Published in Annual Review of Materials Research
Advances in machine learning have impacted myriad areas of materials science, such as the discovery of novel materials and the improvement of molecular simulations, with likely many more important developments to come. Given the rapid changes in this field, it is challenging to understand both the breadth of opportunities and the best practices for...
The emerging field of self-assembled vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) thin films effectively enables strain, interface, and microstructure engineering as well as (multi)functional improvements in electric, magnetic, optical, and energy-related properties. Well-ordered or patterned microstructures not only empower VAN thin films with many new ...
Establishing structure–property correlations is of paramount importance to materials research. The ability to selectively detect observable magnetization from transitions between quantized spin states of nuclei makes nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy a powerful probe to characterize solids at the atomic level. In this article, we review...
Recent advances in the synthesis of block copolymers have enabled the creation of smart and functional designer polymers possessing specific intermolecular interactions. The long-range nature of these interactions strongly affects the molecular packings and microstructures of such polymers, which are intimately related to their properties. In addit...
Symmetry is fundamental to understanding our physical world. An antisymmetry operation switches between two different states of a trait, such as two time states, position states, charge states, spin states, or chemical species. This review covers the fundamental concepts of antisymmetry and focuses on four antisymmetries, namely, spatial inversion ...
Grain boundaries can undergo phase-like transitions, called complexion transitions, in which their structure, composition, and properties change discontinuously as temperature, bulk composition, and other parameters are varied. Grain boundary complexion transitions can lead to rapid changes in the macroscopic properties of polycrystalline metals an...
We live in a research era marked by impressive new tools powering the scientific method to accelerate the discovery, prediction, and control of increasingly complex systems. In common with many disciplines and societal challenges and opportunities, materials and condensed matter sciences are beneficiaries. The volume and fidelity of experimental, c...
Published in Annual Review of Materials Research
The discovery of alternative methods of producing electrical energy that avoid the generation of greenhouse gases and do not contribute to global warming is a compelling problem of our time. Ubiquitous, but often highly distributed, sources of energy on earth exist in the small-temperature-difference regime, 10–250°C. In this review, we discuss a f...
Noble metals (Ru, Os, Rh, Ir, Pd, Pt, Ag, and Au) are known for their extraordinary oxidant-resistant behavior, good electrical and thermal conductivity, high work function, and brilliant luster. All occur in close-packed crystal structures: Ru and Os in hexagonal close-packed (hcp) and the rest in face-centered cubic (fcc) structures, both possess...
Published in Annual Review of Materials Research
We review recent applications of positive muon spin relaxation (μSR) spectroscopy as an active probe of ion diffusion in energy storage materials. μSR spectroscopy allows the study of ionic diffusion in solid-state materials on a time scale between 10−5 and 10−8 s where most long-range and consecutive short-range jumps of ions between interstitial ...
