Materials World Network for the Discovery of Low Conductivity Oxides by Integrated Simulation and Experimentation

材料世界网络奖是为了表彰美国、中国和英国的参与者之间的一项联合研究和教育计划，该计划旨在使用实验和模拟相结合的方法来发现热导率比目前已知的材料低得多的材料，并寻求与其他以声子为主的性质测量的相关性，如弹性模数和拉曼光谱。此外，为了通过与网络中参与教师的研究合作来发展实验和模拟技能，对参与学生的教育的一个组成部分是通过在另外两个机构(一个在中国，另一个在英国)进行部分研究，让他们对科学及其实践具有强大的全球视野。科学方法的基础是将最先进的模拟与传统的陶瓷合成和加工相结合，以及探索成分变化的组合方法，以提供更快的发现途径。模拟将在佛罗里达大学的西蒙·菲尔波特教授和帝国理工学院的罗宾·格里姆斯教授的指导下进行。这项研究的实验部分将由加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的大卫·克拉克教授和北京清华大学的W·潘教授指导。重点将放在复杂的萤石衍生结构和钙钛矿相关的层状结构上，因为它们固有的适应各种不同离子和离子尺寸的能力以及它们的晶体各向异性。这些都提供了极低和/或强各向异性导热系数的前景。最初，研究将集中在焦绿石和三角洲相化合物以及Ruddleston-Popper相，然后利用这些发现来选择更复杂的层状化合物。该奖项由国际科学与工程办公室共同资助

This Materials World Network award is for a joint research and education program between participants in the US, China and England to use a combined experimental and simulation approach to discover materials with much lower thermal conductivity than those currently known, and to seek correlations with other phonon-dominated property measurements, such as elastic moduli and Raman spectra. In addition, to developing both experimental and simulation skills through research collaborations with the participating faculty in the network, an integral part of the education of the participating students is to give them a strong global perspective on science and its practice by performing part of their research studies in two other institutions, one in China and the other in England. The basis of the scientific approach is to combine state-of-the art simulations with both traditional synthesis and processing of ceramics together with combinatorial approaches exploring compositional variations to provide a more rapid discovery path. The simulations will be carried out under the guidance of Professor Simon Phillpot at the University of Florida in conjunction with Professor Robin Grimes at Imperial College. The experimental portions of the research will be guided by Professor David Clarke, at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Professor W. Pan at Tsinghua University, Beijing. The emphasis will be on complex, fluorite-derived structures and perovskite-related layered structures because of their inherent ability to accommodate a wide range of different ions and ionic sizes and their crystalline anisotropy. Together these offer the prospect of very low and / or strongly anisotropic thermal conductivities. Initially, the research will focus on the pyrochlore and delta-phase compounds as well as on the Ruddleston-Popper phases and then use the findings to select more complex layered compounds. This award is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering