A Laboratory of Crystal Chemical Design of Functional Materials is to be created at South Ural State University. Within the framework of the new laboratory, research studies are to be conducted together with the leading staff members of Saint Petersburg State University and Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences.
Material science is one of the tree priority development fields for South Ural State University. The research will be fulfilled at the SUSU new laboratory and will eventually result in production of unique functional materials. These materials can be applied in manufacturing of solar panels, sensors, as well as in other relevant fields.
A cross-disciplinary scientific group will also be organised at SUSU, which will include both the university staff members who have significant developments in this field of study, and Professor Vadim Kukushkin, and representative of Saint Petersburg State University, Academic of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Sciences (Chemistry), along with Sergey Adonin, Representative of Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Sciences (Chemistry), who will also become the head of the new laboratory.
“The laboratory will deal with crystal chemical design of new materials based on non-valent interactions, such as halogen bond, chalcogen bond. The main goal is to create new materials. For example, at the Laboratory of Crystal Chemical Design of Functional Materials it is possible to produce luminescent sensors, magnetic materials, solar panels elements. The research will be based on the skills and abilities of the consortium members in the field of modelling, synthesis and analysis of structure and properties of materials. The development of in-demand materials on a practical level is considered to be an extremely important task for the laboratory,” says Sergey Adonin.
As part of the discussion of future fields of research, Vadim Kukushkin, Doctor of Sciences (Chemistry), Professor of Saint Petersburg State University, gave a lecture on the topic “Nominal interactions in chemistry: strong bonds due to weak non-valent contacts”, and spoke about the prospects of scientific and research activities in this field. The crystal chemical design or, in other words, crystal engineering, is based on the phenomenon of the formation of multiple weak non-valent bonds. As a result of their formation, associates, clusters, extended supramolecular systems and, finally, functional materials can be obtained.
Halogen bonds research is one of the current trends in chemistry today. Russia takes the 7th place in the world in the number of scientific publications on this topic. Meanwhile, a significant contribution to the topic was made by Saint Petersburg State University and South Ural State University. That is why, collaboration of the universities in this field will become a great boost for such type of research as the creation of new functional materials.