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	Jing Li Professor Email M.S. August 1983, State University of New York at Albany Ph. D. January 1990, Cornell University (Advisor: Prof. Roald Hoffmann) Postdoctoral Associate 1989-1991, Cornell University (Advisor: Prof. Frank DiSalvo)
	Contact   Links Phone: (732) 445-3758 Fax: (732) 445-5312 Lab: (732) 445-2775 and 3193 Dept: (732) 445-2618 Office: WL-207 Mail: Chemistry & Chemical Biology, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 Prof. Jing Li’s Group Web Site IAMDN IGERT

Summary

Our research interests and activities are mainly in the areas of solid-state inorganic and organic-inorganic hybrid materials that possess interesting and useful properties. Our recent work focuses largely on the design, synthesis, characterization and modification of new materials potentially important for energy storage and conversion. Several on-going projects are briefly described below.

Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Semiconductors: A New Class of Nanostructured Crystals with Interesting and Enhanced Properties

Hybrid materials that incorporate organic and inorganic components into a single crystal lattice often lead to modified and enhanced properties, as well as new phenomena and new functionality. Recently, we have developed an unprecedented class of hybrid nanostructured crystals (Fig. 1) that are comprised of sub-nanometer-sized semiconductor motifs (inorganic component) and mono- or di-amines (organic component). These hybrid materials possess a number of improved and enhanced properties over their parent bulk semiconductors, including broad band-gap variation and high absorption coefficients, all desirable for optoelectronic applications. They also possess a very rich structural chemistry and exhibit interesting structure related thermal properties. More significantly, they show exceptionally strong structure-, rather than size-induced, quantum confinement effect (QCE), and such confinement can be systematically tuned by modifying the composition, crystal structure and dimensionality of the inorganic motifs.

Microporous Metal Organic Frameworks: A New Type of Adsorbents for Gas Storage and Separation

 

Microporous metal organic frameworks (MMOFs) are currently under intensive investigation because of their rich structural chemistry and interesting properties. As a subclass of MOFs these materials contain micropores (pore diameter less than 20Å) and demonstrate porosity associated multi-fold functionality that show promise for applications in gas storage and separation, catalysis, guest- and/or pore-induced magnetization and sensing. Compared to other porous materials such as zeolites and carbon nanotubes, MMOFs demonstrate numerous desirable features. Their crystal structures (e.g. dimensionality, framework connectivity, and topology), compositions (e.g. the type and form of metals and ligands) and pore properties (e.g., pore size and shape, pore volume and the chemical functionality of the pore walls) can be deliberately and systematically tailored to enhance targeted properties and to achieve improved performance. Fig. 2 shows two highly porous MMOF structures.

Metal Chalcogenides: Inorganic Compounds as Electronic, Optical and Zeotype Materials

Early investigations on binary metal chalcogenides had led to the discoveries of many important properties, including superconductivity, charge-density wave phenomena, ferromagnetism and anti-ferromagnetism, phase transitions, and anisotropic electrical and optical behavior. Important technological applications in heterogeneous catalysts, reversible battery electrodes, high temperature lubricants, optical storage materials, solar cells, solid state lasers, and thermoelectrics have been implemented as the result of such discoveries. The past several decades have witnessed tremendous efforts devoted to the exploitation of soft, low temperature synthetic methods for preparation of new multi-component chalcogenides. These efforts have led to the discovery of many new ternary and quaternary phases with remarkably rich structures and interesting properties. One of the strategies is the use of organic templates both as charge-compensating and structure-directing agents. This approach has proven to be very effective in generating porous chalcogenides. Employing secondary building-block approach in our solvothermal reactions, along with the use of large organic template species, we have succeeded in synthesizing a number of open framework structures of metal selenides and tellurides containing large pores (Fig. 3). Interesting and promising phases mimic the properties of zeotype materials are anticipated from this research.

Outstanding Achievement Award, Chinese Association of Science and Technology, USA, 2002
The Board of Trustees Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence, Rutgers University, 1996
Presidential Faculty Fellow, 1995-2000
NSF CAREER Award, 1995
Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, 1994-1998
Henry Rutgers Research Fellow, Rutgers University, 1991-1993

1. Li, J.; Bi, W.-H.; Ki, W.; Huang, X.-Y.; Reddy, S. “Nanostructured Crystals: Unique Hybrid Semiconductors Exhibiting Nearly Zero and Tunable Uniaxial Thermal Expansion Behavior”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2007, 129, 14140.
2. Lee, J. Y.; Olson, D. H.; Pan, L.; Emge, T. J.; Li, J. “[M(bdc)(ted)_0.5]•2DMF•0.2H₂O (M = Zn, Cu): Microporous Metal Organic Frameworks with High Gas Sorption and Separation Capacity”, Adv. Func. Mater., 2007, 17, 1255-1262.
3. Huang, X. -Y.; Li, J. “From Single to Multiple Atomic Layers: A Unique Approach to the Systematic Tuning of Structures and Properties of Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Nanostructured Semiconductors”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2007, 129, 3157-3162.
4. Pan, L.; Parker, B.; Huang, X. Y.; Olson, D. H.; Lee, J. -Y.; Li, J. “A Guest-Free MMOF with Unique Gas Separation and Storage Capability”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006, 128, 4180.
5. Pan, L.; Olson, D. H.; Ciemnolonski, L. R.; Heddy, R.; Li, J. “Separation of Hydrocarbons with a Microporous Metal-Organic Framework”, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 616.
6. Lee, J. -Y.; Pan, L.; Kelly, S. K.; Jagiello, J.; Emge, T. J.; Li, J. “Achieving High Density of Adsorbed Hydrogen in Microporous Metal Organic Frameworks”, Adv. Mater. 2005, 17, 2703.
7. Pan, L.; Sander, M. B.; Huang, X.-Y.; Li, J.; Smith, M.; Bittner, E.; Bockrath, B.; Johnson, J. K. “Microporous Metal Organic Materials: Promising Candidates as Sorbents for Hydrogen Storage”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 1308.
8. Huang, X.-Y.; Li, J.; Zhang, Y.; Mascarenhas, A. “From 1D Chain to 3D Network: Tuning Hybrid II-VI Nanostructures and Their Optical Properties”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2003, 125, 7049.
9. Pan, L., Liu, H.-M.; Lei, X.-G.; Huang, X.-Y.; Olson, D. H.; Turro, N. J.; Li, J. “RPM-1: A Recyclable Nanoporous Material Suitable for Ship-In-Bottle Synthesis and Large Hydrocarbon Sorption”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 542.
10. Su, W.-P.; Huang, X.-Y.; Li, J.; Fu, H.-X. “Crystal of Semiconducting Quantum Dots Built Upon Covalently Bonded T5 [In₂₈Cd₆S₅₄]-12, The Largest Supertetrahedral Cluster in Solid State”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 12944.
11. Huang, X. -Y.; Li, J.; Fu, H. -X. “The First Covalent Organic-Inorganic Networks of Hybrid Chalcogenides: Structures That May Lead to A New Type of Quantum Wells”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2000, 122, 8789.
12. Pan, L.; Huang, X. -Y.; Li, J.; Wu, Y. -G.; Zheng, N. -W. “Novel Single-, Double-Layer and 3D Structures of Rare-Earth Metal Coordination Polymers:The Effect of Lanthanide Contraction and Acidity Control in Crystal Structure Formation”, Angew. Chem. Intl. Ed., 2000, 39, 527.

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