Professor Charles B. Harris
 Department of Chemistry  University of California
 Berkeley, CA 94720

  Among the different processes occurring on the ultrafast timescale, one of the most interesting and
  important to the chemical community is that of bond activation.  Bond activation is the process whereby
  the activation energy for breaking a chemical bond is reduced from 50 to 100 kcal/mol to approximately
  5 to 10 kcal/mol.  Most recently, the mechanisms of C-H, Si-H, and C-Cl bond activation have been
  elucidated.  The importance of ligand dynamics, solvent rearrangements, electronic configuration and
  the spin state in these chemical bond activation mechanisms has been determined in detail by using
  femtosecond infrared techniques.  A stochastic theory based on the Langevin equations has been
  developed which provides a simple, yet meaningful model for understanding several of these complex
  processes.
 
 
 
 
 

  Professor Charles B. Harris
  Department of Chemistry
  University of California at Berkeley
  Berkeley, CA 94720

  Phone 510-6422814
  Fax 510-6426724