Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Materials Discovery By Crystal Growth: Synthesis, Structure Determination, Magnetic, And Optical Properties Of Complex Lanthanide Containing Oxides, Oxyhydroxides, And Oxyfluorides, Allison Marie Latshaw

Theses and Dissertations

Exploratory crystal growth is a versatile technique and one that can advance materials discovery. Through exploratory crystal growth, it is possible to synthesize many new materials that can have applications in many fields, including solid-state lighting. There exist many adaptations for exploratory crystal growth, including the use of alkali halide flux growth and hydroflux growth, both reported herein. By changing variants in these techniques like reactant ratios, temperature, reaction profile, and, most importantly here, the flux compositions, it is possible to change the products formed or fine tune reactions for product purity.

For solid-state lighting applications, compounds that adopt colorless …

Crystal Growth And Characterization Of Reduced Early Transition Metal Compounds Grown Via Hydrothermal And Molten Flux Methods, Anthony J. Cortese

Theses and Dissertations

Interest in new and facile ways to prepare early transition metal reduced oxides has recently been increasing. In the past difficult flux techniques involving vacuum furnaces, expensive metal tubing, complicated electrolytic reduction apparatuses, were used to achieve in situ reduction of fully oxidized transition metal precursors. Often times these techniques were coupled with use of a difficult flux, such as boric acid, which is hard to remove due to its insolubility in water at room temperature. These limitations can be circumvented in multiple ways, including carefully choosing a redox neutral flux, using evacuated fused silica tubes for reaction vessels, and …