Sustainable Energy & Materials Laboratory

The central theme of Dr. Yoon’s research group is the application of physicochemical and engineering concepts to address fundamental questions in the physical sciences and environmental challenges. One major area of research focuses on inclusion compounds, with particular interest in their practical applications. Inclusion compounds are crystalline complexes formed through physical interactions between host and guest molecules.

In these systems, the fundamental challenge is to understand and predict the relationship between the structured framework and the resulting macroscopic properties. This research particularly involves investigating changes in framework structures and properties, the dynamics of guest molecules, and the quantitative analysis of guest inclusion.

To carry out these studies, we have developed novel experimental approaches, including gas-phase synthesis of clathrates, in situ Raman spectroscopy, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy, and solid-state NMR spectroscopy, together with theoretical interpretations using density functional theory (DFT) calculations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.

These approaches allow us to make both qualitative and quantitative predictions of structure–property relationships, thereby opening new pathways for the development of functional materials with unique cage geometries.