Equipment: Facilitating Optical X-Ray Techniques for Research and Organized Training at Alabama State University (FOXTROT-ASU)

Alabama State University, Montgomery AL

Investigators

Abstract

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) provides support to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs. This project focuses on the acquisition of an X-ray diffractometer to enhance the teaching and research capabilities within the Chemistry, Forensic Biology, Forensic Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering programs. Underrepresented students in STEM will have the opportunity to conduct research with major instrumentation and have questions answered by utilizing this technique. Access to this instrument allows for students to strengthen their research background and understand the connection between theory and application by incorporating this technique into the degree program curricula. This endeavor will play a role in preparing students for the workforce and/or advanced degree programs in STEM disciplines and create local collaborations with other institutions and affiliated research centers. Project goals include the effective analysis of complex structures of novel crystalline samples synthesized from solid-state techniques by which defects can be induced via substitution or by a post-synthesis reduction step. X-ray diffraction will be used as an essential technique to monitor and identify phases within the synthetic process and gives insight to the completion of the process. The subsequent properties analyzed as a result of this technique gives valuable insight regarding the changes based on the sample’s composition, structure, stability, and local environment of atoms. Refined bond distances and angles generated from Rietveld analysis provided by the instrument will be used to provide bond valence sums and global instability indices for synthetic products and compared with computationally modeled bond valence values for optimization leading to higher impact peer-reviewed publications. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.