Hybrid Inorganic-Organic Material Discovery

Project Title

Hybrid Inorganic-Organic Material Discovery

Faculty Mentor(s)

Project Description

Project Description: 

This project works to synthesize previously undiscovered materials with optical and electronic properties suitable to solar cells and energy storage. Specifically, hybrid inorganic-organic metal halides are the material of choice. Using different organic counterions and varying the synthesis procedure, the lab grows crystals and characterizes them with X-ray diffraction.
 

Why is your research important?

Historically, new molecules have been found using a strategy anywhere on the spectrum to designing a molecule for a predetermined application to curiosity-based research. Following in the footsteps of the German chemists whose azide chemistry allowed Carolyn Bertozzi to win a Nobel Prize in bioorthogonal chemistry, and the French mathematicians who solved integrals they never know would prove essential to quantum chemistry, my research uses curiosity-driven synthesis techniques to make new materials in the metal halide area.
 

What does the process of doing your research look like?

Two to three times a week, I spend six hours in the Oertel lab, pipetting at the fume hood different ligands into a beaker with colorful metal powders until the metal dissolves. Using various methods like slow evaporation or slow vapor diffusion, I wait for a crystal to form in the precursor solution (this takes patience – both for the crystals to finally form, and to bounce back if they never do!). I then take the powder to the powder x-ray diffractometer and compare the spectrum to known molecules to see if it matches what is already known, or if it is a new material.
 

What knowledge has your research contributed to your field?

The most exciting prospect I am working on right now is a set of three related substituted heterocycles which formed a new coordination compound with a metal halide. Currently, we are working on growing single crystals of the material so that we can elucidate the structure.
 

In what ways have you showcased your research thus far?

The research drove me to apply for a summer program in Paderborn, Germany also working in inorganic materials research. After researching in the lab summer 2023, I presented that research at the Spring 2024 ACS poster session.
 

How did you get involved in research? What drove you to seek out research experiences in college?

I cold-emailed the inorganic chemistry professor who was on sabbatical because I read that she was doing research in materials discovery, the type of creative, exciting, fundamental research I wanted to do. When I asked a friend who did research in her lab a prior year, the friend told me Professor Oertel was a fantastic research mentor.
 

What is your favorite aspect of the research process?

Manipulating colorful chemicals each lab day and reading graphs. The excitement of working on making entirely new compounds.
 

How has working with your mentor impacted the development of your research project? How has it impacted you as a researcher?

Professor Oertel is the cornerstone to my growth in the research lab. She has taught me the technical specifics of this area of research I am passionate about, and has led as example of what a kind, thoughtful, inquisitive researcher can look like.
 

How has the research you’ve conducted contributed to your professional or academic development?  

Conducting research has provided context to my science classes – I am more motivated to pay attention when I know firsthand that what I learn can translate to consequential original knowledge! It has led me to seek out and be accepted to summer research experiences like the one through RISE DAAD / ACS IRES, and an opportunity with Internship+ to do summer materials research at a lab in Copenhagen that Prof. Oertel advised me to check out.
 

What advice would you give to a younger student wanting to get involved in research in your field?

 

Read the Oberlin.edu research descriptions carefully, and talk to as many people as you can about the professors that lead research groups at Oberlin. Then, decide who you want to do work with, and make your interest in their research abundantly clear.