Related papers: Freezing as a path to build complex composites
Experiments have reached a monumental capacity for designing and synthesizing microscopic particles for self-assembly, making it possible to precisely control particle concentrations, shapes, and interactions. However, more physical insight…
The structural symmetry of solids plays an important role in defining their linear and nonlinear optical properties. The quest for versatile, cost-effective, large-scale, and defect-free approaches and materials platforms for tailoring…
Inorganic/inorganic composites are found in multiple applications crucial for the energy transition, from nuclear reactor to energy storage devices. Their microstructures dictate a number of properties, such as mass transport or fracture…
Silicon-oxygen compounds are among the most important ones in the natural sciences, occurring as building blocks in minerals and being used in semiconductors and catalysis. Beyond the well known silicon dioxide, there are phases with…
Freeze casting has been increasingly applied to process various porous materials. A linear relationship between the final porosity and the initial solid material fraction in the suspension was reported by other researchers. However, the…
Most ice in nature forms thanks to impurities which boost the exceedingly low nucleation rate of pure supercooled water. However, the microscopic details of ice nucleation on these substances remain largely unknown. Here, we have unraveled…
To respond to the increasing need for bone repair strategies, various types of biomaterials have been developed. Among those, calcium phosphate ceramics (CPCs) are promising since they possess a chemical composition similar to that of…
Modeling folding surfaces with nonzero thickness is of practical interest for mechanical engineering. There are many existing approaches that account for material thickness in folding applications. We propose a new systematic and broadly…
Tight-binding molecular dynamics simulations shed light into the fracture mechanisms and the ideal strength of tetrahedral amorphous carbon and of nanocomposite carbon containing diamond crystallites, two of the hardest materials. It is…
In this review, we present our recent computational work on carbon-based nanostructured composites. These materials consist of carbon crystallites embedded in an amorphous carbon matrix and are modeled here through classical and…
The miniaturization of diagnostic devices that exploit optical detection schemes requires the design of light-sources combining small size, high performance for effective excitation of chromophores, and mechanical flexibility for easy…
We have synthesized nanoscale magnetic compasses with high yield. These ferromagnetic iron carbide nano-particles, which are encapsulated in a pair of parallel carbon needles, change their direction in response to an external magnetic…
Two-dimensional and layered materials, such as graphene, have emerged in recent years for their potential use in several applications in technology, for example in electronics, bioelectronics, optoelectronics and related fields.…
In the quest of new materials that can withstand severe irradiation and mechanical extremes for advanced applications (e.g. fission reactors, fusion devices, space applications, etc), design, prediction and control of advanced materials…
An analysis of the dynamics is performed, of exactly solvable models for fragile and strong glasses, exploiting the partitioning of the free energy landscape in inherent structures. The results are compared with the exact solution of the…
Bone is a multiscale heterogeneous materiel of which principal function is to support the body structure and to resist mechanical loading and fractures. Bone strength does not depend only on the quantity and quality of bone which is…
Shells, i.e., objects made of a thin layer of material following a surface, are among the most common structures in use. They are highly efficient, in terms of material required to maintain strength, but also prone to deformation and…
Functional soft materials, comprising colloidal and molecular building blocks that self-organize into complex structures as a result of their tunable interactions, enable a wide array of technological applications. Inverse methods provide…
Nanoporous metals are a class of nanostructured materials finding extensive applications in multiple fields thanks to their unique properties attributed to their high surface area and interconnected nanoscale ligaments. They can be…
Cortical bone is a tough biological material composed of tube-like osteons embedded in the organic matrix surrounded by weak interfaces known as cement lines. The cement lines provide a microstructurally preferable crack path, hence…