The image at left shows how the arrangement of chemical bonds in different materials can make it hard to put them together to form a clean interface. The image at right shows how a flexible block that fits both materials can bridge the gap between them, forming a clean interface. Images: University of Liverpool.
The image at left shows how the arrangement of chemical bonds in different materials can make it hard to put them together to form a clean interface. The image at right shows how a flexible block that fits both materials can bridge the gap between them, forming a clean interface. Images: University of Liverpool.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool in the UK have shown that it is possible to design and construct interfaces between materials with different crystal structures by making a bridge between them. This advance is reported in Nature Chemistry.

It is usually possible to create well-controlled interfaces between two materials with similar crystal structures. But the ability to combine materials with different crystal structures has lacked the accurate design rules that increasingly exist in other areas of materials chemistry.

"When we try to fit materials together at the atomic scale, we are used to using the sizes of the atoms to decide which combinations of materials will ‘work’ i.e. will produce a continuous well-ordered interface,” said Matthew Rosseinsky, a materials chemist at the University of Liverpool.

"[In this study], the project team added in consideration of the chemical bonding around the atoms involved, as well as their sizes, as a key design step," he explained. "This allowed the selection of two materials with different crystal structures yet with sufficient chemical flexibility to grow in a completely ordered manner throughout the interface between them. This was achieved by the formation of a unique ordered structure at the interface, which did not correspond to either material but contained features of both of them: an atomic-scale bridge."

The design and formation of such atomic-scale bridges will lead to materials with new and improved physical properties, opening the path to new information technology and energy science applications amongst a myriad of science and engineering possibilities. For example, these bridges could allow atoms to move faster at the interface between two materials, producing better batteries and fuel cells. They could also help produce more efficient transistors or blue LEDs, which rely on the creation of very clean, well-ordered interfaces between different materials in order to work properly.

This story is adapted from material from the University of Liverpool, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier. Link to original source.