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The structure of glass is not as untidy as one would think. It has some degree of order intermediate between a liquid and a crystal. A new method allows control of this intermediate range order and improves our understanding of glass structures.
A century-old puzzle on the apparent contradiction that some materials disorder as they are cooled gains universality following new observations of closed-loop phase behaviour in a block-copolymer system.
A transmission electron microscope capable of identifying individual atoms or defects in a crystal lattice has much to offer materials scientists. It has now been used to study the early stages of nanocluster nucleation and growth in semiconductors.
A method for predicting crystal structures from just molecular formulae has eluded scientists for more than 50 years. The problem is currently being addressed by two very different approaches. But which one is more likely to succeed?
The discovery that the electronic conductivity of LiFePO4 can be increased by eight orders of magnitude may have a profound impact on the next generation of lithium-ion batteries.
Kagomé lattices are the most geometrically frustrated magnetic systems. But their magnetic properties remain poorly characterized because they are difficult to synthesize. A new versatile synthetic route to Kagomé lattices yields a spin-frustrated material from paramagnetic building blocks.
