Solid-State NMR of Complex Materials

Personnel

Project Leader(s):
Klaus Schmidt-Rohr

Principal Investigators:
Mei Hong, Evgenii Levin, Klaus Schmidt-Rohr

Postdoctoral Research Associates:
Bosiljka Njegic, Aditya Rawal

Overview

This project develops and applies advanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques to elucidate the structure and dynamics of complex organic, nanocomposite, and semiconductor materials. Systems of particular interest include bioinspired nanocomposites (in collaboration with the Project on Bioinspired Materials), nanostructured polymer-based fuel-cell membranes, and complex tellurides for photovoltaics, data storage, and thermoelectrics (in collaboration with Bruce Cook, Ames Laboratory).

We study nanocomposites of Nafion with modified side groups and with silica or zirconium phosphate nanoparticles grown in situ, developed to improve fuel-cell operation at higher temperatures. This extends our investigations to the biological nanocomposites in enamel and biosilicas.