This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). In this RUI project funded by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division and the Solid State and Materials Chemistry Program of the Division of Materials Research, Alexander Norquist of Haverford College will study hydrothermal, organic templating methods to prepare noncentrosymmetric materials based on gallium sulfites. Materials that possess crystallographic noncentrosymmetry are important for the development of nonlinear optical and piezoelectric materials, and the target compounds constitute a potentially important, yet largely unexplored area. This project will provide students at Haverford College with a high quality research experience, and the outcomes of the project and the funded equipment will be incorporated into the teaching curriculum at the college.
