High-Resolution Crystallographic Studies Using Synchrotron Radiation

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Philip Coppens of the State University of New York at Buffalo has support from the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to continue his studies of the electronic structure of solids using X-ray crystallography. His research focuses on the following objectives: a) to determine the charge density distribution in solids; b) to exploit the tunability of synchrotron sources for resonant scattering, which will allow differentiation between atoms of the same element in different oxidation states; c) to study excited states of molecules in crystals; and d) to analyze multi-sublattice composite solids. Very low-temperature single crystal techniques will be exploited for data collection. These experiments will help provide the tools necessary to study the structures of short-lived excited states in a number of photochemically active systems. The charge-separated systems are important because they are directly related to energy conversion and storage. Regarding other aspects of these studies, good comparisons of charge densities obtained from crystallography and from theory are needed if we are ever going to figure out why solids pack the way they do, and mixed valence compounds are very important in many catalytic systems, technologically important materials and biological systems.