Designing Functional Materials One Atom at a Time
Department of Physics & Astronomy Colloquium
4:00 pm –
5:00 pm
Jorgensen Hall Room: 136
Target Audiences:
Contact:
Physics Department, (402) 472-2770, paoffice2@unl.edu
Dr. Rohan Mishra will present his colloquium topic, “Designing Functional Materials One Atom at a Time” in person.
ABSTRACT: Defects in materials are inevitable. Sir Colin Humphreys wrote “crystals are like people, it is the defects in them which tend to make them interesting”.1 Advances in supercomputing capabilities and first-principles calculations based on density-functional theory now make it possible to successfully describe the properties of “real” materials with disorder, defects, and imperfections starting from the atomic scale. Concurrent advances in scanning transmission electron microscopy enable imaging and spectroscopy of the atomic and electronic structure of materials with unprecedent spatial and energy resolution. Naturally then, the combination of theory and microscopy provides an unparalleled probe to unravel the structure-property correlations in real materials. In this presentation, I will discuss my group’s efforts to develop new materials with defects and disorder for energy and optical applications. Examples will include design of defective oxides for cleaner combustion of hydrocarbons,2 two-dimensional high-entropy alloys for CO2 reduction,3,4 and chalcogenide perovskites with colossal optical anisotropy.5
1. C. J. Humphreys, in Introduction to Analytical Electron Microscopy, (Eds: J. J. Hren, J. I. Goldstein, D. C. Joy), Springer US, Boston, MA 1979, 305.
2. G. F. Luo et al., J. Phys. Chem. C 123, 17644 (2019).
3. J. Cavin et al., Adv. Mater. 33, 2100347 (2021).
4. Z. Hemmat et al., Adv. Mater. 32, 1907041 (2020).
5. H. Mei et al., arXiv:2303.00041 (2023).
ABSTRACT: Defects in materials are inevitable. Sir Colin Humphreys wrote “crystals are like people, it is the defects in them which tend to make them interesting”.1 Advances in supercomputing capabilities and first-principles calculations based on density-functional theory now make it possible to successfully describe the properties of “real” materials with disorder, defects, and imperfections starting from the atomic scale. Concurrent advances in scanning transmission electron microscopy enable imaging and spectroscopy of the atomic and electronic structure of materials with unprecedent spatial and energy resolution. Naturally then, the combination of theory and microscopy provides an unparalleled probe to unravel the structure-property correlations in real materials. In this presentation, I will discuss my group’s efforts to develop new materials with defects and disorder for energy and optical applications. Examples will include design of defective oxides for cleaner combustion of hydrocarbons,2 two-dimensional high-entropy alloys for CO2 reduction,3,4 and chalcogenide perovskites with colossal optical anisotropy.5
1. C. J. Humphreys, in Introduction to Analytical Electron Microscopy, (Eds: J. J. Hren, J. I. Goldstein, D. C. Joy), Springer US, Boston, MA 1979, 305.
2. G. F. Luo et al., J. Phys. Chem. C 123, 17644 (2019).
3. J. Cavin et al., Adv. Mater. 33, 2100347 (2021).
4. Z. Hemmat et al., Adv. Mater. 32, 1907041 (2020).
5. H. Mei et al., arXiv:2303.00041 (2023).
https://www.unl.edu/physics/2022-2023-colloquia-schedule
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