Research Group Solid State Spectroscopy and Magnetochemistry in Material Science.

Nanostructured Materials.

The structuring of matter on a nanometer scale, especially using micro- and mesoporous composites, is a topic of materials science. Nanostructured materials are compounds tailored in the nanometer range or assembled materials with a bulk structure on this scale. Richard P. Feynman was one of the first to recognise the scientific and technological potential of such materials as evidenced by his legendary 1959 lecture entitled: There's plenty of room at the bottom. In the last decade numerous research activities and the fast development of synthetic methods resulted in a variety of new nanostructured materials and also promoted the understanding of their properties.

Presently two different research topics can be identified in our group:

• Synthesis and investigation of insertion compounds.
  The preparation of these compounds is a three-step procedure consisting of the structure-directed synthesis of microporous hosts, the oxidative combustion (calcination) of organic molecules or cations occluded during synthesis and finally the insertion of guest molecules via the gas phase. Guest molecules have been I₂, Br₂, IBr₂, HgCl₂, HgBr₂, HgI₂, S (rings), Se (rings) and others. The characterisation of the compounds is performed with a wide variety of experimental methods including: optical and electron microscopy (performed at the Centre for Electron Microscopy in Graz), elemental analysis, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (performed at the Hamburg synchrotron laboratory HASYLAB), UV-VIS spectroscopy, IR, FTIR and Resonance Raman spectroscopy (in collaboration with Prof. Alois Popitsch, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Karl-Franzens University, Graz).
• Cooperative synthesis of metal oxyhydroxide-surfactant composites.
  The aim here is to prepare and characterise new mesoporous surfactant-metal(hydr)oxide composites with an inorganic part consisting of transition metal hydr(oxides). Interesting results have already been obtained for iron containing composites. Presently the new composites containing manganum [Mn(III)/Mn(IV) mixed valency], chromium and rare-earth ions are investigated. Part of this activities is covered by the research project no. 7110 entitled Mesostructured metal(hydr)oxide-surfactant Composites; Novel routes to nanostructured magnetic materials granted by the Austrian National Bank to Dr. Karl Gatterer. Experimental for characterisation of the composites include: Mössbauer spectroscopy (performed at the Physics Department, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby), Magnetic measurements, X-ray diffraction, thermal gravimetric and differential thermals analysis, differential scanning calorimetry.

International Cooperations:

• Prof. Peter Day [Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London (UK)];
• Prof. Galen D. Stucky [Department of Chemistry and Materials Department, University of California at Santa Barbara, CA (USA)];
• Prof. Peter Behrens [Institut für Anorganische Chemie, Universität Hannover, Germany].

Publications (our own).

Current fields of research.
Research Group Solid State Spectroscopy and Magnetochemistry in Material Science.