Soft chemical control to achieve new layered architectures and strongly correlated states.

固态化学涉及（通常）晶体固体（类似矿物的化合物）的合成和优化其组成，以实现特定的物理或化学性质，如导电性或磁性。这些化合物通常是在高温下合成的，这样离子迁移率就足够高，可以进行反应。在这种合成的热力学控制下，可用于特定元素组合的组合物的范围可能是有限的。因此，互补低温（例如，在室温下，或甚至低于室温）合成是改变化学组成的另一种方法，并且这可能使获得更广泛的化学组成。低温化学，通常是插层或脱插层，是可能的，如果化合物支持其某些组成离子的高迁移率。这里提出的工作从证明一系列层状过渡金属化合物的脱嵌化学是可能的开始，并且确实对电子性质有深远的影响。目标是化合物，其中成分调谐可以连续地进行，并且在很宽的成分范围内进行。这些化合物中的过渡金属和二维晶体结构已经被选择，以便产生强相关的电子系统，其中由于几个竞争因素，电子行为不容易预测，并且经常发现不寻常的电子现象，例如超导性，磁电阻，高热电功率和金属到绝缘体的转变。除了生产新的组合物，我们还将探索将化学应用于化合物大晶体的方法，以便更好地了解它们的微观性质。

Solid state chemistry involves the synthesis of (normally) crystalline solids (compounds resembling minerals) and optimisation of their compositions so as to realise particular physical or chemical properties, such as conductivity or magnetism. Often these compounds are synthesised at high temperatures so that the ionic mobility is high enough for the reactions to proceed. Under this thermodynamic control of the synthesis the range of compositions available for a particular combination of elements may be limited. So complementary low temperature (e.g. at room temperature, or even below) syntheses are another way of changing the chemical composition and this may enable a wider range of chemical compositions to be attained. The low temperature chemistry, normally an intercalation or a deintercalation, is possible if the compound supports high mobility of some of its constituent ions. The work proposed here starts from the demonstration that deintercalation chemistry of a series of layered transition metal compounds is possible and does have profound effects on the electronic properties. The targets are compounds where compositional tuning may be carried out continuously and over a wide compositional range. The transition metals in these compounds and the two-dimensional crystal structures have been chosen so as to yield strongly-correlated-electron systems where the electronic behaviour is not easy to predict due to several competing factors, and where unusual electronic phenomena, such as superconductivity, magnetoresistance, high thermoelectric power and metal-to-insulator transitions are often found. In addition to producing new compositions, we will explore ways in which the chemistry can be applied to large crystals of the compounds in order to give better insight into their microscopic properties.