Home > Our People > Academic Staff

Associate Professor FAN WAI YIP BSc (London), PhD (Cambridge), Postdoctoral Fellow (UC-Berkeley) Contact Information   Department of Chemistry, NUS 3 Science Drive 3 Singapore 117543 Office: S9-05-11 Tel: (65)-6516-6823 Fax: (65)-6779-1691 Email: chmfanwy@nus.edu.sg

Research Interests

Physical Chemistry : Laser and infrared spectroscopy of chemical processes

(1) Kinetics and Dynamics of atomic Cl and O reactions with gas phase molecules
Haloalkanes, alcohols, alkenes and alkynes and their radical intermediate species are important species found in the atmosphere. Understanding the reaction kinetics of their reactions with Cl and O atoms will lead to further insights into ozone depletion. We plan to monitor their rates of reactions as well as the pathways leading to the final products using laser flash photolysis, FTIR spectroscopic techniques and computational calculations. For dynamical studies, stimulated laser Raman scattering spectroscopy is being developed to deposit vibrational energy into particular bonds of the reactants in order to control some of the branching ratios of the reactions above.

(2) Organometallic catalytic mechanisms
A combined linear and time-resolved FTIR spectroscopy is used to record the spectra of transition metal carbonyls involved in homogeneous catalysis. Spectra of metallocenyl radicals such as CpMo(CO)₂(PR₃) and CpFe(CO)(PR₃) and other short-lived intermediates have been detected. We aim to further record and study the spectroscopy and kinetics of intermediates initiated by air-stable catalytic precursors such as Ru₃(CO)₁₂ and Re(CO)₅Br in hydro-X catalytic reactions of alkynes and alkenes (X = amination, carboxylation, alkoxylation and hydration). In addition, we have also developed radical clocks, both hydride and methyl radical abstraction in order to study the kinetics of metal-carbon and metal-hydride bond dissociation.

(3) Preparation of Nanomaterials using light
We have recently shown that photodissociation of small molecules carrying S and Se atoms can easily transform metal to semiconductor nanoparticles. Spherical core-shell and hollow nanoparticles, nanotubes and nanowires of Ag₂Se, RuO₂ and CuSe could be prepared conveniently by controlling the light or laser irradiation time. The growth mechanism could be monitored using techniques such as IR, TEM, XRD and uv spectroscopy. Currently we are carrying out their direct insitu conversion to semiconductors on surfaces which may facilitate fabrication processes of such materials into useful devices.

Representative Publications

Core-shell and hollow nanocrystal formation via small molecule surface photodissociation; Ag@Ag₂Se as an example, J.Phys.Chem.B, accepted.

FTIR studies of iron carbonyl intermediates in allylic alcohol isomerization, Chem. Eur. J (2006), 12, 5128.

Alumina-template synthesis of fluorescent RuO₂ nanotubes derived from Ru₃(CO)₁₂ cluster, Adv. Mat. (2006) 18, 619.

Self-Organization of Core-shell Palladium Spherical Aggregates induced by Laser and Thermal Decomposition of Pd(PPh₃)₄, Angewandte Chemie (2006) 45, 1120.

FTIR studies of O (3P) atom reactions with CSe₂, SCSe and OCSe, Journal of Physical Chemistry A (2005) 109, 11815.

TR-FTIR absorption spectroscopy of transition metal carbonyl radicals generated by photodissociation of metal-metal bonds, by halogen abstraction or by radical ligand substitution,  J. Organomet. Chem. (2005) 690, 4132.