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Program Highlights for year 2023

A New Common Behavior for Glasses

Materials  scientists  use  rules  that  hold  across  different kinds   of  materials   as  powerful  tools  to  understand material’s    fundamental    behavior,    to    predict    their properties   and   performance,   and   to   design   new materials.

Atomic-scale origin of the low grain-boundary resistance in perovskite solid electrolyte Li0.375Sr0.4375Ta0.75Zr0.25O3

The main achievement of this research is revealing the atomic-scale origin of the low grain-boundary (GB) resistance in Li0.375Sr0.4375Ta0.75Zr0.25O3 (LSTZ0.75) perovskite solid electrolyte and providing insights on overcoming the ubiquitous bottleneck of high GB resistance in other oxide solid electrolytes.

Sugar-fueled Dissipative Living Materials

The  first  example  of  synthetic  living  material featuring   dissipative   behaviors   directly controlled  by  the  fuel  consumption  of  their constituent cells.

Leveraging the Polymer Glass Transition

A collaboration between the de Pablo, Rowan and Jaeger groups at the University of Chicago developed a novel class of suspensions with stimuli-responsive polymer particles to be able to transition reversibly between liquid to solid behavior in response to temperature,

Direct Synthesis and CVD of 2D MXenes

Novel chemical reactions enable scalable and atom-economic synthesis of two-dimensional metal carbides and nitrides (MXenes). These directly synthesized MXenes from the University of Chicago show excellent energy storage capacity for Li-ion intercalation.

A Multi-tasking Polypeptide from Bloodworm Jaws

The key protein that helps bloodworms form copper-based mineral composites to make very strong jaws has been identified along with the several functions that it serves.

High-Performance Polymer Solid Electrolytes

New lithium-ion transporting polymers, suitable for use as solid electrolytes in lithium ion batteries have been developed based on controlling the dielectric properties of polymers and details of the polymer architecture.

Heusler Compounds: To Alloy or Not to Alloy?

Rules for the creation of alloys within the family of Heusler compounds, which are ordered compounds formed between metals, have been broadly formulated.

Heusler compounds are important functional materials, used for their magnetic and thermoelectric properties. These rules will help in designing new materials with optimized functionality.

Plant Leaf ELMs Undergo Shape Shifting Driven by External Stimuli

Plant/polymer composite materials have been fabricated. These  composite  materials  are  stimuli responsive  and  can  undergo  shape-shifting   behavior   in   response   to temperature or light. 

A Multiphysics Approach for the Self-Assembly of Nanocrystal Checkerboards

IRG1 has developed a toolkit for carrying out simulated X-ray   adsorption   spectroscopy   (XAS).   XAS   is   a powerful technique for understanding the surface local structure  and  chemistry  of  complex  interfaces  at  the nanoscale.

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