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  • Perspective
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Completing the picture through correlative characterization

Nature Materials volume 18, pages 1041–1049 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Natural and manufactured materials rely on complex hierarchical microstructures to deliver a suite of interesting properties. To predict and tailor their performance requires a joined-up knowledge of their multiphase microstructure, interfaces, chemistry and crystallography from the nanoscale to the macroscale. This Perspective reflects on how recent developments in correlative characterization can bring together multiple image modalities and maps of the local chemistry, structure and functionality to form rich multimodal and multiscale correlated datasets. The automated collection and digitization of multidimensional data is an essential part of the picture for developing multiscale modelling and ‘big data’-driven machine learning approaches. These are needed to both improve our understanding of existing materials and exploit high-throughput combinatorial synthesis, processing and testing methods to develop materials with bespoke properties.

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Fig. 1: A plethora of techniques can provide morphological, chemical, crystallographic or performance data across a range of length scales.
Fig. 2: Schematics illustrating different data acquisition approaches.
Fig. 3: Advanced correlative workflows for understanding the corrosion of sub-sea pipeline steel under saline conditions.
Fig. 4: Alignment between physical systems and their digital counterparts.
Fig. 5: Processing–microstructure–performance cycle for materials innovation and improvement.

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Acknowledgements

P.J.W. is grateful to the European Research Council for funding COREL-CT under grant no. 695638. We are grateful for the funding to set up the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility within the Henry Royce Institute (GR EP/R00661X/1). The Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility was established with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through grants EP/F007906/1, EP/F001452/1 and EP/I02249X/1. We thank C. Parker for his help on illustrating Figs. 2 and 4. We would also like to thank the Centre of Heritage Imaging and Collection Care and the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester for their help providing material for Fig. 2.

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  1. Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, School of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

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Burnett, T.L., Withers, P.J. Completing the picture through correlative characterization. Nat. Mater. 18, 1041–1049 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0402-8

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