Functional Inorganic and Materials Chemistry (Dinca Lab)

The Dincă Lab focuses on the synthesis and characterization of new inorganic and organic materials for applications in small molecule transformations (e.g. CO2 and O2 reduction, and natural gas conversion), energy conversion and storage, sensing, gas separation, and biotechnology. By designing and synthesizing new materials, we also hope to learn more about fundamental processes such as electron and ion transport through ordered solids, the reactivity and electrochemistry of low-coordinate metal ions in porous crystals, the effects of conformational changes on the electronic properties of molecules, and the behavior of materials at the interface with solid-state devices and biological media.

Inorganic and organic synthesis, as well as rigorous physical characterization are the cornerstones of our research. Students and post-doctoral researchers will gain synthetic skills spanning inorganic (Schlenk & Glove Box techniques), solid state, solvothermal, and organic chemistry (for ligand synthesis). We employ a range of characterization techniques: single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction, gas-sorption analysis, electrochemistry, thermogravimetry and various spectroscopic techniques: NMR, UV-Vis, IR, EPR, etc. These allow us to delineate important structure-function relationships that guide us in the design of new materials with predesigned physical properties.