Professor BelBruno received his B.S. degree in chemistry in 1974 from Seton Hall University. He received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1980 from Rutgers University. Postdoctoral training was obtained in the Departments of Chemistry and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University where he pursued his interest in laser techniques. Professor BelBruno has been a member of the Dartmouth faculty since 1982, including a sabbatical at the Technical University of Munich as an Alexander von Humbodlt Research Fellow.

Selected Publications

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jjbchem@dartmouth.edu

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Research Interests

Computational chemistry is employed in an effort to improve our understanding of chemical reactions of significance to materials science as well as to aid in the extraction of reaction mechanisms for the formation of thin films and clusters. In particular, we have examined the reaction mechanisms for deposition of metal sulfide films, the structure and formation of metal nitride clusters and the structure of carbon nitride molecules. Current work is exploring the electronic structure of ligand stabilized gold clusters. Most calculations employ density functional theory for isolated molecules, however, some recent work has taken these studies into the condensed phase.

A second project employs structure calculations, as described above, as input in neural network calculations to extract intermolecular potentials for atom-atom and atom-molecule interactions. Included among the systems of interest are N impacting on graphite, H (and H₂) impacting on fullerenes, oxygen on silica and metal clusters on silica.

Our previously obtained experimental results from the study of the reaction mechanisms of the photo-decomposition of organometallic complexes are now employed in a project which involves the use of these materials to produce powders of semiconductors and other relevant electronic materials from the gas phase. At present, the experimental effort is focused on the production of CdS, but other potential materials include CdSe, ZnS, etc.

Additional projects, explored as an extension of some of the work noted above, involve experimental and modeling efforts to understand the process of sensitized laser chemistry, the experimental study of cluster formation (in metal nitrides, silicon and germanium) and experimental efforts to produce organometallic radicals in sufficiently large quantities so as to examine the spectroscopy of these interesting molecules.

• A. Burnin and J.J. BelBruno, "Formation of Zn_nS_m⁺ clusters by laser ablation", Chem. Phys. Lett. 362, 341 (2002).
• J. J. BelBruno, "Computational Study of N@C₆₀, P@C₆₀ and As@C₆₀", Fullerenes, Nanotubes and Carbon Nanostructures, 10, 23 (2002).
• K. Crabb, N.Shneskoff and J.J. BelBruno, "An improved molecularly imprinted polymer film for recognition of amino acids", J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 86, 3611 (2002).
• K. Chuchev and J.J. BelBruno, "Density Functional Theory Study of the Isomers of C₆N", J. Phys. Chem. A 106, 4240 (2002).
• P.D. Godwin, S.D. Kenny, R. Smith and J.J. BelBruno, "The structure of C₆₀ and endohedral C₆₀ on the Si{100} surface" Surface Science 490, 409 (2001).
• Z. Tang and J.J. BelBruno, "Structures and energies of C_nS⁺ (1<n<16) and C_nS^– (9<n<16) clusters" International Journal of Mass Spectrometry 208, 7 (2001).
• J.J. BelBruno, Z.C. Tang, R. Smith and S. Hobday "The structure and energetics of carbon-nitrogen clusters" Molecular Physics 99, 957 (2001).
• J. Ni and J. J. BelBruno, "MOCVD of cadmium and gallium using metastable atom energy transfer" Materials Letters 49, 75 (2001).
• Stefan Andreev and Joseph J. BelBruno, "Detection of AuF by emission spectroscopy in a hollow cathode discharge" Chemical Physics Letters 329, 490 (2000).
• Z. Tang, J.J. BelBruno, R. Huang and L. Zheng, "Collision-induced Dissociation and Density Functional Study of the Structures and Energies of Cyclic C_2nN₅^– Clusters", J. Chem. Phys. 112, 9276 (2000).
• J.J. BelBruno,"The Structure of Small GaN Clusters", Heteroatom Chem. 11, 281 (2000).
• A. Sandoski and J.J. BelBruno, "Photochemistry and Photophysics of Small Heterocyclic Molecules: III. cw IR Laser Induced Reaction of Ethylene Oxide", J. Phys. Org. Chem. 12, 681 (1999).
• R. Smith, K. Beardmore and J.J. BelBruno, H-C₆₀ and Low Energy H Impact with Fullerite", J. Chem. Phys. 111, 9227 (1999).
• J.J. BelBruno, "The Structure of Aluminum Nitride Clusters: A DFT Study", Chem. Phys. Lett. 313, 795 (1999).
• S. Hobday, R. Smith and J.J. BelBruno, "Applications of Neural Networks to Fitting Interatomic Potential Functions", Modell. Simul. Mater. Sci. Eng., 7, 397 (1999).
• R. Smith, S. Hobday and J.J. BelBruno, "Applications of Genetic Algorithms and Neural Networks to Interatomic Potentials", Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., B, 153, 247 (1999).
• J.J. BelBruno, "The Application of Density Functional Theory to Metal-Containing Radicals: A Study of the Organometallic Radicals GeH, GeCH₃ and GeC₂H₅", Faraday Transactions 94, 1555 (1998).
• J. Ni and J.J. BelBruno, "Mechanistic Details for CdS Production by MOCVD", J. Crystal Growth, 182, 321 (1997).