Research Highlights

Our Researchers have investigated the phase stability of the equiatomic CoCrNi alloy, a material traditionally considered a single-phase face-centered cubic (FCC) structure. Through comprehensive analysis, the study reveals that under specific conditions, the alloy...

Refractory complex concentrated alloys (RCCAs) are promising materials for extreme environments due to their high melting points and exceptional mechanical strength. However, their performance can be significantly affected by interstitial impurities, which alter...

Researchers at UCI have reported the synthesis of AlSeI single crystals, marking the first aluminum-containing helical crystal in the III–VI–VII 1D van der Waals class. This work reveals a unique form of tri-el-defined helicity in low-dimensional materials,...

Our researchers have developed a cutting-edge liquid cellTEM platform that allows simultaneous control of electrochemical bias, temperature, and liquid flow. This advanced setup enabled the team to investigate copper nucleation on platinum electrodes under different...

This research shows how specially designed short protein-like molecules (peptides) can be programmed to change shape and join together when triggered by changes in acidity, oxidation, or the addition of a phosphate group—signals that also control natural proteins in...

Understanding processes in photon–phonon scattering, absorption, and chemical reactions in optical nanocavities is important for single-molecule sensors, single-photon emitters, and photocatalysis. However, the influence of electromagnetic fields, charge transfer, and...

Using in-situ atomic resolution HAADF-STEM imaging, the study provides direct experimental evidence that grain rotation in nanocrystalline materials is primarily driven by disconnection-mediated shear-coupled grain boundary (GB) migration, confirming a...

We introduce a neural network kinetics (NNK) scheme that predicts and simulates diffusion-induced chemical and structural evolution in complex concentrated chemical environments. The framework is grounded on efficient on-lattice structure and chemistry representation...

Machine learning (ML) models can be interpretable, providing new fundamental physical/chemical insights into materials systems. We developed interpretable ML models1 to investigate two very different materials systems: • Peptide “wires” experimentally shown to exhibit...

This paper reports: Redox-enabled pathway complexity in amino acid-functionalized perylene diimides (PDIs) and its consequence for the macroscopic hydrogel network. Chemical reduction and subsequent oxidation enable a kinetically trapped state of the micellar network,...

The realization of chiral and non-reciprocal excitations in inorganic crystalline materials necessitates the development of new atomically-precise chiral solid state crystals and understand their fundamental optical/electronic states that arise from the resulting...

The paper describes the use of a short protein (peptide) sequence feature to control self-assembly using pH. We showed that this control allows access to structures unprecedented in nature or computationally designed protein assemblies. The resulting nanowires are...

Spin–orbit torques enable energy-efficient manipulation of magnetization by electric current and hold promise for applications ranging from non-volatile memory to neuromorphic computing. A team lead by Prof. Ilya Krivorotov of the CCAM seed project discovered a new...

Disulfide hydrogels, based on cysteine-driven redox systems, exhibit remarkable self-assembly properties through reversible disulfide bond formation, making them a promising platform for dynamic material design. A research team from IRG-2, led by Prof....

An IRG2 team, led by Prof. Sahar Sharifzadeh (Boston University) and Prof. Stacy Copp (University of California, Irvine), has developed an approach that integrates machine learning with density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study dynamic...

Impact of Entropy Stabilization on Electrical Conductivity Entropy-stabilized oxide (ESO) research has primarily focused on discovering unprecedented structures, chemistries, and properties in the single-phase state. However, few studies discuss the impacts of entropy...

Observing the Dynamics of an Electrochemically Driven Active Material with Liquid Electron Microscopy The IRG-2 team led by Assistant Professor Joe Patterson (Department of Chemistry) and his student Wyeth Gibson, have pioneered the observation of molecular active...

Exceptional Electronic Transport & Quantum Oscillations in Thin Bismuth Crystals Grown Inside vdW Materials The seed team, led by Assistant Professor Javier D. Sanchez-Yamagishi, has developed an innovative approach to thin crystal synthesis by growing bismuth...

Sensitive Thermochromic Behavior of InSeI Optical thermometry measures temperature using the optical properties of materials, such as luminescence, absorbance, or fluorescence. In a study published in Advanced Materials, the seed team led by Assistant Prof. Maxx Q....

Neural Network Kinetics Method Predicts Atomic Diffusion in Complex Materials IRG-1 researchers, Assistant Professor Penghui Cao of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and his student Bin Xing, have developed a groundbreaking Neural Network Kinetics (NNK) method to...