INSPIRE Physical Sciences: A synergy for next generation materials science

INSPIRE 物理科学：下一代材料科学的协同作用

• 批准号: EP/K036408/1
• 负责人: Oscar Cespedes
• 金额: $ 6.43万
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FK036408%2F1
• 关键词: INSPIRE; Physical; Sciences; synergy; next

Growing concerns regarding the cost of energy as well as the sustainability of the current industrial and economic infrastructure in front of global population increase have made the development of transformative, sustainable technologies capable of supporting improved industrial and economic models an urgent priority of mankind as a whole. Crucial for these technological developments is the definition and understanding of novel materials which, as previously happened in human history, could unlock new scientific and technological horizons and positively impact across society, economy and politics. These elements have turned research in transformative, multifunctional materials into a priority of funding agencies and Industry both in UK and world-wide. Very recently, a new class of multifunctional materials, topological insulators, has started to receive scientific attention due to their appealing physical properties with potential applications in a broad range of areas as diversified as energy storage, biosensing and quantum computing. The scientific interest in these materials originate from the realisation that, unlike the vast majority of known materials, topological insulators can conduct current extremely well (even as well as superconductors) through their surfaces but not through their bulk. Furthermore, due to quantum mechanical laws governing the relationship between the (crystal) momentum and spin of electrons in a solid, the surfaces of topological insulators could be used to transport information without the need of moving charge (as it happens in contemporary electronics devices) with the net result of no energy or information dissipation.The breadth of the scientific challenges accompanying research in topological insulators, and the potentially ground-breaking impact that their development could generate in very diverse technological fields readily define one of the contemporary frontiers in interdisciplinary research at the boundary between Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Medicine and Health Sciences. This in turn calls for a multidisciplinary research approach and, almost immediately, uncovers two limitations of the current research structure in the limited connections existing between diversified research communities, and in the lack of a common language to allow effective knowledge transfer and organisation.Prompted by these considerations, and compatibly with the available budget, we will take topological insulators as a case study of multifunctional material to establish a multi-disciplinary research platform and pioneer:(i) The creation of a common research language by bringing together researchers with diversified skill sets and expertise in solid state and surface chemistry, magnetism and biosensing, electron microscopy, computational chemistry, catalysis and photocatalysis, electron transport and superconductivity.(ii) Novel and self-contained research protocols in materials science where all the steps including synthesis, doping, surface analysis, electron transport measurement and first principles interpretation of data will be executed with the aim of favouring expertise mixing and practice-based understanding of the actual limitations and potential of the methods used by one project partner in the research field of the others.(iii) Novel research in the potential of chemical doping for improved topological insulators, and in their chemical stability to environmental agents.(iv) Preliminary study about the potential of multiferroic material for (photo-)catalytic application for a future grant application.At the end of the grant, the platform will have defined a common language and acquired a broad range of expertise and the cohesion needed to develop full scale grants that will not be limited to modification of already existing (however interesting) materials, but will tackle research in novel, sustainably generated, environmentally non-hazardous multifunctional materials.

面对全球人口增长，人们对能源成本以及当前工业和经济基础设施的可持续性日益感到关切，这使得开发能够支持改进工业和经济模式的变革性可持续技术成为全人类的紧迫优先事项。这些技术发展的关键是对新材料的定义和理解，正如人类历史上曾经发生的那样，新材料可以开启新的科学和技术视野，并对社会，经济和政治产生积极影响。这些因素使变革性多功能材料的研究成为英国和世界范围内资助机构和行业的优先事项。最近，一类新的多功能材料，拓扑绝缘体，已经开始受到科学的关注，因为它们具有吸引人的物理特性，在能量存储，生物传感和量子计算等广泛领域具有潜在的应用。对这些材料的科学兴趣源于这样一种认识：与绝大多数已知材料不同，拓扑绝缘体可以通过其表面而不是通过其本体非常好地传导电流（甚至与超导体一样）。此外，由于量子力学定律控制着固体中（晶体）动量和电子自旋之间的关系，拓扑绝缘体的表面可以用于传输信息，而无需移动电荷（如在当代电子设备中所发生的那样），其净结果是没有能量或信息耗散。拓扑绝缘体研究所伴随的科学挑战的广度，以及它们的发展可能在非常不同的技术领域产生的潜在突破性影响，很容易在物理学，化学，工程学，医学和健康科学之间的边界上定义跨学科研究的当代前沿之一。这反过来又要求采取多学科的研究方法，而且几乎立即就发现了目前研究结构的两个局限性，即不同研究团体之间存在的联系有限，以及缺乏一种共同的语言来进行有效的知识转移和组织。我们将以拓扑绝缘体为多功能材料的案例研究，建立多学科的研究平台，开拓：（i）创造一种共同的研究语言，将在固态和表面化学、磁性和生物传感、电子显微镜、计算化学、催化和超导，电子传输和超导。(ii)材料科学中新颖和独立的研究协议，其中所有步骤，包括合成，掺杂，表面分析，电子传输测量和数据的第一原理解释将被执行，目的是促进专业知识的混合和基于实践的理解，一个项目合作伙伴在其他研究领域使用的方法的实际局限性和潜力。(iii)在改进拓扑绝缘体的化学掺杂潜力及其对环境因素的化学稳定性方面的新研究。(iv)关于多铁性材料在未来赠款申请中用于（光）催化应用的潜力的初步研究。在赠款结束时，该平台将定义一种共同语言，并获得广泛的专业知识和发展全面赠款所需的凝聚力，而不仅仅限于修改现有的（无论多么有趣）的材料，但将解决新的，可持续产生的，对环境无害的多功能材料的研究。

项目成果

p -anisotropy: A nanocarbon route to hard magnetism

p 各向异性：通向硬磁性的纳米碳途径

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.101.060408
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Physical Review B
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Moorsom T

Compositions and thermoelectric properties of XNiSn (X = Ti, Zr, Hf) half-Heusler alloys

• DOI: 10.1039/c5tc02025e
• 发表时间: 2015-01-01
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY C
• 影响因子: 6.4
• 作者: Downie, R. A.;Barczak, S. A.;Bos, J. W. G.
• 通讯作者: Bos, J. W. G.