RESEARCH
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Regents Professor Alexandra Navrotsky's research interests have centered on relating microscopic features of structure and bonding to macroscopic thermodynamic behavior in minerals, ceramics, and other complex materials. She has made significant contributions to mineralogy/geochemistry and solid-state chemistry/materials science in the fields of ceramics, mantle mineralogy, deep earth geophysics, melt and glass science, nanomaterials, and porous materials. She has developed unique high-temperature calorimetric techniques and instruments and her laboratory the Peter A. Rock Thermochemistry Laboratory, collaborates with scientists worldwide.
RESEARCH INTERESTS

NUCLEAR ENERGY MATERIALS
Understanding the thermostability of the materials in
nuclear reactors, including molten salt reactors.
Safe disposal of nuclear materials to decrease
harm to the environment.

ENERGY MATERIALS
Energy materials have a wide range of
applications such as fuel cells, batteries, and
water splitting. Understanding their
thermodynamics is needed to improve
performance under operating conditions and reduce
decomposition and other unwanted reactions.

ZEOLITES
Zeolites are aluminosilicates that can
be used as catalysts for a variety of
organic chemical reactions, with
current uses in several catalytic and
sieving applications.

MATERIAL STABILITY ON PLANETS
Material stability on Earth and other planets
constrains their formation and evolution and has
environmental ramifications to understand
mineral decomposition and dissolution that
may release nutrients like iron or
contaminants like nickel.

HYBRID MATERIALS
Organic/inorganic compounds such
as hybrid perovskites and metal
organic frameworks (MOFs) which
contain large organic cations or
linkers have various technological
applications.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
2021
"Effects of Al:Si and (Al + Na):Si ratios on the properties of the international simple glass, part I: Physical properties" Reiser, J.T., Lu, X., Parruzot, B., Kim, S.H., Vienna, J.D., Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 104(1), pp. 167–182
"Thermodynamics of high entropy oxides" McCormack, S.J., Navrotsky, A. Acta Materialia, 202, pp. 1–21
"Thermodynamics of cesium lead halide (CsPbX3, x= I, Br, Cl) perovskites" Wang, B., Navrotsky, A. Thermochimica Acta, 695, 178813
"Cooperative formation of porous silica and peptides on the prebiotic Earth" Navrotsky, A., Hervig, R., Lyons, J., Shock, E., Voskanyan, A. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(2), e2021117118
"Thermochemistry and phase stability of the polymorphs of yttrium tantalate, YTaO4" Lepple, M., Ushakov, S.V., Lilova, K., Levi, C.G., Navrotsky, A. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 41(2), pp. 1629–1638
"Corrigendum to “Thermodynamics of cesium lead halide (CsPbX3, X = I, Br, Cl) perovskites,” Wang, B., Navrotsky, A. Thermochimica Acta, 696, 178848
2020
"Thermochemistry of nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxides," Sandoval, S., Muthuswamy, E., Chen, J., Fuertes, A., Tobias, G., Navrotsky, A. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 40, 16, 6322-6327 (2020)
"Thermodynamics Drives the Stability of the MOF-74 Family in Water," Voskanyan, A.A., Goncharov, V.G., Novendra, N., Guo, X., Navrotsky, A. ACS Omgeda, 5, 22, 13158-13163 (2020)
"Entropy Stabilization of TiO2-Nb2O5 Wadsley-Roth Shear Phases and Their Prospects for Lithium-Ion Battery Anode Materials," Voskanyan, A.A., Abramchuk, M., Navrotsky, A. Chemistry of Materials, 32, 12, 5301-5308 (2020)
"Thermal Analysis of High Entropy Rare Earth Oxides," Ushakov, S.V., Hayun, S.,; Gong, W., Navrotsky, A. Materials, 13, 14 (2020)
"Energetics of CO(2)and H2O adsorption on alkaline earth metal doped TiO2," da Silva, A.L., Wu, L., Caliman, L.B., Castro, R.H.R., Navrotsky, A., Gouvea, D. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 22, 27, 15600-15607 (2020)
"Conductivity, structure, and thermodynamics of Y2Ti2O7-Y3NbO7 solid solutions," Winiarz, P., Mielewczyk-Gryn, A., Lilova, K., Wachowski, S., Subramani, T., Abramchuk, M., Dzik, E., Navrotsky, A., Gazda, M. Dalton Transactions, 49, 31, 10839-10850 (2020)
"A Synergistic Approach to Unraveling the Thermodynamic Stability of Binary and Ternary Chevrel Phase Sulfides," Lilova, K., Perryman, J.T., Singstock, N.R., Abramchuk, M., Subramani, Tamilarasan., Lam, A., Yoo, R., Ortiz-Rodriguez, J.C., Musgrave, C.B., Navrotsky, A., Velazquez, J.M. Chemistry of Materials, 32, 16, 7044-7051 (2020)
"Development of high-temperature oxide melt solution calorimetry for p-block element containing materials," Abramchuk, M., Lilova, K., Subramani, T., Yoo, R., Navrotsky, A. Journal of Materials Research, 35, 16, 2239-2246 (2020)
"Experimental and computational studies of melting of the spinel phase in the Fe-Al-O ternary system," Agca, C.,, Lindwall, G., McMurray, J.W., Neuefeind, J.C., Liu, Z-K, Navrotsky, A. Calphad-Computer Coupling of Phase Diagrams and Thermochemistry, 70 (2020)
"Disorder in Ho2Ti2-xZrxO7: pyrochlore to defect fluorite solid solution series," Drey, D.L., O'Quinn, E.C., Subramani, T., Lilova, K., Baldinozzi, G., Gussev, I.M., Fuentes, A.F., Neuefeind, J.C., Everett, M., Sprouster, D., Navrotsky, A., Ewing, R.C., Lang, M. RSC Advances, 10, 57, 34632-34650 (2020)
"Enthalpies of formation of high entropy and multicomponent alloys using oxide melt solution calorimetry," Hayun, S., Lilova, K., Salhov, S., Navrotsky, A. Intermetallics, 125 (2020)
"Formation and energetics of amorphous rare earth (RE) carbonates in the RE2O3-CO2-H2O system," Koryttseva, A., Navrotsky, A. Thermochimica Acta, 692 (2020)
"Thermodynamic Studies of Bromide Incorporation into Cesium Lead Iodide (CsPbI3)," Wang, B., Navrotsky, A. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 124, 8639-8642 (2020)
"Thermodynamic Evidence of Structural Transformations in CO2-Loaded Metal-Organic Framework Zn(MeIm)(2) from Heat Capacity Measurements," Rosen, P.F., Dickson, M.S., Calvin, J., Ross, N.L., Friscic, T., Navrotsky, A., Woodfield, B.F. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142, 4833-4841 (2020)
"Thermodynamic assessment of BaO-Ln(2)O(3) (Ln = La, Pr, Eu, Gd, Er) systems," Gong, W., Liu, Y., Xie, Y., Zhao, Z., Ushakov, S.V., Navrotsky, A. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 103, 3896-3904 (2020)
"Thermochemistry of rare earth oxyhydroxides, REOOH (RE = Eu to Lu)," Yang, S.H., Powell, M., Kolis, J.W., Navrotsky, A. Journal of Solid State Chemistry, 287 (2020)
"Thermochemistry of cation disordered Li ion battery cathode materials, Li1+xMx ' M1-2x '' O-2 (M ' = Nb and Ta, M '' = Mn and Fe)," Subramani, T., Navrotsky, A. RSC Advances, 10, 6540-6546 (2020)
"Melting temperature measurement of refractory oxide ceramics as a function of oxygen fugacity using containerless methods," Agca, C., Neuefeind, J.C., McMurray, J.W., Weber, R., Navrotsky, A. Journal of American Ceramic Society (2020)
"In Situ High-Temperature Synchrotron Diffraction Studies of (Fe,Cr,Al)(3)O-4 Spinels," Agca, C., Neuefeind, J.C., McMurray, J.W., Liu, J., Benmore, C.J., Weber, R.J.K., Navrotsky, A. Inorganic Chemistry, 59 (2020)
"Hydration structure and water exchange kinetics at xenotime-water interfaces: implications for rare earth minerals separation," Roy, S. Wu, L., Srinivasan, S.G., Stack, A.G., Navrotsky, A., Bryantsev, V.S. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 22, 7719-7727 (2020)
"Energetic insights into the crystallization of lanthanum carbonate amorphous precursors," Koryttseva, A., Navrotsky, A. Thermochimica Acta, 688 (2020)