Associate Professor Tilo Söhnel

DiplChem (MSc, 1993), Dr.rer.nat. (PhD, 1998) from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany

Associate Professor

In: Chemical Sciences » Faculty of Science

Biography

Associate Professor

from 2020 Associate Dean (Masters and Postgraduate Taught), Faculty of Science, University of Auckland

2017 Visiting guest professor at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, RWTH Aachen, Germany

from 2016 Associate Professor, School of Chemical Sciences, University of Auckland

2015-2016 Deputy Head of School (academic), School of Chemical Sciences, University of Auckland

2013 - 2015 Senior Lecturer above the bar, School of Chemical Sciences, University of Auckland

2006 - 2012 Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical Sciences, University of Auckland

2004 – 2006 Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University of Auckland

2001 – 2004 Research Assistant at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Technical University of Dresden, Germany

2000 – 2001 Feodor Lynen - Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Department of Chemistry, The University of Auckland, NZ

2000 Research Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany

1993 – 1999 Research assistent, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Technical University of Dresden, Germany

For information please take a look at my personal website.

Research | Current

Solid State and Inorganic Materials Chemistry

The main focus of my research lies in the field of experimental and theoretical chemistry of solid state compounds and inorganic materials such as mixed main group metal / transition metal cluster compounds and complex transition metal oxides. This includes the preparation and characterisation of novel tin, antimony and lead cluster compounds with promising materials properties and the calculation of band structures of solid state compounds to investigate the crystal structure and the electronic structure. For the preparation of these compounds quite a number of different methods will be used, from classical high temperature sintering in evacuated quartz tubes for the synthesis of pure powder materials, to the crystallisation from metal melt, or even gas phase reactions (chemical transport reactions) for the preparation of single crystals. For the identification of these compounds we use X-ray single crystal or powder diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, electron spin resonance, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), high resolution electron microscopy (HREM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), measurements of temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility and the electrical resistance.

This work involves a large number of national and international co-operations with research groups on the different topics in inorganic materials and theoretical chemistry.

For more information please visit my personal website.

Teaching | Current

CHEM210 - quantum mechanics

CHEM220 - inorganic solid state compounds

CHEM310 - structural chemistry and spectroscopy

CHEM350 - X-ray crystallography

CHEM380 - inorganic materials

CHEM720 - inorganic cluster chemistry

CHEM780 - structure and bonding in extended structures

Distinctions/Honours

2014 Elected Member of the ANBUG Executive Committee, Bragg Institute, Australian national nuclear research and development organisation (ANSTO)

2013 Member of the XAS Program Advisory Committee, Australian Synchrotron

2010 Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany

2010 Hon. Research Associate, New Zealand Institute of Advanced Study, Massey University

2008 Hon. Research Fellow, Institute of Fundamental Science (IFS), Massey University

2006 Early Career Research Excellence Award, The University of Auckland

2005 Hon. Research Associate, Institute of Fundamental Science (IFS), Massey University

2000 Feodor Lynen - Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany

Responsibilities

Single Crystal and powder X-ray diffraction in School of Chemical Sciences (SHaRE Center Microcharacterisation, Faculty of Science)

Areas of expertise

Materials Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry
Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
X-Ray Crystallography
Synchrotron and Neutron Diffraction

Selected publications and creative works (Research Outputs)

Goodacre, D., Blum, M., Buechner, C., Hoek, H., Gericke, S. M., Jovic, V., ... Bluhm, H. (2020). Water adsorption on vanadium oxide thin films in ambient relative humidity. The Journal of chemical physics, 152 (4)10.1063/1.5138959
Zhang, T., Christopher, T. D., Huang, S., Liu, Y., Gao, W., Sohnel, T., & Cao, P. (2019). Pressureless sintering of Al-free Ta-doped lithium garnets Li7-xLa3Zr2-xTaxO12 and the degradation mechanism in humid air. CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL, 45 (16), 20954-20960. 10.1016/j.ceramint.2019.07.085
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Peng Cao, Saifang Huang, Wei Gao, Timothy Christopher
Spasovski, M., Avdeev, M., & Söhnel T (2019). Synthesis and Structural Determination of the Disordered Bixbyite Cu3-x Sb1+x O5.5+3x/2 with Spin-Glass Behaviour. Chemistry, an Asian journal, 14 (8), 1286-1292. 10.1002/asia.201801835
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Martin Spasovski
Devendra, R., Edmonds, N. R., & Söhnel T (2018). Insight into the mechanism of the catalysis of urethane formation by organotin(IV) dicarboxylate. Reaction Kinetics, Mechanisms and Catalysis, 124 (2), 487-502. 10.1007/s11144-018-1366-4
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Ransi Devendra
Ling, C. D., Allison, M., Schmid, S. A., Adveev, M., Gardner, J. S., Wang, C. W., ... Söhnel T (2017). Striped magnetic ground state of the kagome lattice in Fe₄Si₂Sn₇O₁₆. Physical Review B, 96 (18).10.1103/PhysRevB.96.180410
Huang, S., Huang, Z., Cao, P., Zujovic, Z., Price, J. R., Avdeev, M., ... Ouyang, X. (2017). Inside Back Cover: “114”-Type Nitrides LnAl(Si 4− Al )N 7 O with Unusual [AlN 6 ] Octahedral Coordination (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 14/2017). Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 56 (14), 4065-4065. 10.1002/anie.201702125
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Peng Cao, Saifang Huang, Wei Gao
Huang, S., Huang, Z., Cao, P., Zujovic, Z., Price, J. R., Avdeev, M., ... Ouyang, X. (2017). "114"-type nitrides LnAl(Si₄-xAlx)N₇Oδ with unusual [AlN₆] octahedral coordination. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 56 (14), 3886-3891. 10.1002/anie.201612488
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/33541
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Saifang Huang, Peng Cao, Wei Gao
Allison, M. C., Avdeev, M., Schmid, S., Liu, S., Söhnel T, & Ling, C. D. (2016). Synthesis, structure and geometrically frustrated magnetism of the layered oxide-stannide compounds Fe(Fe₃−ₓ Mnₓ)Si₂Sn₇O₁₆. Dalton Transactions, 45 (23), 9689-9694. 10.1039/c6dt01074a