As a graduate student in the lab of Susan Kauzlarich at U.C. Davis in the early 1990’s, I cut my teeth on pnictides, the anions of the Group 13 elements—figuratively, of course. Susan introduced me to the world of solid-state chemistry, empowered me to take ownership of my projects, and eventually was instrumental in the launch my independent career. As a student, I worked on synthesizing ternary manganese phosphides adopting the ThCr2Si2 & CaAl2Si2 structure types and evaluating their structure-dependent magnetic properties, and then delved into layered manganese pnictide oxide phases. I loved the fact that these were different from the chalcogenides and oxides that dominated the field. Many years later, as new faculty member, I would turn again to pnictides, focusing on developing colloidal routes to nanoparticles, work I am continuing to pursue to this day. In the last 5 years or so, I have noticed a distinct uptick in citations to my early work with Susan. Our 1994 paper in the Journal of Solid State Chemistry with John Greedan was virtually uncited in the first two decades after publication, but has been cited 30 times in the past 5 years. Susan Kauzlarich was ahead of her time, and she is now reaping the benefits of her foresight, and rightfully accruing honors such as the ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry. In the first half of the talk, I will revisit the past, giving an overview of my early work on pnictides and pnictide-oxides with Susan and then briefly discussing why these materials are relevant today. The second half of the talk will focus on work on transition metal pnictide nanoparticles conducted at Wayne State, and our efforts to create a synthetic tool box to target ternary and quaternary phases and understand the size- and composition-dependent magnetic properties. Finally, a discussion of future adventures in pnictide chemistry will ensue.

There and back again: Adventures in pnictide chemistry

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.