Research areas include the development and application of electron magnetic
resonance methods including electron spin echo spectrometry and electron
nuclear double resonance to disordered media. Specific projects include
paramagnetic probes of microporous and mesoporous oxide surfaces,
synthesis and characterization of microporous materials containing
transition metal ions in framework and nonframework sites, paramagnetic
transition metal species and adsorbate interactions in microporous
and mesoporous oxides and their relation to catalytic activity and
photoionization processes in oxide materials with built-in electron
acceptors as related to light energy storage.
Current research efforts are focused on the following areas:
(1) Electron magnetic resonance methods to measure weak electron-nuclear
hyperfine interactions as a geometrical probe in disordered media are
being developed. Attention is particularly focused on pulsed, time domain
methods involving electron spin echo modulation spectrometry.
(2) Catalytically important paramagnetic transition metal species are being
incorporated into microporous molecular materials like aluminosilicates
(zeolites) and silicoaluminophosphates (SAPO) and mesoporous MCM-41 and
SBA-15 silica tube materials both in ion-exchanged sites and in framework
sites to understand the geometrical constraints that control catalytic
activity. Adsorbate geometries for the transition metal ion within the
molecular sieve interacting with an adsorbate to be catalyzed can be
uniquely determined by electron spin echo modulation methods developed in
our laboratory.
(3) Electron magnetic resonance and optical studies of the photoionization
of solute molecules constrained in microporous and mesoporous oxide
materials are being applied to delineate the structural requirements for
optimization of charge separation for light energy storage.