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Materials science

Nanostructures in a new league

Nature volume 440, pages 618–619 (2006)Cite this article

Aperiodic materials do not surrender details of their structure as readily as do their crystalline counterparts. The latest computational solution to this problem brings aspects of ‘the beautiful game’ into play.

Investigations of crystalline materials through X-ray and neutron diffraction have been a triumph of experimental science, allowing structures ranging from complex minerals to proteins and DNA to be unravelled1. But how can the structure of a material that is aperiodic — one that is non-crystalline, or cannot be crystallized — be determined? On page 655 of this issue2, Juhás et al. present an intriguing solution to this question with a novel algorithm for reconstructing three-dimensional structures from ‘pair distribution function’ (PDF) data. Aperiodic materials are among the technologically most interesting nanoscale materials currently under study, and the approach could be widely applicable.

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  1. the Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195-1560, Washington, USA

    John J. Rehr

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  1. John J. Rehr
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Rehr, J. Nanostructures in a new league. Nature 440, 618–619 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/440618a

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