Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy is at the heart of modern chemistry and is widely applicable to other fields in science. The reason for the importance of magnetic resonance techniques is that they can be used to study, at a molecular level, almost any molecule or extended structure. Our research group at the King's University College involves undergraduate researchers using magnetic resonance techniques to study the molecular structure and motion of polymers that are important for fuel cells and materials used for gas adsorption. Many fuel cells rely on polymer membranes which require water to be absorbed in order to function. Understanding the interactions between the polymer and the water is important in order to improve membrane performance. We will use special magnetic resonance techniques of deuterated water to measure the local structure and motion of the molecules. From this research we hope to provide an understanding of how to improve the performance of polymer membranes for fuel cell applications.In the drive to develop new gas storage materials for fuels, such as hydrogen, or waist gases, such as carbon dioxide, coordination polymers formed from metal atoms and organic molecules have garnered intense interest. In our group we use experimental and computational magnetic resonance methods to obtain a unique picture of the atomic level structure and motion that plays a crucial role in the gas adsorption properties of these systems.