Dr. Julia Chan

Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Materials Science

Tim and Sharalynn Fenn Family Endowed Chair in Materials Science

Deputy Editor | Science Advances (AAAS) 

Education

Ph.D.
University of California, Davis - 1998

B.S.
Baylor University - 1993

Experience

National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow
Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology - 1998 - 2000

Professor of Chemistry
Louisiana State University - 2000 - 2013

Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry
The University of Texas at Dallas - 2013 - 2021

Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Baylor University - 2022 - Present

Research

Our research group is focused on the discovery of new families of quantum materials. Efforts are placed on the crystal growth of strongly correlated systems to determine the structures, electrical, magnetic, and transport properties of rare-earth intermetallics to understand emergent phenomena. Although low-dimensional solids are highly anisotropic by nature and show promise in new quantum materials leading to exotic physical properties not realized in three-dimensional materials, we can extend our synthetic strategy by flux-growth methods to design single-crystalline low-dimensional materials in bulk. Could the discovery of new layered intergrowth compounds be possible by using structural subunits as building blocks? We are left with the question, “Can one take any two binary building blocks with similar lattice parameters to construct completely new intergrowth compounds?” If so, an entirely new phase space of materials can lead to exotic behavior, and most likely complex electrical and magnetic properties can be tuned by selecting the desired structural subunits.

Selected Publications

1. Phelan, W.A.; Menard, M.C.; Kangas, M.J.; McCandless, G.T.; Drake, B.; Chan, J.Y. “Adventures in Crystal Growth: Synthesis and Characterization of Single Crystals of Complex Intermetallic Compounds” Chem. Mater., 2012, 24, 409 - 420.

2. Schmitt, D.C.; Drake, B.; McCandless, G.T.; Chan, J.Y., “Targeted Crystal Growth of Rare Earth Intermetallics with Synergistic Magnetic and Electrical Properties: Structural Complexity to Simplicity”, Acc. Chem. Res., 2015, 48, 612–618. DOI: 10.1021/ar5003895

3. Benavides, K.A.; Oswald, I.W.H.; Chan, J.Y., “Casting a Wider Net: Rational Synthesis Design of 2-Dimensional Bulk Materials”, Acc. Chem. Res. 2018, 1, 12–20.

4. Weiland, A.; Felder, J. B.; McCandless, G. T.; Chan, J. Y. “One Ce, Two Ce, Three Ce, Four? An Intermetallic Homologous Series to Explore: A_n+1B_nX_3n+1”, Chem. Mater. 2020, 32, 1575−1580.

5. Weiland, A.; Wei, K.; Felder, J. B.; Eddy, L. J.; McCandless, G. T.; Baumbach, R. E.; Chan, J. Y. “Strongly Correlated Electron Behavior in a New Member of the A_n+1B_nX_3n+1 Homologous Series: Ce₇Co₆Ge₁₉”, Phys. Rev. Mater. 2020, 4, 074408.

6. Tartaglia, T.; Tang, J.; Lado, J.L.; Bahrami, F.; Abramchuk, M.; McCandless, G.T.; Doyle, M.; Burch, K.S.; Ran, Y.; Chan, J.Y.; Tafti, F. “Accessing New Magnetic Regimes by Tuning the Ligand Spin-orbit Coupling in Van der Waals Magnets”, Sci Adv. 2020, 6, eabb9379.

7. Weiland, A.; Eddy, L.J.; McCandless, G.T.; Hodovanets, H.; Paglione, J.P.; Chan, J.Y. “Refine Intervention: Characterizing Disordered Yb_0.5Co₃Ge₃”, Cryst. Growth Des. 2020, 20, 6715–6721.

8. Weiland, A.; Frith, M.; Lapidus, S., Chan, J.Y., “In Situ Methods for Metal-Flux Synthesis in Inert Environments”, Chem. Mater., 2021, 33, 7657–7664.

9. Yang, H.-Y.; Yao, X.; Plisson, V.; Mozaffari, S.; Scheifers, J. P.; Savvidou, A. F.; Choi, E. S.; McCandless, G. T.; Padlewski, M. F.; Putzke, C.; Moll, P. J. W.; Chan, J. Y.; Balicas, L.; Burch, K. S.; Tafti, F. “Evidence of a coupled electron-phonon liquid in NbGe₂”, Nat. Commun., 2021, 12, 5292.

10. Kyrk, T.M.; Scheifers, J.P.; Thanabalasingam, K.; McCandless, G.T.; Young, D.P.; Chan, J.Y. “It Runs in the BaAl₄ family: Relating the Structure and Properties of Middle Child Ln₂Co₃Ge₅ (Ln = Pr, Nd, and Sm) to its Siblings LnCo₂Ge₂ and LnCoGe₃”, Inorg. Chem. 2021, 60, 15343–15350.

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