This Americas Program award will support collaborative research between Dr. Philip Shevlin, Auburn University and Dr. Galo Cardenas-Trivino, University of Concepcion, Chile. This award will supplement two existing NSF grants. The research involves the area of carbon cluster chemistry and metal atom chemistry. It will focus on the use of metal atoms as trapping agents for carbon clusters and the synthesis of new cluster based materials. The experiments will cover a broad area of research and are designed to provide a framework for the investigators' approach to carbon cluster chemistry. The complementary research instrumentation at both universities will play a large part in facilitating the collaboration. The new cluster based materials will be synthesized in Auburn while their reactions with metal atoms will be carried out at Concepcion. With the emerging importance of carbon cluster chemistry and that of clusters in general, the merge with metal atom chemistry has a potential impact on the infrastructure of chemistry.
