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John Arnold
Faculty Scientist
Professor of Chemistry
University of California, Berkeley
Department of Chemistry
402 Latimer Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1460
USA
Catalytic Science Program
Biography
Professor. B.Sc. Salford University (1982); Ph.D., Born
1959; University of California, San Diego (1986); Postdoctoral
Fellow, Imperial College (1987-88); Royal Society University
Research Fellow (1988-89); Faculty Associate Scientist, Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division;
Sloan Fellow (1993-97).
Research Interests
Synthetic studies focus on preparing novel metal complexes,
investigating new catalytic reactions, and using molecules
to prepare solid-state materials.
Work in Professor Arnold's research group is directed toward
the synthesis and study of new and unusual molecular inorganic
and organometallic compounds of the d- and p- block, and lanthanide
elements. The emphasis is on preparing compounds that exhibit
novel reactivity and/or catalytic behavior (both homogeneously
and heterogeneously). In addition to the dry-box and Schlenk
techniques used to prepare and manipulate compounds, we exploit
a variety of characterization methods, including multinuclear
NMR, X-ray crystallography, ESR and cyclic voltammetry. In
the solid-state, we employ TGA/DTA, RBS, SEM and powder diffraction
to determine the composition and purity of our materials.
Research is concentrated in two main areas spanning organometallic
and coordination chemistry, catalysis, and the design of new
materials:
Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis
The focus here is on the design and synthesis of new ligands
that are capable of supporting novel structural features and
reactivity. Currently, we are investigating ligand architectures
based on triazacyclononane, amidine, and diamide frameworks.
An important aspect of this work is its application to catalysis.
Our recent efforts have focused on polymerization of a-olefins
and lactide, and we are especially interested in developing
new complexes for use in enantioselective synthesis.
Materials Chemistry
Our recent work has explored two areas of materials chemistry.
New routes to important solid-state semiconductorts, such
as GaN and ZnSe, have been developed using single-source precursor
chemistry. We are especially interested in the development
of new ion conducting systems and their application as solid
electrolytes for lithium batteries. Drawing inspiration from
biological systems, our work aims to produce solid polymer
systems that are able to transport lithium ions with high
efficiency.
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