Jacques Barbier Professor Dipl. Ing. (1976, École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris) M.Sc. (1978, University of Toronto)  Ph.D. (1985, Australian National University)

Crystal Chemistry of Oxide and Mineral Compounds

Research Interests:

The crystal chemistry of inorganic and mineral oxides and oxy-salts (e.g. borates, phosphates etc.), including the determination and description of crystal structures, the study of polymorphic transformations, and the synthesis and characterization of new compounds. The major experimental techniques used routinely are:  solid-state reactions and single-crystal growth by flux and hydrothermal methods; powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction, powder neutron diffraction as well as electron diffraction and transmission electron microscopy.

Recent Research Topics:

• Synthesis and characterization of  novel inorganic borates. Examples of novel compounds recently discovered in our laboratory include BaBiBO₄, PbMBO₄ (M = Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ga), BaMBO₃F₂ (M = Al, Ga), Ba₂GaB₄O₉X (X = Cl,Br) and Ba₃Ti₃O₆(BO₃)₂.
  

• Ab-initio structure determination of crystal structures from powder X-ray and neutron diffraction data. Applications of the program FOX created by V. Favre-Nicolin & R. Cerny. Examples of structures solved recently include SrBi₂OB₄O₉, BaBiBO₄ and MBi₂O(BO₃)₂ (M = Ca, Sr). This work has been done in collaboration with Lachlan Cranswick from the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre.

All the crystal structure drawings on this page have been drawn with XTALDRAW.

Recent  Publications:

- J. Barbier*, L.J.M. Davis, G.R. Goward & L.M.D. Cranswick (2009) "Ab initio structure determination of SrBi₂OB₄O₉ by powder X-ray/neutron diffraction and NMR spectroscopy", Powder Diffraction 24, 35-40.

- J. Barbier (2007) "The noncentrosymmetric borate chlorides Ba₂TB₄O₉Cl, (T = Al,Ga)" Solid State Sciences 9, 344-350.

- J. Barbier* & L.M.D. Cranswick (2006) "The non-centrosymmetric borate oxides, MBi₂B₂O₇ (M = Ca,Sr)" Journal of Solid State Chemistry 179, 3958-3964.

- J. Barbier*, N. Penin, A. Denoyer & L.M.D. Cranswick (2005) "BaBiBO₄, a novel non-centrosymmetric borate oxide" Solid State Sciences 7, 1005-1061.

- J. Barbier*, N. Penin & L.M.D. Cranswick (2005) "The melilite-type borates Bi₂ZnB₂O₇ and CaBiGaB₂O₇" Chemistry of Materials 17, 3130-3136.

- H. Park, A. Bakhtiiarov, W. Zhang, I. Vargas-Baca & J. Barbier* (2004) "Non-centrosymmetric Ba₃Ti₃O₆(BO₃)₂" Journal of Solid State Chemistry 177, 159-164.

Enquiries:   send an e-mail to barbier@mcmaster.ca

Updated 15 January 2010

Chemistry Faculty
Department of Chemistry.