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Inorganic and organic materials
Studying functional inorganic and organic materials
We focus on the development of functional materials that exhibit novel electronic, optical and magnetic phenomena.
Our research spans the areas of inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry and materials science and focuses on the development of functional inorganic materials which exhibit novel electronic, optical and magnetic phenomena.
Potential applications range from the capture of greenhouse gases to sensors, optoelectronics devices and photocatalysis.
Our key aim is to gain an understanding of the fundamental relationships between the structural features of the solution – and solid – state materials and their physical properties using a barrage of techniques.
Our research
Lead: Professor Deanna D’Alessandro
This project involves the design and synthesis of metal-organic frameworks which exhibit the highly sought-after properties of redox-activity and electronic conductivity.
The new materials will be based on mixed-valence metal clusters of Mo, W, Ru, Os and redox-active bridging ligands. Solid-state electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical techniques will be developed to investigate the conductivity properties.
The opportunities for advances at a fundamental and applied level are immense, with potential applications ranging from sensors to molecular electronics devices.
This project is being supported through an Australian Research Council QEII grant.
Lead: Professor Deanna D’Alessandro
External collaborators/industry partners: Professor Jeff Long (University of California Berkeley, USA), Dr Thomas McDonald (University of California Berkeley, USA).
The development of more efficient processes for carbon dioxide capture is considered a key to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions implicated in global warming.
Highly porous three-dimensional solids known as metal-organic frameworks will be developed for use as capture materials and will be characterised using a barrage of techniques (X-ray and neutron diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis and gas sorption measurements).
The ultimate goal is the development of industrially-viable materials which can be readily integrated into industrial processes.
This work is part of a major Australian initiative which was supported by the Science and Industry Endowment Fund.
Lead: Professor Deanna D’Alessandro
Recently, methodologies for the postsynthetic covalent functionalisation of metal-organic frameworks have opened up fascinating prospects for building complexity into the pores.
This project will involve the synthesis of materials as “photoswitchable molecular sieves” in which light can be used to modulate the size and polarity of the pores.
The structural and physical properties of the materials will require the development of novel techniques to probe the light-activated gas permeation properties.
Lead: Professor Deanna D’Alessandro
The complex interplay between electronic and magnetic interactions is ubiquitous in chemical and physical systems (e.g., solid-state superconductors, spintronics devices) and in metalloenzymes in nature.
Experimental studies in which these phenomena coexist are extremely rare. This will be addressed by developing dinuclear mixed-valence complexes which incorporate a series of bridging ligands that can mediate strong ferromagnetic “double-exchange coupling” between metal ions with unpaired electrons.
The findings will have significant implications for the experimental and theoretical understanding of systems which exhibit novel magnetic and electronic phenomena.