We describe work carried out within our group to explore new transition metal and main group nitride
phases synthesised using high pressure-high temperature techniques using X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy
at synchrotron sources in the US, UK and France to establish their structures and physical properties. Along
with previously published data we also highlight additional results that have not been presented elsewhere
and that represent new areas for further exploration. We also describe new work being carried out to explore
the properties of carbon nitride materials being developed for energy applications and the nature of fewlayered carbon nitride nanomaterials with atomically ordered structures that form solutions in polar liquids
via thermodynamically driven exfoliation