Studies will be made of the nature and strength of chemical bonding in compounds of transition metals with p-block elements with focus on trends in isoelectronic series of compounds. The research program includes measurement of thermodynamic stabilities, and bond strengths, by mass-loss effusion, effusion- mass spectrometry, and high temperature solid-state galvanic cells, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies of both core levels and valence-conduction band regions, and band structure calculations by both KKR and Extended Huckel methods. The goals are to deepen the understanding of bonding in solids, especially in relation to bond strength and structure, obtain high quality data on thermodynamic stability, and develop ways of predicting stabilities which take into account the best insights available about the nature of chemical bonding.
