Experimental expertice

    • Solid-state syntheses under normal and inert conditions at high and low pressures.
        Working in gloveboxes to handle air-sensitive materials.
        Reactions between oxides, flourides, sulfides, carbonates, and nitrates in resistance furnaces in air, nitrogen, argon, oxygen, vacuum (10-5 mbar), or under high pressure of Ar (104 bar).
        Using temperature gradients in tube furnaces to initiate chemical transport for synthesising single crystals.
        Reactions between volatile oxides above their decomposition temperatures in a closed system (silica ampoule, Nb-tube, Ta-tube).
        High temperature synthesis (up to 3000 °C) in arc-melting furnaces under Ar atmosphere.
        High temperature synthesis (up to 2000 °C) in closed metal ampoules in high-frequency furnaces.
        Reaching high homogeneity to synthesise precursors for solid-state reaction.
        Using sol-gel methods by mixing acetates, nitrates, or carbonates in water and adding complexing agents, such as tartaric acid or citric acid, to form gels.
        Applying freeze-drying on dissolved salts by pouring the solution into liquid nitrogen and removing the solvent using low pressure.
    • Thermal gravimetry (TG) and differential thermal analyses (DTA)
        Using TG and DTA to extract information about reactions and phase transitions to optimise synthesis conditions.
    • Powder X-ray diffraction
        Using Guinier, Guinier-Hägg cameras with internal standards (Si or quartz) to calculate accurate cell parameters having normal film or image plates as detectors. Both Cu and Cr X-ray radiation have been used. A low temperature (down to 11 K) camera has been used to observe phase transitions.
        Obtaining high-resolution data in standard diffractometers in Debye-Scherrer (transmission) or Bragg-Brentano (reflection) mode at high temperature (up to 900 °C).
    • Single crystal X-ray diffraction
        Using Laue photography to establish quality of single crystals.
        Using Schwenk photographs to find unit cell for single crystals.
        Extracting single crystal data with a four-circle diffractometer (CAD-4).
        Extracting single crystal data with STOE image plate systems (IPDS I, IPDS II) and Bruker CCD systems (AXIS).
        Handling absorption corrections at diffractometers.
        Refining the structures from data using the softwares Shelxs, Shelxl, and Jana2000.
    • Rietveld refinement
        Using software to do crystal structure refinements from X-ray powder data, neutron powder data performed at different temperatures (10-300 K).
        Software expertice with GSAS and Fullprof2000.
    • Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with elemental analyses (EDS)
        Working with carbon and gold sputtering of powders and single crystals to make the samples less beam sensitive.
        Using the microscopes JEOL SEM 820, JEOL SEM 880, and Leica Stereoscan 420i.
        Evaluating elemental analyses using detectors with and without Be-window.
    • Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with electron diffraction (ED) and high-resolution imaging (HREM)
        Preparing and inserting grids for examination in TEM.
        Working with JEOL 2000FX and JEOL 200CX.
        Calculating cell parameters and determining symmetries from ED patterns.
        Taking photos at high-resolution to examine crystallographic stacking orders.
    • Magnetic susceptibility measurements
        Using the low temperature equipment Lakeshore 7000 susceptometer to perform AC-susceptibility measurements at temperature between 12 and 300 K.
        Performing magnetisation measurements with a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer (Quantum Design) system at fields up to 5.5 Tesla between 2 and 400 K including working with liquid He.
        Measuring magnetic susceptibility and magnetisation in a physical property measurement system (PPMS, Quantum Design) in the temperature range 2-1000 K at fields of 0-9 Tesla.
    • Four-probe AC and DC-conductivity measurements at low temperatures
        Applying contacts on sintered powder pellets under microscope using silver paint.
        Measuring at temperatures between 4 and 300 K by dipping the sample in liquid He.
    • Magnetisation measurements using the vibrating sample method (VSM)
        Running measurements at higher temperatures (up to 1200 K)
        Evaluating obtained data obtained at fields up to 1,2 T.
    • Specific heat measurement
        Preparing samples and running the measurement in the thermal relaxation mode.
        Evaluating data including extracting the magnetic entropy from the phononic background to compare with theoretical predictions.
    • Solid-state infrared (IR) spectroscopy
        Preparing samples (KBr windows) for both air-sensitive and other compounds.
        Using a Bruker IR (parallel beam set-up) to extract and evaluating data.
    • Liquid ultraviolet-visual light spectroscopy (UV-VIS)
        Preparing standards and perform quantitative analyses of metal ions in solvents under inert atmosphere or in air.
        Interpreting data to determine oxidation states and ligand field splitting.
    • Electron spin resonance (ESR)
        Preparing samples and perform standard analyses of paramagnetic moments in liquids and solid state materials.
    • Atom absorption spectroscopy (AAS)
        Preparing standards and perform quantitative analyses of metal ions in solvents.