Solid State and Materials Chemistry
A quasi-crystal exhibiting Penrose tiling
Research in Solid State and Materials Chemistry at Cardiff University covers a range of areas focused on:
- understanding fundamental properties of materials
- developing and advancing new aspects of experimental techniques for investigating these properties,
- exploring the potential to develop applications of the materials under investigation.
The members of academic staff working in this field are supplemented by a large and active community of postdoctoral research fellows and postgraduate research students.
Research areas
An image of the crystal structure of a phthalocyanine-based microporous material
Many of the current research activities in Solid State and Materials Chemistry are focused on advancing fundamental understanding of materials, but several areas of research are also being carried out in collaboration with industrial companies (primarily in the pharmaceuticals, pigments and chemicals sectors) with the aim of exploiting fundamental understanding in order to develop new and improved materials for applications in these areas. Current research projects include:
Diffusion NMR experiments to probe the dynamics of colloidal systems
- the development of a fundamental understanding of structural and dynamic properties of molecular solids (including solid inclusion compounds, incommensurate solids, hydrogen bonded systems and disordered materials) and crystallization processes of these materials
- the preparation, characterization and application of new microporous organic polymers (which, among a wide range of exciting new applications, are currently generating promise for their potential in adsorption and separation technologies)
- the investigation of structural, dynamic and related properties of different forms of "soft matter" (including colloidal systems, surfactant solutions, dispersed polymeric aggregates and polymer-surfactant systems)
- the development and application of new aspects of experimental techniques for elucidating properties of materials - topics of particular interest include advances in EPR and ENDOR spectroscopies (including the development of angular selective ENDOR) and the application of ENDOR spectroscopy in a range of novel areas (including the characterization of catalytic systems and solid surfaces), and the development and application of new techniques for structure determination using powder X-ray diffraction data.