Nanomagnetic Molecular Materials. This research project involves the preparation of new molecular magnets using metals such as manganese and vanadium and a study of their physical properties. Metal compounds of the cluster type are significant since they are nanoscale in size and offer new quantum features, with an improved understanding of the magnetic properties as a primary outcome and long term possible use in future quantum computers. This fundamental study provides excellent training to p ....Nanomagnetic Molecular Materials. This research project involves the preparation of new molecular magnets using metals such as manganese and vanadium and a study of their physical properties. Metal compounds of the cluster type are significant since they are nanoscale in size and offer new quantum features, with an improved understanding of the magnetic properties as a primary outcome and long term possible use in future quantum computers. This fundamental study provides excellent training to post-graduate students and makes them ideally suited to take jobs in advanced materials, an area being emphasised in Australia's nanotechnological future.Read moreRead less
Nanomagnetic Materials from Molecular Clusters and Coordination Polymers. Magnetic materials are important through their use in recording tapes and other electronic devices. Traditional magnetic materials are metals, alloys or metal oxides made by high temperature methods. Our aims are to synthesize new chemical and molecule based solid materials which possess the properties of traditional magnets but which are made by careful chemical design at ambient temperatures. We will make materials which ....Nanomagnetic Materials from Molecular Clusters and Coordination Polymers. Magnetic materials are important through their use in recording tapes and other electronic devices. Traditional magnetic materials are metals, alloys or metal oxides made by high temperature methods. Our aims are to synthesize new chemical and molecule based solid materials which possess the properties of traditional magnets but which are made by careful chemical design at ambient temperatures. We will make materials which have three-dimensional network structures or large clusters of ions such as manganese bridged by organic molecules. Their magnetic properties will be studied in detail. The cluster compounds are significant since they are nanoscale in size and offer new features, with long term possible use in future quantum computers.Read moreRead less
One coordinate carbon and boron: Universal progenitor ligands. Compounds with bonds between metals and carbon (organometallic chemistry) underpin innumerable important industrial processes from fine chemicals to bulk agrochemical and polymer synthesis. Yet the simplest example, a single atom of carbon bound to a metal has only recently been discovered and is poorly understood. Australia's fledgling boron fine chemicals industry similarly benefits from metal-based processes. However, compounds wi ....One coordinate carbon and boron: Universal progenitor ligands. Compounds with bonds between metals and carbon (organometallic chemistry) underpin innumerable important industrial processes from fine chemicals to bulk agrochemical and polymer synthesis. Yet the simplest example, a single atom of carbon bound to a metal has only recently been discovered and is poorly understood. Australia's fledgling boron fine chemicals industry similarly benefits from metal-based processes. However, compounds with a single boron atom bound to a metal remain unknown. This proposal addresses metal-carbon and metal-boron chemistry from the most basic perspective, that of a single atom of boron or carbon, including the development of novel synthetic approaches and skills for the characterisation of such curious species.Read moreRead less