Name: Associate Professor Robert LaDuca
Department: Chemistry, Lyman Briggs School
Title of research project: Hydrothermal synthesis of inorganic/organic hybrid materials
Date of research: LaDuca has been working on this project since 1996 when he taught at King's College in Pennsylvania, and continued his work when he came to MSU in 2004. The project remains ongoing.
Basics of the project: Using a process similar to how crystals form in the earth's crust, LaDuca and five undergraduate students combine compounds to form molecular crystalline structures, which could be used as gas storage materials.
LaDuca begins the experiments by submersing organic, or carbon-based, and inorganic compounds in water and combining them in a sealed pressure vessel, where the compounds are heated to about 249-392 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the strict science, the organic and inorganic compounds should not be combined in this way, but it is necessary to do this in order for the proper reaction to occur between the compounds and form the crystals, LaDuca said.
Even though the temperatures are above boiling point — 212 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale — the water remains in a liquid state because of the pressure inside the vessel. The liquid state allows the inorganic compounds to dissolve and react with the organic compounds.
The components stay in the heated vessel for three to five days, and crystalline structures — ranging in shape from one-dimensional to three-dimensional — form inside.
LaDuca and his students find crystalline structures inside the vessel about 5 percent of the time because these experiments are part of a developing science. But that's part of the excitement, LaDuca said.
The crystals are about a quarter of a millimeter on each side but are still visible, LaDuca said.
Social impact of research: LaDuca said he hopes to explore the uses of the crystalline structures as gas storage materials, industrial catalysts and molecular absorbents.
Grants and funding: Start-up funding for the project came from MSU, and LaDuca said he wants to apply for further funding with the National Science Foundation and The Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation Inc.
