Fabio Denis Romero did his doctoral work at the University of Oxford with Professor Michael Hayward on the Topochemical Synthesis of Novel Electronic Materials. He then did postdoctoral work at the University of Liverpool (UK) and the University of Kyoto (Japan). He is currently a CNRS researcher at the Institut Néel in Grenoble, France, working on the synthesis and characterisation of novel oxide and mixed anion materials.

 Ca2MnO3X - Oxyhalides with 1-dimensional ferromagnetic chains of square planar S = 2 Mn3+

Mixed anion materials are those in which more than one anionic species coexist in a single phase. The different characteristics such as charge, ionic radius, electronegativity, and polarizability, as well as the local structure of heteroleptic coordination polyhedra provide additional degrees of freedom with which to prepare materials with novel, important, or useful emergent properties. However, the synthesis of such materials presents unique challenges. In particular, a significant size difference between the anionic species will strongly favour a layered arrangement.
    Here we present the synthesis and characterisation of Ca2MnO3X (X = Cl, Br) in which the particular coordination requirements of the cationic species results in a novel structure type containing 1-dimensional chains of square planar Mn3+ cations. These materials show long-range magnetic order at low temperature, with ferromagnetic chains coupled antiferromagnetically through the halide anions, and metamagnetic transitions under applied fields.