Synthetic explorations together with physical characterization will be pursued for new horizons and unexpected chemistry and materials among the chalcogenides of the lanthanide metals with or without either late transition or post-transition metals. The ternary condensed cluster phases appear to be especially stabilized by strongly bound, late transition metals as interstitials within nominal clusters of the early metals. Some of the cluster-interstitial combinations also afford insights into local interactions present around impurities in enigmatic intermetallic and pure metal systems. Pioneering explorations for new and defining examples of aperiodic quasicrystals and their crystalline approximants will utilize expertise and experience in synthesis and cluster chemistry. New insights into their compositions and electronic stabilities via band calculations will be exploited. Physical properties of the new materials will be defined by crystal structure studies, electronic conductivity, and magnetic susceptibility measurements coupled with parallel extended-Huckel or DFT (band) calculations. These studies afford advanced training for students at all levels on the frontiers of research in new materials, structures and properties in solid-state chemistry. Sixty percent of the researchers in the last few years have been women.
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This program, at the forefront of solid-state chemistry in the discovery and development of new materials, utilizes creative synthetic explorations to uncover totally new and unprecedented solid compounds, structures and, potentially, properties. These insightful studies provide new horizons for what is possible in chemistry, and, later, regarding properties and applications. Present efforts feature highly reduced mixed metal compounds as chalcogenides (Sulfur, Selenium, Tellurium) as well as the syntheses and structures of new quasicrystalline phases and their close relatives. The latter are well ordered but lack conventional periodicity. Successful discoveries often involve highly specialized techniques, conditions, and exotic containers that are not widely employed. Participating undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students thus get valuable training, experience, and insights into advanced methods and concepts in solid-state chemistry. Sixty percent of these in recent years have been women. Students trained in these areas of synthesis and characterization of new materials exhibiting new phenomena compete very favorably in the job market because of relevance to advanced technologies such as electronics and photonics.
