Florida State University research

Research taking place by Harry Kroto and colleagues during his time at Florida State University.

On

FT ICR MS cluster beam experiments

With Alan Marshall’s group at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University.

A series of FT ICR MS cluster beam experiments have been carried out at the FSU Maglab with Alan Marshall. The experiments have been carried out by Paul Dunk.

In this experiment the small endohedral fullerene T@C28 has been studied and it has been shown that the C28 species is tetravalent as it readily encapsulates Ti, which is attached to the relevant element.

C28 also readily encapsulates zirconium and uranium.

These experiments exploit the phenomenal resolution achievable by the FT ICR MS techniques developed by Alan Marshall at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at FSU.

Download an overview of these experiments (PDF, 670KB).

Articles

'Buckyballs grow by gobbling up carbon', Chemistry World, 28 May 2012.
'Promising nanomaterial’s origin revealed', Florida State University, 11 February 2015.
'Promising nanomaterial's origin revealed', National MagLab, 11 February 2015.
'Decades old mystery of Buckyballs cracked', Live Science, 6 July 2012.
'Sodium aids metallofullerene formation in stellar outflows', PNAS, 1 November 2013.
'Tiny buckyball grown around metal atom', Chemistry World, 30 May 2012.
P W Dunk, H Niwa, H Shinohara, A G Marshall and H W Kroto (2015), 'Large fullerenes in mass spectra' (PDF, 484KB), Molecular Physics.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology research

With Steve Acquah

Steve Acquah, "My primary research focus now is on developing strategies to successfully cross-link carbon nanotube.

"I wrote a book chapter addressing this problem referencing methods of cross-linking by other researchers. I investigated the cross-linking amino acid side chains and applied some the methodology to carbon nanotubes by using thiol modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-SH) and benzoquinone.

"This proved to be a successful way to not only cross-link the carbon nanotubes to form a conductive paper-like material, but also extend the utility of these papers with the addition of nanoparticles. I developed a new method of cross-linking during filtration."

Hydrogen sensing paper

A significant milestone was the incorporation of Palladium nanoparticles to carbon nanotube paper. Palladium is a cheaper alternative to Platinum which is used in many catalytic systems.

Unfortunately, the presence of sulphur can affect the catalytic properties of Palladium so Acquah developed a method of cross-linking using aminated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-NH2) with Benzoquinone. During the assembly process, Acquah incorporated Palladium nanoparticles to form a hydrogen sensing carbon nanotube sheet.

The results were published in the leading journal ‘Carbon’ and gained recognition as a feature in the science magazine ‘Chemistry & Industry’. [On Paper the Future is Rosy, Acquah S.F.A.*; Ventura D.N; Kroto H.W. Chemistry & Industry, 2011, 75, (22), 22-24].

The application of these results were extremely significant because it showed that a flexible hydrogen sensor could be created which may be integrated into the housings for hydrogen fuel cells in hydrogen powered vehicles. It would be able to detect hydrogen leaks at low hydrogen concentrations before it reaches an explosive level.

Piezoelectric carbon nanotube paper

Wearable electronics will form the next generation of consumer devices. The demand in these devices requires new and innovative ways to power them when away from power outlets.

Solar power devices are one popular approach to this but an alternative is to use pressure from movement to generate an electric potential in a material.

Steve Acquah developed the first cross linked carbon nanotube paper with embedded Zinc Oxide nanoparticles that can be used to generate electricity when flexed. The results were published in the Journal Carbon.

Metal organic frameworks

With Naresh Dalal and Tony Cheetham

Advances in the field of hybrid inorganic-organic frameworks, or MOFs, have been achieved in a research programme with Naresh Dalal and Prashant Jain at Florida State and Tony Cheetham (UCSB/Cambridge).

It began with the aim of synthesising hybrid counterparts of magnetic-core memory. Magnetic-core memory was the predominant form of random-access computer memory for 20 years, from 1955-75.

MOFs are hybrid crystalline materials comprised of inorganic and organic building blocks. By varying both the building blocks and the synthesis conditions, an infinite number of such novel materials could be synthesised.

Prototypical MOF structure made up of a periodic arrangement of inorganic (metal) and organic components.

Prashant, who was then a graduate student, began the research with the aim of creating a planar 2-D MOF materials to mimic iron-core memory. However, serendipitously, he synthesised a perovskite MOF which was disordered at the room temperature.

Perovskite materials generally exhibit many interesting and intriguing properties such as