Editorial: Vibrationally-Mediated Chemical Dynamics

Nuclear motion, or molecular vibrations, mediate essentially all chemical dynamics and reactions. A rich interplay between electronic and nuclear degrees-of-freedom manifests in contexts such as light-induced chemical reactions (photochemistry), electron/charge transfer, and ultrafast energy dissipation. In these contexts, the close connection between chemical structure and molecular vibrations has inspired studies which navigate the structure-vibration-function relationship imprinted into the corresponding dynamics. Viewed in this way, molecular vibrations can act as a template for prescribing a particular function to a chemical structure, with the common goal being to design structural motifs which can predictably give rise to a target function in applications of energy capture and conversion, drug discovery, and quantum computing just to name a few. It is our privilege to introduce this Research Topic issue of Frontiers in Chemistry which includes a set of 8 articles which collectively journey into this frontier.