Sergey Dvinskikh

Professor in Physical Chemistry, Deputy head of Applied Physical Chemistry division. Docent 2009, PhD in Physics from St Petersburg University, 1990. Post-doctoral fellow at Free University of Berlin, visiting researcher at University of Michigan, researcher at Stockholm university.

Research Interests

The unifying theme in my research is the development and application of NMR technique to study the behaviour of molecules and ions in self-assembling soft matter. The research is motivated by the need to understand at a molecular level the properties and functions of technologically important materials and biological systems. I was broadly interested in liquid crystals, biomembranes, nanostructured and nanoporous organic-inorganic composites, polymers, ionic soft matter. A common molecular feature in these diverse materials is that anisotropic molecular/ion dynamics and local orientational ordering have a crucial influence on system properties that govern material functionality or device performance.

Full list of publications at Google Scholar

Recent projects

Molecular order and dynamics in ionic liquid crystals

Ionic liquid crystals uniquely combine the ionic conductivity of ionic liquids with the anisotropic physical and chemical properties of liquid crystals. Such a combination makes them highly demanded materials for applications in nanotechnology, electrochemistry, and biomedicine. Phase stabilization in ionic liquid crystals is determined by a subtle balance between hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions, and dispersion forces. Tuning intermolecular forces provides a strategy for controlling properties important for technological applications of ionic liquid crystals.

Selected publications:

D. Majhi, J. Dai, S. V. Dvinskikh. Insights into cation-anion hydrogen bonding in mesogenic ionic liquids: an NMR study. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., (2022). https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CP03188D

D. Majhi, S. V. Dvinskikh. Ion conformation and orientational order in a dicationic ionic liquid crystal studied by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.Sci. Rep.,11, 5985 (2021)

In ionic liquid crystals, electrostatic and hydrogen bonding interactions in ionic sublayer and van der Waals interaction in hydrophobic domains are the main forces contributing to the mesophase stabilization and determining the molecular orientational order and conformation. How these properties in dicationic materials are compared to those in conventional monocationic analogues? We address this question using a combination of advanced NMR methods and DFT analysis.

D. Majhi, J. Dai, A. V. Komolkin, S. V. Dvinskikh. Understanding ionic mesophase stabilization by hydration: a solid-state NMR study.Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.,20, 13408-13417 (2020).

Development of NMR methodology in soft matter

Progress of experimental science depends on the development of new techniques and instrumentations to allow measurements that had not previously been possible. An extremely versatile NMR technique involves the measurement of anisotropic spin couplings which are highly sensitive to motion at a molecular level.

Selected publications:

L. Jackalin, B. B. Kharkov,  A. V. Komolkin, S. V. Dvinskikh. Experimental strategies for 13C–15N dipolar NMR spectroscopy in liquid crystals at the natural isotopic abundance.Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.,20, 22187-22196 (2018)

 

D. Majhi, B. Kharkov, S. V. Dvinskikh. Sign Determination of Dipolar Couplings in Liquid Crystals by off-Magic-Angle Sample Spinning.Chem. Phys. Lett.781, 138997 (2021)