Inorganic Materials. We are interested in producing new inorganic polymers and other networks which have metal atoms within the backbone of the polymer chain. Depending on their chemical construction, these polymeric networks may be chain-like (one dimensional), sheet-like (two dimensional), or fully networked (three dimensional). Metal-organic networks have potential applications as luminescent materials for displays and sensors, as porous materials for separations work, and as catalysts for use in organic reactions.
X-ray Crystallography. The repeating pattern of atoms that exists in a crystalline substance contains a wealth of information. Crystals are composed of nanometer-scale repeat units, called unit cells. When a tiny crystal is bathed in an X-ray beam, the X-rays diffract off of the layers of atoms present in the crystal. The pattern of diffracted X-ray spots can be reconstructed to yield a map of the positions of atoms in the unit cell. The pictures in the figure below are “photos” of molecules solved by X-ray crystallography in our laboratory.
