Chemistry Seminar with Dr. Jamie Neilson from Colorado State University at 4:00pm

A significant challenge in inorganic materials synthesis is to rationally control composition and structure of materials to achieve desired properties. Unfortunately, metastability or glacial reaction kinetics inhibits the search for and synthesis of functional materials.  Yet, solid-state metathesis reactions, which have an expanded, hyperdimensional, compositional space from that of the products, often avoid formation of unreactive intermediates. Furthermore, the nominally spectating elements can even impart selectivity between different products.  Experimental in situ investigation of reactions (e.g., with synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction) paired with computational thermodynamics sheds light on how intermediates in the reaction dictate the local chemical potentials that define the reaction pathway. Selectivity results when intermediates provide direct thermochemical connections between the reactants and a targeted compound, as illustrated for myriad complex manganese oxides.  With this discovery, we now envision an approach for predictive, prescriptive materials synthesis and reversible conversion.