About

Jim Martin is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at NC State University. His educational background includes a B.A. in Chemistry and Biology from Goshen College, a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry from Indiana University, a postdoctoral fellowship in Solid State Chemistry at Iowa State University, and additional postdoctoral training in Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Paris. His research focuses on the synthesis, structure, and physical properties of inorganic materials at the interface of molecular and solid state chemistry. He specializes in amorphous materials engineering, nano-science, and the technology of inorganic liquids and solutions. His work also involves studying reaction mechanisms in condensed matter, including phase transitions, crystallization, the glass transition, and gas/solid reactions, utilizing techniques such as time-resolved synchrotron and neutron diffraction. Additionally, he is engaged in science and education public policy.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Classical mechanics
• Physical chemistry
• Thermodynamics
• Materials science
• Physics
• Chemical physics
• Crystallography
• Organic chemistry
• Inorganic chemistry
• Statistical physics
• Chemical engineering
• Nanotechnology

Selected publications

• From single crystal neutron diffraction to single crystal diffraction imaging - amazing opportunities and developments

  Structural Dynamics · 2025-09-01

  articleOpen access

  At the debut of single crystal neutron diffraction over 80 years ago, it was a courageous undertaking to find diffracting and reflecting intensities in space with a single point detector. Since then, it has been a fantastic journey to watch the methodology progress and it’s impact on discovery of materials and their properties. Traditional Neutron Bragg intensity measurements integrating discrete “peak above background” counts meanwhile metamorphosed into high resolution diffraction space images that can be effectively combined into complete volumes of reciprocal space. The structure information between the discrete Bragg peaks in form of intensities from structure modulations that are on step or out of step with the overall long range ordered Bragg structure can be comprehensively visualized and analyzed. Analysis of materials properties stemming from short range order influences of structural defects, chemical disorder, positional disorder and other structure frustration manifestations in diffuse scattering can be visualized and most recently also analyzed. This might be a good time to draw attention to an emerging crystalline state at the threshold between fully long range ordered and amorphous or liquid, like plastic crystalline phases. Often, they are present over several degrees Kelvin before a crystal is fully long range ordered. In this state the structured diffuse scattering gives detailed insight of the next neighbor correlations and growing coordination shells. Long range order is forming in the plastic single crystal, which can also be observed. Data modeling makes use of 3D delta-PDF analysis, showing positive and negative correlations on a “model-free” basis. Recognizing the details that can be discovered in 3D delta-PDF analysis are just beginning to emerge. This is just one of the exciting developments that mark a transformation from discrete Bragg peak analysis to image processing and modeling which are equally powerful for monochromatic X-ray and polychromatic neutron wavelength resolved diffraction imaging. A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

  PublisherDOI

• Solutes don’t crystallize! Insights from phase diagrams demystify the ‘‘magic’’ of crystallization

  Matter · 2025-11-08

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Contextual Analysis of Scientific Publications for Advancing writing Skills (CASPArS): Self-Learning for Science Writing Using Top Scientists’ Literature

  ChemRxiv · 2024-05-27 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Writing is an essential component of scientific activity. As such, it is necessary to develop strategies to provide equitable training opportunities for science writing. In order to provide learners with ways to improve their writing regardless of their language background and/or institutional and departmental environments, this article describes a self-learning strategy, Contextual Analysis of Scientific Publications for Advancing writing Skills (CASPArS), that employs contextual analysis of top scientists’ publications. By using full-text search software to analyze several hundred selected publications, the CASPArS method affords a visual representation of proper usage of words/phrases of interest, facilitating learners to understand writing patterns and rules in leading scientific papers. In order to increase the accessibility of the method for diverse communities around the world, a free-search software sin3rou and 500 open-access chemistry papers by 150 US researchers have been included in the Supporting Information. Using this CASPARS strategy, learners/students are able to develop appropriate writing through “professors’ eyes” by taking advantage of established scientific writers’ experience and knowledge of language usage.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Contextual Analysis of Scientific Publications for Advancing Writing Skills (CASPArS): Self-Learning for Science Writing Using Top Scientists’ Literature

  Journal of Chemical Education · 2024-12-06

  articleOpen access

  Writing is an essential component of scientific activity. As such, it is necessary to develop strategies to provide equitable training opportunities for science writing. In order to provide learners with ways to improve their writing regardless of their language background and/or institutional and departmental environments, this article describes a self-learning strategy, Contextual Analysis of Scientific Publications for Advancing writing Skills (CASPArS), that employs contextual analysis of top scientists’ publications. By using full-text search software to analyze several hundred selected publications, the CASPArS method affords a visual representation of proper usage of words/phrases of interest, facilitating learners to understand writing patterns and rules in leading scientific papers. The utility of the method has been demonstrated with several examples by using 500 non-open-access papers of synthetic organic chemistry and chemical biology fields from various journals such as Nature and Science. In order to increase the accessibility of the method for diverse communities around the world, a free-search software sin3rou and 500 open-access chemistry papers (e.g., ACS Central Science and Chemical Science) by 150 U.S. researchers have been included in the Supporting Information (available online with the full paper). Using this CASPARS strategy, learners/students are able to develop appropriate writing through “professors’ eyes” by taking advantage of established scientific writers’ experience and knowledge of language usage.

  PublisherDOI

• Solutes don’t crystallize! Insights from phase diagrams demystify the “magic” of crystallization

  Matter · 2024-10-01 · 10 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Membrane emulsification and de-emulsification by physical and entropic levers

  Nature Water · 2024-09-19 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Direct interpretation of the X-ray and neutron three-dimensional difference pair distribution functions (3D-ΔPDFs) of yttria-stabilized zirconia

  Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Science Crystal Engineering and Materials · 2023-02-24 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  Three-dimensional difference pair distribution functions (3D-ΔPDFs) from X-ray and neutron diffraction experiments are reported for yttria-stabilized zirconia (Zr 0.82 Y 0.18 O 1.91 ). A quantitative analysis of the signatures in the three-dimensional difference pair distribution functions is used to establish that oxygen ions neighbouring a vacancy shift by 0.525 (5) Å along 〈1, 0, 0〉 towards the vacancy while metal ions neighbouring a vacancy shift by 0.465 (2) Å along 〈1, 1, 1〉 away from the vacancy. The neutron 3D-ΔPDF shows a tendency for vacancies to cluster along 〈½, ½, ½〉, which results in sixfold coordinated metal ions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Deep Dive into Eutectics: On the Origin of Deep and Elevated Eutectics

  Journal of The Electrochemical Society · 2023-06-01 · 15 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  There is growing interest in deep eutectic solvents (DES) for both chemical synthesis and materials applications. However, there is a general lack of understanding regarding what uniquely defines a system as a deep eutectic, and more importantly, what chemical properties determine unique eutectic behavior. In this work, we identify the thermodynamic basis for ideal eutectics relative to assumptions of ideal solutions. We then articulate the new Solvation Shell-Ionic Liquid (SSIL) and -Liquid Solvate (SSLS) model for solutions which identify the chemical/physical factors that create solution non-ideality and afford the ability to accurately calculate liquiduses, and thus the eutectics, of binary systems. The application of these models is demonstrated using diverse families of materials including aqueous salt solutions (ZnCl 2 , NaCl, KCl, and NH 4 NO 3 ), aqueous molecular solutions (sucrose and urea), solutions of naphthalene with aromatic (toluene, benzene, toluene, biphenyl and phenanthrene) and non-aromatic (ethanol, butanol, heptane and acetone) solvents, and the choline chloride:urea system for which the term DES was first introduced. The accurate description of the non-ideal enthalpic and entropic terms affords clear definition and prediction of both deep and elevated eutectics in diverse systems.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Raptors Counts and weather variables

  Figshare · 2023-01-01

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Raptors were surveyed using line-transect distance sampling. The survey were conducted at three locations: Albany Area Propery, Tall Timbers Research Station in Georgia, and Livingston Place in Florida in United States.

  PublisherDOI

• Denoising total scattering data using Compressed Sensing

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2023-10-18

  preprintOpen access

  To obtain the best resolution for any measurement there is an ever-present challenge to achieve maximal differentiation between signal and noise over as fine of sampling dimensions as possible. In diffraction science these issues are particularly pervasive when analyzing small crystals, systems with diffuse scattering, or other systems in which the signal of interest is extremely weak and incident flux and instrument time is limited. We here demonstrate that the tool of compressed sensing, which has successfully been applied to photography, facial recognition, and medical imaging, can be effectively applied to diffraction images to dramatically improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in a data-driven fashion without the need for additional measurements or modification of existing hardware. We outline a technique that leverages compressive sensing to bootstrap a single diffraction measurement into an effectively arbitrary number of virtual measurements, thereby providing a means of super-resolution imaging.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Molecular Control over the Mechanism of Crystal Growth

  NSF · $400k · 2017–2021

• Mechanistic Investigation of the Formation and Reactivity of Metal-Halide Networks

  NSF · $420k · 2003–2007

• Mechanisms of Nucleation and Crystal Growth of Metal Halide Networks

  NSF · $390k · 2008–2012

• EAGER: Exploring the Application of Transition Zone Theory to Crystallization from Solutions

  NSF · $150k · 2019–2022

• Designing Structure and Properties of Metal-Halide Framework Materials

  NSF · $412k · 2000–2003

Frequent coauthors

• Enric Cañadell

  48 shared

• Patrick Batail

  Institut des Sciences et Technologies Moléculaires d'Angers

  31 shared

• J R G Hiero

  Norwich Research Park

  25 shared

• Andrew Richards

  Agrii (United Kingdom)

  25 shared

• Claudia Bauer-Christoph

  Bayerisches Landesamt für Gesundheit und Lebensmittelsicherheit

  25 shared

• Jean-Claude Vidal

  25 shared

• A. Smith

  25 shared

• E C Conchie

  Joint Research Centre

  25 shared

Labs

• Jim Martin LabPI

Education

• Postdoctoral, Chemistry

  Iowa State University

  1994

• Postdoctoal, Chemie Theorique

  University of Paris

  1991

• PhD, Chemistry

  Indiana University Bloomington

  1990

• BA, Chemistry and Biology

  Goshen College

  1986