, and Chair of the Physical Division of the American Chemical Society in 2019. Education Education: B.S. Chemistry, Furman University, 1976. Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, Rice University, 1982. Research Research Areas: Physical Chemistry Computational/Theoretical Chemistry Inorganic Chemistry Research Interests: Our research program uses lasers, electrical discharges and pulsed supersonic molecular beams to produce a variety of unusual molecules, ions, metal complexes and atomic or molecular clusters. The extreme conditions of the "synthesis" processes employed make it possible to produce strange molecular aggregates including metal atom nanoclusters, novel organometallic complexes (metal benzene sandwiches, metal-fullerenes), metal ions "solvated" by 1-30 water molecules, proton-bound dimers, carbon clusters, or carbocations. These systems test fundamental concepts of chemical bonding and provide models for metal-metal or metal-ligand bonding, metal ion solvation and metal-adsorbate interactions, and additionally provide specific examples of proton-transfer or organic reaction intermediates as well as interstellar molecules. The ions or clusters produced are detected and size-selected with a specially-designed time-of-flight mass spectrometer and studied with UV-visible or infrared laser spectroscopy. Computational chemistry methods are employed to complement the experimental work. The combined spectroscopy measurements and computational work provides definitive answers about molecular structure, electronic structure, bonding energetics and the reactivity of these systems. Selected Publications Selected Publications: I. J. Webster, J. H. Marks, M. A. Duncan, "Laser Desorption Mass Spectrometry of Rubrene and Photodissociation of Its Cation," Int. J. Mass Spectrom. 503, 117280 (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.ijms.2024.117280. J. E. Colley, N. J. Dynak, J. R. C. Blais, M. A. Duncan, "Photodissociation Spectroscopy and Photofragment Imaging to Probe the Dissociation Energy of the Fe+(Acetylene) Complex," J. Phys. Chem. A 127, 1244‒1251 (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.2c08456. J. E. Colley, N. J. Dynak, J. R. C. Blais, M. A. Duncan, "Photodissociation Spectroscopy and Photofragment Imaging to Probe the Dissociation Energies of the Fe+(Benzene)1,2 Complexes," J. Phys. Chem. A 127, 2795‒2804 (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c00735. Erratum: J. Phys. Chem. A 128, 5224−5224 (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.4c03633. J. E. Colley, D. S. Orr, M. A. Duncan, "Charge-Transfer Spectroscopy of Ag+(Benzene) and Ag+(Toluene)," J. Phys. Chem. A 127, 4822–4831 (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c01790. A. G. Batchelor, J. H. Marks, T. B. Ward, M. A. Duncan, "Pt+(C2H2)n Complexes Studied with Infrared Photodissociation Spectroscopy," J. Phys. Chem. A 127, 5704−5712 (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c02734. A. D. Brathwaite, J. H. Marks, I. J. Webster, A. G. Batchelor, T. B. Ward, M. A. Duncan, "Coordination and Spin States in Fe+(C2H2)n Complexes Studied with Infrared Spectroscopy," J. Phys. Chem. A 126, 9680‒9690 (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.2c07556. B. M. Rittgers, J. H. Marks, D. J. Kellar, M. A. Duncan, "Photoinduced Charge Transfer in the Zn-Methanol Cation Studied with Selected-Ion Photofragment Imaging," J. Chem. Phys. 157, 114302 (2022). DOI: 10.1063/5.0108467. J. E. Colley, D. S. Orr, M. A. Duncan, "Electronic Transition of l-C6+ at 417 nm," J. Chem. Phys. 157, 121102 (2022). DOI: 10.1063/5.0106183. N. J. Dynak, B. M. Rittgers, J. E. Colley, D. J. Kellar, M. A. Duncan, "Photofragment Imaging of Carbon Cluster Cations: Explosive Ring Rupture," J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 13, 4786−4793 (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c00950. A. B. McCoy, M. A. Duncan, "Spectral Signatures of Anharmonicity in the Vibrational Spectrum of Protonated Ethylene," J. Molec. Spec. 389, 111704 (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jms.2022.111704. J. H. Marks, E. Miliordos, M. A. Duncan, "Infrared Spectroscopy of RG-Co+(H2O) Complexes (RG = Ar, Ne, He): The Role of Rare Gas "Tag" Atoms," J. Chem. Phys. 154, 064306 (2021). DOI: 10.1063/5.0041069. J. H. Marks, B. M. Rittgers, M. J. van Stipdonk, M. A. Duncan, "Photodissociation and Infrared Spectroscopy of Uranium-Nitrogen Cation Complexes," J. Phys. Chem. A 125, 7278−7288 (2021). (Dan Neumark Festschrift). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.1c05823. J. P. Wagner, D. C. McDonald, P. R. Franke, M. A. Duncan, "Infrared Spectroscopy of the Protonated HCl Dimer and Trimer," J. Chem. Phys. 155, 134302 (2021). DOI: 10.1063/5.0065477. I. J. Webster, J. L. Beckham, N. D. Johnson, M. A. Duncan, "Photochemical Synthesis and Spectroscopy of Covalent PAH Dimers," J. Phys. Chem. A 126, 1144-1157 (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.1c10606. J. H. Marks, A. G. Batchelor, J. R. C. Blais, M. A. Duncan, "Cationic Complexes of Uranium and Thorium with Cyclooctatetraene: Photochemistry and Decomposition Products. J. Phys. Chem. A 126, 4230−4240 (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.2c03035. Of note: Fellow of the American Physical Society Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow of the American Chemical Society Courses Regularly Taught: CHEM 3211 CHEM 8960 CHEM 8940
