About Quest

Center for Quantum Electrodynamics for Selective Transformations (QuEST)

The Center for Quantum Electrodynamics for Selective Transformations (QuEST) aims to discover uniquely selective chemical functionalizations that are enabled by the strong interaction of matter and the quantum light of an optical cavity. This strong interaction will result in optical cavity polaritons, which are quasiparticles formed by hybridizing electronic or vibrational states of molecules with the quantum-radiation field inside an optical cavity. Polaritons are distinct from excited-state photochemistry because the light- matter coupling in a cavity results in entirely new frontier orbitals derived from the quantum superposition of ground and excited electronic wavefunctions, conceptually similar to the formation of molecular orbitals from the interactions of atomic orbitals. Polaritons thus offer a fundamentally new tool for the development of selective organic chemistry by directly altering molecular energy states and potential energy barriers along a reaction coordinate.

QuEST brings together a team of physical, theoretical, inorganic, and organic chemists plus experts in cavity electrodynamics, to develop this new approach for promoting selectivity in chemical transformations.