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APPLIED INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. Expert has extensive experience in applied inorganic chemistry. Using new sol-gel methods that employ hydrogen peroxide, Expert has made a variety of ceramics and minerals, for example, forsterite, enstatite, and members of the olivine family. Sols (colloidal suspensions) of the magnesium silicates form useful thin films and powders. When doped with a small amount of chromium, forsterite is one of the few materials that acts as a tunable laser in the near IR region; the powdered precursor is fully crystalline at 850C.

CRYSTALLIZATION; METAL ADHESION PROCESS. Mixed metal oxides have potential uses in other advanced materials such as fiber-reinforced glass-ceramic composites. Expert has directed the sol-gel synthesis and characterization of a layered silicate, namely the mica, potassium fluorophlogopite that acts as a weak, oxidatively stable, interface between fiber and ceramic matrix. A hybrid process, a combination of solution chemistry with electrostatic phenomena, has been used for synthesis of ultrafine (nanosize) metal oxide particles that are useful for electrostatic coating applications.

ADHESION THEORY. Expert has explored the chemical basis for adhesion of metals to ceramics. Transition metal oxides in alumina improved adhesion to a chromium metal overlayer by 30-50%. To learn how this works, Expert prepared several mixed metal oxides and correlated the results of adhesion strength measurements with interface energies calculated by means of extended Huckel, quantum mechanical calculations in collaboration with Prof. R. Hoffmann.

METAL-CERAMIC COMPOSITE. Expert synthesized dense Ni-Al2O3 and NiAl-Al2O3 composites using displacement reactions between NiO and aluminum. The resulting microstructures were interpenetrating and did not crack under indentation.

ORGANOMETALLIC CHEMISTRY. For several years, Expert's research was concerned with metal-to-metal bonding and novel bonding modes for the main group elements and the synthesis, characterization and chemistry of mixed metal clusters.

AIR-SENSITIVE MATERIAL HANDLING. Under Expert's direction, an extensive line of specialty glassware for the manipulation of air- and moisture-sensitive compounds, adapted from the traditional Schlenk tube techniques, was developed at Employer and is commercially available.

Expert teaches and routinely uses advanced laboratory techniques ranging from HIGH VACUUM methods to PEPTIDE SYNTHESIS. He is familiar with most SPECTROSCOPY techniques and the use of the computer in data analysis.

Expert has designed, built, taught, and consulted on the apparatus for the handling of air- and moisture-sensitive compounds, based on the well-known Schlenk methodology. Some of this creations are shown in the 1999 catalog of Ace Glass Co., Vineland, NJ, in the section entitled "No-Air Apparatus", which includes the Ace- Expert Inert Atmosphere System for gas-vacuum operations.

As a teacher of general, inorganic, advanced inorganic, analytical (quantitative analysis) instrumental analysis, and advanced synthesis methods, Expert has a very broad range of knowledge in the inorganic-organometallic, and analytical areas. He was co-director for the creation of over 30 videotaped programs on laboratory technique entitled the "Master-Apprentice Series", which have been translated into several languages and used worldwide to illustrate techniques in the undergraduate laboratory.

Expert's PhD training and over 30 years’ experience in teaching and research has been in this area. He has over 90 publications in the highest quality journals, such as the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Inorganic Chemistry, Chemistry of Materials, and Organometallics.


Most of Expert's research involves synthesis and characterization of new compounds and materials. Recent accomplishments include a hydrogen peroxide assisted, sol-gel synthesis of a variety magnesium silicates, including forsterite, Cr-doped forsterite, flurortalc, and flurorphlogopite. Current research is directed toward the characterization of a proposed magnesium hydroperoxide intermediate. Recent work also includes the synthesis of Nd-doped barium fluoride nanoparticles (see publications).

In the course of over 10 years of research in the area of metal silicate synthesis, Expert has over 20 publications in leading journals in this area. Most contributions are based on sol-gel synthesis, and some involve thin-film formation as well. A patent (US 5019293) describes some of this work.