Synthesis, structure and properties of responsive solid-state materials

响应性材料在静态或可变外力或场的作用下表现出独特的物理响应。这种物理响应与固态相突出的机械性能相结合，产生了在工业和消费者层面都有应用的功能材料。这项研究将集中在两个响应性固态材料领域，磁热和热电相。当磁场变化时，磁热材料通过改变它们的温度来响应，因此可以用于磁冷却。热电材料在温度梯度作用下产生电压，或在电流通过时进行冷却/加热。我们的短期研究目标是设计、合成和表征新型的高性能磁热和热电相。通过追求这些目标，我们希望更好地了解固体材料中晶体结构、物理性质和电子结构之间的密切关系。我们还希望开发管理其结构的粘合原理，并将所获得的知识用于材料设计。响应性材料非常适合于这种研究，因为可以通过各种技术和方法监测晶体结构、价电子浓度和物理性质之间的相关性。

Responsive materials exhibit unique physical responses under static or variable applied forces or fields. Combination of such physical responses with outstanding mechanical properties of solid-state phases yields functional materials that find applications both at the industrial and consumer levels. The research will focus on two areas of responsive solid-state materials, magnetocaloric and thermoelectric phases. Magnetocaloric materials respond by changing their temperature when the magnetic field is varied and, thus, can be used for magnetic cooling. Thermoelectric materials generate voltage when subject to a temperature gradient or perform cooling/heating when current is passed through them. Our short-term research goals are to design, synthesize and characterize novel high-performance magnetocaloric and thermoelectric phases. By pursuing these goals, we want to attain a better understanding of the intimate relationship between a crystal structure, physical properties and electronic structure in solid-state materials. We also want to develop bonding principles that govern their structures and to use the acquired knowledge for materials design. Responsive materials are well suited for such studies, as the correlation between the crystal structure, valence electron concentration and physical properties can be monitored through a variety of techniques and approaches.