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Condensed-matter physics

Functional materials at the flick of a switch

Nature volume 546, pages 40–41 (2017)Cite this article

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The function of materials that have been coated with an ionic liquid can be altered by applying an electric field to shuttle ions in and out. The technique has been used to make materials that have switchable properties. See Letter p.124

The search for functional materials has been at the forefront of research spanning natural philosophy to engineering for centuries. Usually, this discovery process is planned — raw materials are cooked in a furnace, and the properties of the resulting products are studied. But once in a while, desirable properties can emerge unexpectedly from an existing material when its composition is subtly changed or when small quantities of impurities are added. The trick is to work out which impurities to throw into the mix (and how this should be done), and to understand the mechanisms behind the properties that emerge. On page 124, Lu et al.1 report a remarkable advance in this direction. The authors used an electric field to carefully manipulate a material's composition and concentration of ionic impurities, causing it to switch between multiple phases that have distinct electronic, optical and magnetic properties.

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Figure 1: Designing materials using ionic transport.

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References

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  1. Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907, Indiana, USA

    Shriram Ramanathan

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  1. Shriram Ramanathan
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Correspondence to Shriram Ramanathan.

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Ramanathan, S. Functional materials at the flick of a switch. Nature 546, 40–41 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/546040a

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