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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. Many lithium-transporting polymers, which could play a central role in the future of solid-state lithium batteries, suffer from poor lithium conductivity, even if the total conductivity could be high due to the counterions moving. MRSEC IRG-2 researchers have devised strategies to ensure that it is the lithium that moves, making these materials useful. 

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.

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.

Graduate Students for Diversity in Science is composed of an interdisciplinary group of young scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The cornerstone of the group lies in its recognition of the cultural heritage and diversity of many exceptional scientists who have set foundations through research, service, and leadership in their respective disciplines and across many boundaries. GSDS aims to promote participation in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and foster an inclusive atmosphere that celebrates diversity.

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,

Electrons in topological materials behave like massless particles (called Weyl fermions). They are either right- or left-handed (the spins are locked parallel or antiparallel to their velocity). In parallel applied electric and magnetic fields, one population grows while the other shrinks. This leads to a new kind of electrical current called an “axial” current. The Princeton MRSEC group has observed this new effect (called the chiral anomaly) in two distinct topological metals, Na3Bi and GdPtBi (1,2).

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

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.

Textbooks say that glasses are structurally disordered and  isotropic,  meaning  that  their  constituent molecules don’t’ form a repeating pattern and point in random directions.

The transport of energy and information in semiconductors is limited by scattering between electronic carriers and lattice phonons, resulting in diffusive and  lossy  transport  that  curtails  all  semiconductor  technologies.