Colloquium: Dr. Styliani (Stella) Consta, Western Univ.

ABSTRACT:

Droplet chemistry affects almost every aspect of everyday life. Man-made aerosols in industrial and household sprays, atmospheric aerosols, and emulsions are few examples of droplet environments. Even though droplets have been studied for over one and a half century, their properties are still far from being understood and the entire spectrum of their potential applications has not been yet explored. Highlights of my computational research that will be presented  include the electrostatic confinement effect for a single (macro)-ion in a droplet and the formation of ``star''-shaped droplets. This discussion will lead to new insights into Rayleigh instability arising from the modeling of jets emanating from a highly charged droplet. The temperature effect in the location of ions will also be presented, with emphasis in the structure of aqueous droplet at supercooling. The studies propose methods to optimize ionization techniques coupled to native mass spectrometry, interpret mass spectrometry data, and predict the location of ions and dynamics in atmospheric aerosols.