Watching Chemistry Happen
Research
Switchable materials, which can be shuttled between two or more independent states on perturbation by external stimuli, form the basis of many real-world devices and understanding how they work is vital for the development of new and improved materials. The structure of a material holds the key to understanding its useful properties and our research aims to unlock this information using state-of-the-art solid state chemistry techniques.
Materials
We design, synthesize and crystallize new molecular and framework photoswitches for use in a variety of applications, from optoelectronics to data storage and solar energy conversion. Materials design is typically directed by crystal engineering principles, where we use insight from our in-situ X-ray diffraction studies to guide the design of new and improve systems for a target application.
Methods
We develop and use in-situ X-ray diffraction set-ups and methodologies for the understanding of our photoswitchable materials in real time and at the atomic scale. This includes the design of new time-resolved methodologies, in-situ irradiation set-ups for photocrystallography studies, as well as other in-situ approaches including work with electric field cells, environmental gas cells and diamond anvil cells for high-pressure studies. Most recently our new TRIXS (Time Resolved Instrument for X-ray Studies) diffractometer project is underway at Cardiff, in collaboration with Rigaku Europe. TRIXS will enable the collection of time-resolved single-crystal X-ray diffraction data in the home laboratory via our published pump-multiprobe methodology and the creation of millisecond to microsecond resolved molecular movies to watch our chemical reactions happen in 3D and in real time.