9315165 Eklund This award supports a two-year collaborative research project between Professor Peter Eklund, Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, and Professor Riichiro Saito, Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan. The focus of the joint research is on the chemical and physical properties of novel forms of carbon-based materials including high surface area carbons, metal carbide particles, and fullerene-based solids and tubules. In addition to Professor Eklund, four other U.S. investigators (Professors Francis Derbyshire and Ping Zhou of the University of Kentucky and Professors Gene Dresselhaus and Mildred Dresselhaus of MIT), one postdoctoral fellow, and three graduate students from the University of Kentucky and MIT will participate in the project. The materials will be synthesized both in the United States and Japan. A wide variety of experimental probes will be used to study these materials (electron spin resonance, magneto- transport, UV-Vis-IR optical spectroscopy, Raman scattering, piezoresitivity, photoconductivity, electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, specific heat, and magnetic susceptibility). The data will be analyzed to formulate structure-related microscopic models for the chemical and physical properties of these carbon-based materials. ***
