Invited Professorship, Rennes 1 University, Rennes, France, 2008 Excellence in Teaching, The Honors College, The University of Arizona, 2007 International Junior Award, European Rare Earth and Actinide Society, 2003 National Science Foundat

Inorganic/Energy Science/Materials and Polymer Chemistry/Spectroscopy/molecular Structure/Surfaces and Solid State/Synthesis/Synthetic Methods Development

Synthetic Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry, Catalysis, Materials Chemistry, Clusters and Nanostructured Materials

Our research, in the general areas of synthetic and structural inorganic chemistry, is directed toward developing new paradigms of coordination chemistry and creating metal-containing functional materials. The underpinning of our program has been the coordination and organometallic chemistry of both transition and rare earth elements. The unique and frequently aesthetically pleasing structural features, interesting properties, and potentially significant applications of transition metal- and lanthanide-containing substances provide multifold impetus for our efforts.

"Keeping the ball rolling - Fullerene-like molecular clusters." Kong, X.; Long, L.; Zheng, Z.; Huang, R.; Zheng, L. Acc. Chem. Res. 2010, 43, 201-209. "Solvent-induced transformation of single crystals of a spin-crossover (SCO) compound to single crystals with two distinct SCO centers." Li, B.; Wei, R.; Tao, J.; Huang, R.-B.; Zheng, L.-S.; Zheng, Z. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 1558-1566. "Cluster-bound nitriles do not click with organic azides – Unexpected formation of imine complexes of the [Re6(µ3-Se)8]2+ core-containing clusters." Tu, X.; Boroson, E.; Truong, H.; Nichol, G. S.; Zheng, Z. Inorg. Chem. 2010, 49, 380-382. "Cluster compounds of the f-elements." Zheng, Z. Handbook of Physical and Chemistry of the Rare Earth Elements 2010, 40, 109-240. "A four-shell, 136-metal 3d-4f heterometallic cluster approximating a rectangular parallelepiped." Kong, X.; Nichol, G. S.; Long, L.; Huang, R.; Zheng, L. Harris, T. D.; Zheng, Z. Chem. Commun. 2009, 4354-4356 (cover illustration) "A chiral 60-metal sodalite cage featuring 24 vertex-sharing [Er4(µ3-OH)4] cubanes." Kong, X.; Wu, Y.; Long, L.; Zheng, L. Zheng, Z. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 6918-6919. "Lanthanide-doped magnetite nanoparticles." De Silva, C.; Smith, S.; Shim, I.; Pyun, J.; Gutu, T.; Jiao, J.; Zheng, Z. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 6336-6337.

"Crystal engineering supported by the [Re6(µ3-Se)8]2+ core-containing clusters." Tu, X.; Zheng, Z. CryEngComm. 2009, 11, 707-719 (cover illustration).