Research Highlights

To better design conductive and bio-compatible nanowires, the UCI MRSEC team, consisting of the groups from BU and UCI, aims to understand their electronic structure and electron transfer mechanism. The team is systematically developing a protocol to combine:  i....

UCI scientists observe effects of heat in materials with atomic resolution Research will benefit design of future electronic and thermoelectric technologies As electronic, thermoelectric and computer technologies have been miniaturized to nanometer scale, engineers...

We combine large-scale atomistic simulations and machine learning to predict the properties of grain boundaries (GBs) in high-entropy alloys (HEAs) as functions of four independent compositional degrees of freedom and temperature in a 5D space. GB diagrams can be...

In IRG-1, we showed that high-entropy ceramics can have significant solubilities of dissimilar components that can subsequently enable new, tunable, and improved properties. 20% ErB2 can be stabilized in a high-entropy transition metal diboride, despite the dissimilar...

Dissipative Self-Assembly Fuel-driven self-assembly is ubiquitous in natural systems, leading to complex phenomena including cell motility, cell division, camouflage, and self-healing. Creating synthetic equivalents of these biological assemblies is challenging but...

Sequence-encoded biomolecules are promising programmable building blocks for materials, but the complexity of these biomaterials can challenge their design. To enable the design of programmable biomolecular building blocks, the UCI MRSEC team has developed a machine...

Materials exhibit dramatically different properties when confined to a 2-dimensional (2d) form. But, current techniques to produce 2d crystals are limited to certain material classes. Team’s guiding question: Can the materials be squeezed down to the...

The main objective of this research project is to construct supramolecular materials interacting with electrogenic bacterial cells and elucidate how bioelectricity dynamically interacts with supramolecular polymers (Figure a)....

Microscopes have played a major role in the discovery of new phenomena in materials science. These discoveries provide opportunities to design and develop materials with new and improved properties. Researchers at the University of California Irvine and DENSsolutions...

The main goal of this research is to reveal the atomic-scale origin of the low grain-boundary (GB) resistance in Li0.375Sr0.4375Ta0.75Zr0.25O3 (LSTZ0.75) perovskite solid electrolyte and to provide insights on overcoming the ubiquitous bottleneck of...

In this work, the grain boundary co-segregation behavior in a NbMoTaW refractory complex concentrated alloy was investigated with atomistic simulations and machine learning tools. A random solid solution was simulated with atomistic simulations and local atomic...

A new type of compositionally complex M5Si3silicides is reported. Notably, (V1/5Cr1/5Nb1/5Ta1/5W1/5)5Si3 forms the hexagonal γ (D88) phase, while all its five constituent binary silicides, V5Si3, Cr5Si3, Nb5Si3, Ta5Si3, and W5Si3, are stable in the tetragonal α (D8l)...

We designed a novel materials screening and discovery workflow that combines Bayesian optimization, graph deep learning (MEGNet model) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In the search of hard materials in the Mo-W-Os-Re-B-C chemical space, the workflow...

The new Nion HERMES 200 is an aberration corrected, monochromated scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) equipped with angle-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), which is the first at a University Shared Facility. Based on the new capabilities...

UCI MRSEC dedicates to accelerate the transformation of research discoveries and innovations through collaborations, partnerships and entrepreneurship Collaborations with national laboratories, including Sandia National Laboratories, Idaho National Laboratory, and...

We aim to understand the nature of conductivity along bio-inspired nanowires and tune these properties via change in chemistry that can be achieved synthetically. This year, we studied a hexamer of coiled peptides which has been synthesized and displays efficient...

Natural proteins exhibit a range of complex structures, functions, and dynamics lacking from synthetic materials. The design of supramolecular materials mimicking these biological features requires the development of design principles for dynamic biomolecular...

High-entropy borides have shown dramatic strength increases with the addition of WB2 and/or MoB2. To uncover a physical explanation for this behavior, a new collaboration with Professors Jian Luo and Tim Rupert was developed. The team discovered that W addition...

Grain boundaries, interfaces between two crystals inside a material, are important defects which can dramatically alter material response because the structure of the boundary is different from the bulk crystalline region. Using a unique set of metals called...

UCI scientists measure local vibrational modes at individual crystalline faults Breakthrough research made possible by advanced microscopic techniques Citation: Nature volume 589, pages 65–69 (2021) Often admired for their flawless appearance to the...