Current research projects of the research group Friedrichs are in the field of environmental interface chemistry, combustion chemistry, and the development of quantitative laser based detection methods.

Laser spectroscopic techniques such as surface sensitive VSFG as well as ultrasensitive NIR/IR cw/ew/sat- CRDS spectroscopy are applied with a focus on the marine system. For example, VSFG is used to investigate the composition, structure, and reactivity of the organic nanolayer, which is prevalent at natural water-air interfaces, as well as to perform systematic studies on monolayer oxidation and photochemistry. Other optical lab-based and field-deployable sensors are developed for sensitive, isotope selective detection of trace gases using high resolution absorption spectroscopy based on long-path, cavity enhanced, and modulation detection schemes.

For example, selective-saturation-CRDS is currently advanced as a method to overcome cross-sensitivity issues that are inherent for all absorption based methods. Other projects are related to high temperature kinetics of combustion relevant reactions and are performed by time-resolved UV laser absorption and frequency modulation spectroscopy (FMS) in a photolysis shock tube setup. Present investigations are concerned with elementary reactions of key species for modeling NO_x formation in hydrocarbon flames. Moreover, a mid-IR-FM spectrometer is currently implemented that will also allow us to detect reactive species in particle forming environments such as dusty plasmas to better constrain reactive gas phase - surface interactions.The experimental work is complemented by theoretical analyses based on quantum-chemical methods and molecular dynamics simulations.