International mobility of HIPC´s Researchers

Project Name: Electron collisions with liquid phase systems

Poskytovatel dotace: Czech Republic – Ministery of Education Youth and Sports as the managing authority of Operational Programme Research, Developemnt and Education

The grant was awarded on the basis of a request for support on September 11th 2019 under the call 02_19_074 International Mobility of Researchers – MSCA-IF III (MEYS, OP RDE)

Operational Programme: Operational Progamme Research, Development and Education

Prioriry Axis: PO2 – Development of universities and human resources for research and development

Project Registration Number: CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/19_074/0013471

Total Project Costs:: 3 209 616,00 Kč

ESF Co-financing Rate:: 75,9

Project Duration: 1.10.2019 – 30.9.2021 (24 months)

Anotation

This project concerns the interaction of low-energy (from 0 to few 100s eV) electron beam with liquid water and with molecules solvated in liquid environment. The approach of combining a controlled incident electron beam with liquid targets and compatible with high vacuum will be used. These will be (i) microdroplets originating from the aerodynamic lens system and (ii) continuous surface in the form of the liquid microjet. The probed energy range will cover the vibrational excitation of the liquid systems, valence electronic excitation and ionization, and even the inner-shell excitation processes.

The project will be primarily carried out at the host institution but will have an extensively collaborative nature. An important part is the secondment at Synchrotron Soleil, France, where the complementary experiments with relatively higher electron energies and soft x-ray radiation will be performed

Main Objective

The primary motivation for this project comes from the efforts to understand the elementary processes behind the high-energy radiation damage. It is well established that this is to a large degree caused by the secondary low-energy electrons produced in the medium, which efficiently break molecular bonds, e.g., via the dissociative electron attachment. An enormous amount of experiments has been performed in the last 15 years with biological molecules in the gas phase or deposited on surfaces. There is almost complete lack of knowledge on the electron-induced processes in molecules in aqueous solution, a natural biological phase of matter. The proposed project aims to fill this gap.

This project is co-financed by the European Union.