Academic Staff - Dr Mark Green - Inorganic

Electronic and structural properties of porous manganese oxides.

One area of research is the synthesis and characterisation of porous transition metal oxides. These materials have exciting new possibilities in both their reactivity and the possibility of tuning their electronic properties. Their synthesis is achieved with the use of an alkali or alkaline earth metal acting as a template, but which can often be removed with treatment with acid, leaving unusual tunnel or layered structures, an example of which is shown in figure below. The work will involve the synthesis of new structures, extending previous work into the use of hydrothermal synthesis techniques to generate different size and shaped pore structures. Two main properties of these systems will be explored:

1. Reactivity and dynamics of small molecules trapped within the cages. It is envisaged that potential energy surface within the cages will be complex due to the presence of Mn. Therefore, the interaction of small molecules will be interesting and may lead to new possibilities for catalysis.
   
2. We will investigate the electronic properties of these compounds as a function of alkali metal ions, which determines the Mn oxidation state.

The structure of Na_0.4MnO₂

This page last modified 9 August, 2010