Inorganic Coordination Chemistry for Precursor Development

This project is concerned with research in the area of coordination chemistry to develop new inorganic complexes for evaluation as precursors for the electrodeposition of semiconducting materials from low polarity non-aqueous solvents. The target materials are those that exhibit thermoelectric properties, phase change memory and IR detectors, primarily involving main group (p-block) elements. Key objectives are to develop reagents that have sufficient stability, solubility and suitable electrochemical properties to allow electrodeposition of the relevant elements and compound semiconductors.
In addition to developing skills in synthetic inorganic chemistry, expertise in inert atmosphere techniques will be developed. There will be opportunities to gain hands-on experience in a range of key characterisation techniques, including single crystal X-ray diffraction, multinuclear NMR, IR, Raman and UV-visible spectroscopy, as appropriate.