Dr CHUI Sin Yin, Stephen Lecturer

1. Dr CHUI Sin Yin, Stephen Lecturer Ph.D., Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 1999. University of Hong Kong, 2001-2011. http://www.chemistry.nus.edu.sg/ourpeople/academic_staff/XXXXX.htm Email: chmcsys@nus.edu.sg RESEARCH INTERESTS 1) Advanced X-ray Structural Methods, 2) Porous Solids and 3) Functional Molecules 1) Structural Determination using Powder Diffraction Homoleptic metal organothiolates or organoacetylides were long realized to have polymeric structures. Owing to the problem of low solubility in organic solvents and difficulty in obtaining single crystals, I firstly used laboratory powder X-ray diffraction data to elucidate their unknown 1-D and 2-D structures that correlate with the charge-transporting or luminescent behavior. Their unique polymeric networks of these metal-organic precursors directed facile formations of respective metal sulfide nanoparticles. [Cu(SPhOH)]∞ sheet [Cu3(BTC)2]∞ (MOF) 2) Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis using Powder Diffraction Besides, X-ray diffraction is a simple and non-destructive analytical tool for crystalline solid materials. i.e. Monitoring solid-solid transformations, determination of crystallite sizes, identification of unknown phases & quantification of phases in a mixture. 3) Metal-Organic Open Framework Porous solids is one of emerging areas in materials science and coordination chemistry. Judicious choices of metal ions and poly-dentate organic ligands will generate a number of novel & robust porous solids called “metal-organic frameworks “ or MOFs. E.g., copper(II) benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylates (or HKUST-1) showed practical applications in gaseous separation (H2, CO2, CH4), and catalysis. Future direction is to explore the pore micro-environment, that stereochemically catalyzes useful reactions. 4) Structure-Property Relation of Functional Molecules New molecular materials exhibiting interesting solid-state properties such as charge-transport, magnetism, ferroelectricity, vapoluminescence, as well as liquid crystallinity could be structurally investigated by X-ray diffraction method coupled with Rietveld structural analysis and refinement under normal or in-situ variable-temperature condition. In this aspect, any sort of formal or informal interdisciplinary collaboration or discussion in a local or worldwide level is highly welcomed. REPRESENTATIVEPUBLICATIONS(Please refer to my publication list in departmental webpage) 1