The rate of reaction of many molecules depends on their specific form.
Most molecules appear in various forms, which can interact quite differently. Using a special sorter for molecules, a German-Swiss research team has for the first time been able to directly measure the various rates of reaction of the different forms of a compound. The team around Prof. Jochen Küpper (CUI and CFEL) and Prof. Stefan Willitsch of Universität Basel has just pubslished its findings in “Science”. View
CUI congratulates the whole team to its research and the successful publication in such a renowned magazine.
Original Study: “Specific chemical reactivities of spatially separated 3-aminophenol conformers with cold Ca+ ions”; Yuan-Pin Chang, Karol Długołęcki, Jochen Küpper, Daniel Rösch, Dieter Wild, Stefan Willitsch; Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1126/science.1242271.