Linking formation mechanisms, nanostructure and function in metal oxide nanosheets using multimodal characterisation.

固态材料支撑着许多影响现代生活的先进技术，从硅片微处理器到锂离子电池。通过了解材料的原子结构如何决定其显示的特性，在提高其性能方面取得了巨大的进步。为了加速新材料的发现，以应对气候变化等社会挑战，设计具有理想物理性能的材料的能力，以及实现它们的合成途径至关重要。2004年，因其卓越的导电性和强度而获得诺贝尔奖的石墨烯的发现，开启了纳米结构材料（至少有一个维度在纳米范围内的材料）的时代，因为它们具有令人兴奋的潜力，可以显示出新颖或改进的物理特性。然而，目前纳米结构材料中复杂无序的原子排列使得确定原子排列如何决定其物理性质变得不可能，因为它落在当前结构表征能力的空白之间。因此，开发捕捉和描述纳米结构的工具是一个关键的科学挑战。为了满足这一需求，本提案将开发一个能够理解无序层状金属氧化物纳米结构的表征平台。来自学术界、工业界和中央设施的合作者组成了一个团队，提议的研究将使用互补探针来开发模型，以捕获材料结构的所有相关方面，从原子的局部排列到更长的长度尺度（几十到几百纳米）特征，如孔隙和通道，提供一个全面的图像来连接属性。然后，我们将开发实验，在材料置于其操作条件下时捕获结构数据。这些实验以极高的灵敏度跟踪材料结构的变化。使用我们的结构建模平台分析这些数据集将解开包含在其中的丰富信息，使我们能够(1)确定纳米结构的哪些方面对材料的物理特性负责；(2)实时监测原子如何组装成最终的层状结构，从而确定反应条件如何共同作用以获得复杂的结构。总之，这将提供一套“设计规则”，用于获得具有特定物理性质的材料。我们将在三钛酸钠材料上展示这种方法，三钛酸钠是一种技术上重要的材料，具有作为电网存储应用的低成本、高度可持续的钠离子电池阳极的潜力。在短期内，该项目将为纳米结构材料的结构细节提供一个台阶变化，并提供对合成条件、纳米结构和功能如何交织的新理解。从长远来看，这种方法可能会对纳米结构支撑性能的各种领域产生深远的影响——从用于药物输送的碳纳米材料到量子磁性——以及对节能合成过程的合理设计和优化。

Solid-state materials underpin many of the advanced technologies which impact modern life, from silicon chip microprocessors to lithium-ion batteries. Great strides in advancing their performance have been achieved by understanding how the atomic structure of a material determines the properties it displays. In order to accelerate the discovery of the new materials required to address societal challenges such as climate change, the ability to design materials with desirable physical properties, and the synthetic pathways to realise them is vital. The Nobel-prize winning discovery of graphene in 2004 with its remarkable conductivity and strength has ushered in the era of nanostructured materials - materials which have at least one dimension is in the nanometer range - because of their exciting potential to display novel or improved physical properties. However, the complex and disordered atomic arrangements within nanostructured materials currently makes determining how the arrangement of atoms determines their physical properties impossible, because it falls between gaps in current structure characterisation capability. Developing tools to capture and describe nanostructure is, therefore, a crucial scientific challenge. To address this need, this proposal will develop a characterisation platform capable of understanding nanostructure in disordered layered metal oxides. Assembling a team of collaborators from academia, industry and central facilities, the proposed research will use complementary probes to develop models which capture all relevant aspects of the material's structure, from the local arrangement of atoms through to longer length-scale (tens to hundreds of nanometres) features such as pores and channels, providing a comprehensive picture to link to properties. We will then develop experiments which capture structural data when a material is placed under its operational conditions. These experiments track the changes to a material's structure with exquisite sensitivity. Analysing these data sets using our structural modelling platform will unlock the wealth of information contained within them, allowing us to (1) determine which aspects of nanostructure are responsible for a material's physical properties and (2) monitor how atoms assemble into the final layered structure in real-time, thus determining how the reaction conditions conspire to give complex structure. Together, this will deliver a set of "design rules" for obtaining materials displaying particular physical properties. We will demonstrate this approach on the material sodium trititanate, a technologically important material with potential for use as a low-cost, highly sustainable sodium-ion battery anode for grid-storage applications.In the short-term, this project will provide a step-change in the detail available about the structure of nanostructured materials and deliver new understanding of how synthetic conditions, nanostructure and functionality are interwoven. In the longer term, this methodology may have far-reaching implications for a diverse range of fields where nanostructure underpins performance - from carbon nanomaterials for drug delivery to quantum magnetism - as well as for the rational design and optimisation of energy-efficient synthetic processes.