Events

Abstract: Coordination polymers exhibit structural and functional versatility, with the choice of metal and ligand allowing materials to be tailored for specific applications. Oxalate-based systems are particularly interesting as the ligand can adopt multiple coordination modes, resulting in metal oxalate structures that range from discrete complexes to extended three-dimensional networks. This structural diversity results in their use in areas such as recycling, energy storage, and magnetism.
This work has focused on how structural variation in metal oxalates influences their functional properties. The first part examines the use of lithium iron oxalate precursors to template the formation of electrochemically active polymorphs of lithium iron oxide upon calcination. While exploring different synthetic methods to synthesise cathode precursor materials, an iron oxalate compound with ammonia ligands was synthesised. The second part expands the study of transition metal ammonia oxalates, a family first reported with copper in 1813. Twenty-seven compounds with the formula [M(NH₃)_x(C₂O₄)]·yH₂O were prepared, where M represents manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, or zinc, with x ranging from 0 to 6 and y from 0 to 4. These compounds fall into three polymorphic classes, whose structures can be partially controlled through reaction conditions. The influence of pressure on structure is also examined, providing new insight into the structure property relationships governing metal oxalate materials.