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There are news, salacious photos, and comics ("Pirates of the Chemistry Department") in the news section .Our History ur research group is in the
Inorganic and Materials Division of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta.
Our group currently consists of one postdoctoral fellow, five graduate
students, and one undergraduate student.
POSITIONS ARE AVAILABLE FOR GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS INTERESTED IN INORGANIC SOLID-STATE AND MATERIALS CHEMISTRY. 
Solid State Synthesis e are engaged in a broad exploratory program of solid state synthesis, with the aim to discover and characterize compounds of the less common non-metals. In particular, we are preparing new solid-state pnictides, that is, compounds of the Group 15 elements (P, As, Sb, and Bi). These compounds possess interesting crystal structures, often low-dimensional, and their bonding is poorly understood. Beyond studies of the III-V semiconductors such as GaAs or InSb (which are used in LEDs or thermoelectric devices) as well as simple binary pnictides, investigations of mixed-metal systems have been very limited, although they promise to show interesting electrical and magnetic properties. Metal-rich systems are likely to yield hard, alloy-like materials. Pnicogen-rich systems, on the other hand, afford compounds with a rich structural chemistry, typically characterized by a complex extended polypnicogen network of Pn-Pn bonds.Systems that we are currently studying include:
Solid state synthesis poses challenges different from those of molecular chemistry. How do we coerce a mixture of solids to combine, overcoming severe kinetic barriers, to form a new solid state compound? To help synthesize and grow crystals of new compounds, we employ diverse techniques such as:
Characterization and Property Measurements ingle-crystal X-ray diffraction is our main method of characterization, supplemented by powder diffraction. Unlike molecular structures, solid-state extended structures present unique and non-trivial problems of their own. We unravel the complexity of the structural chemistry of these compounds and look for unifying relationships between them. We study the nature of bonding in these compounds and relate electronic structure with crystal structure. We measure their electrical and magnetic properties to determine if they can serve as useful materials. We perform electronic band structure calculations to relate quantitatively bonding, properties, and structure. The techniques to which students are exposed are relevant to the general area of materials science, while the results of our research are of fundamental importance to enhancing our understanding of a poorly-explored part of the periodic table.
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