Bonneau Long & Medium-Term Research: Transition-Metal Dichal- cogenides: From Quantum Confinement to Novel Inclusion Compounds This award is made under the Program for Long- & Medium- Term Research at Foreign Centers of Excellence, which enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twelve months abroad at research centers of proven excellence. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award, sponsored by Dr. Richard B. Kaner of the University of California, Los Angeles, will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Philippe Bonneau with Dr. Jean Rouxel of the Institut de Physique et Chimie des Mat riaux, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Universit de Nantes. They will investigate layered transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and other lamellar materials, which can be exfoliated or sonicated in polar solvents to produce solution-suspended monolayers. The suspended monolayers are then size separated (by gel electrophoresis) and used in quantum confinement studies or restacked with other low-dimensional compounds to create new, metastable inclusion compounds. Quantum confinement in TMD monolayers can be investigated both as a function of particle size and as a function of monolayer interactions with various chemical environments. New inclusion compounds, composed uniquely of low-dimensional materials, provide almost limitless opportunities to study topics such as intercalation and electronic interactions in mixed low-dimensional materials, superconductivity, charge density waves, and the role of stoichiometry on the structure and the electronic properties in low-dimensional inclusion compounds. The award recommendation provides funds to cover international travel and a flat administrative allowance of $250 for the U.S. home institution.
