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MATERIALS DISCOVERY

Charting stability space

Nature Materials volume 18, pages 664–665 (2019)Cite this article

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A comprehensive chemical space of potential inorganic ternary metal nitrides has been explored by computational methods as a guideline for their experimental synthesis and discovery.

Technological progress calls for novel materials with properties beyond the state of the art. The most extensively used class of inorganic solid compounds applied today are oxygen-based compounds (for example, oxides or silicates), but these do not always meet forthcoming technological requirements. Accordingly, there is a need to search for materials to satisfy future technological and social challenges such as climate change or health. Advanced ceramics are a class of materials embedded in various technical products; indeed, modern lighting based on inorganic LEDs would not have been realized without the sophisticated development of group-13 nitrides such as GaN. This example of advanced ceramics represents a technical revolution that, unnoticeably, has changed daily life in the past few decades. It seems reasonable that a greater range of advanced ceramics could lead to further technological advances. In this context, writing in Nature Materials, Wenhao Sun and colleagues1 now present the results of a combined computational and experimental study on the structures and stability of inorganic ternary metal nitrides.

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Fig. 1: Analysing thermodynamics and bonding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science and Technology on Thermostructural Composite Materials Laboratory, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China

    Ralf Riedel

  2. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Fachbereich Material- und Geowissenschaften, Fachgebiet Disperse Feststoffe, NPU-TU Darmstadt Joint International Research Laboratory of Ultrahigh Ceramic Matrix Composites, Darmstadt, Germany

    Ralf Riedel

  3. College of Materials, Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramic Fibers, Xiamen University, Ministry of Education, Xiamen, China

    Zhaoju Yu

  4. College of Materials, Fujian Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

    Zhaoju Yu

Authors
  1. Ralf Riedel
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  2. Zhaoju Yu
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Correspondence to Ralf Riedel or Zhaoju Yu.

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Riedel, R., Yu, Z. Charting stability space. Nat. Mater. 18, 664–665 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0403-7

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