Metal-Metal Bonded Compounds of the Transition Metals

本项目探索一类新材料的合成和物理化学特性，即3族和4族三元硫族过渡金属和镧系金属。许多这些凝聚的团簇相似乎是唯一稳定的强结合，晚期过渡金属作为早期金属的标称团簇的间隙，这是固体化学中的一个新概念，将在本项目中探索。这些团簇-间隙组合还可以深入了解神秘的金属间和纯金属体系中杂质周围存在的局部相互作用，这是化学的一个新方向。这些材料的物理性质将通过晶体结构研究、电子导电性和磁化率测量以及并行扩展hckel和密度泛函理论（带）计算来确定。还计划探索非周期准晶体的新例子和直接定义其结构的新方法。这些研究为高级学生提供了技术和化学新领域的培训。参与的本科生、研究生和博士后将在固态化学的先进方法方面获得宝贵的培训和经验。近年来，一半的工作人员是妇女，目前这一比例为三分之二。新材料的发现和开发，利用合成探索来发现新的和前所未有的固体化合物、结构和性能，对推进材料科学至关重要。成功的合成通常涉及没有被广泛应用的专门技术、条件和外来容器，而且由于新材料的可用性在工业界和学术界都是高度优先考虑的，在这些领域受过训练的学生通常在就业市场上具有很强的竞争力。

This project explores the synthesis and physical and chemical characterization of a new class of materials, viz., ternary chalcogenides of the group 3 and group 4 transition and lanthanide metals. Many of these condensed cluster phases appear to be uniquely stabilized by strongly bound, late transition metals as interstitials in nominal clusters of the early metals, which is a new concept in solid state chemistry to be explored in this project. These cluster-interstitial combinations also allow insight into local interactions present around impurities in enigmatic intermetallic and pure metal systems, which is a new direction in chemistry. Physical properties of these will be defined by crystal structure studies, electronic conductivity, and magnetic susceptibility measurements, and with parallel extended-Hckel and density functional theory (band) calculations. Explorations for new examples of aperiodic quasicrystals and a new method for their direct structural definition are also planned. These studies afford advanced students training along new frontiers in techniques and chemistry. Participating undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students will get valuable training and experience in advanced methods in solid state chemistry. Half of the personnel have been women in recent years, and the proportion is presently two-thirds. The discovery and development of new materials, utilizing synthetic explorations to uncover new and unprecedented solid compounds, structures and properties is crucial to advancing materials science. Successful syntheses often involve specialized techniques, conditions, and exotic containers that are not widely employed and, since the availability of new materials is a high priority in both industry and academia, students trained in these areas typically compete very well in the job market.