Emergent Materials under Extremes and Decisive In Situ Characterizations
Résumé
Recently, there has been an increased focus on understanding the structural details of disordered materials which are found across all energy technologies [Shamblin et al., Nat. Mater. 2016]. Despite the importance of these materials, there is still little knowledge about the atomic-scale rules governing disordering processes. Here, we present results from neutron total scattering experiments from spinel (AB2O4) and pyrochlore (A2B2O7) model systems which reveal that short-range ordering and associated structural relaxations in disordered materials can be understood as an extension of Pauling’s rules [Pauling, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1929]. These rules apply whether disorder is induced intrinsically (e.g., chemical substitution), extrinsically (high temperature), or even by highly non-equilibrium conditions (high-energy ion irradiation and mechanical milling). These results provide a framework that can be utilized to predict the atomic configuration in disordered materials, including those that result from exposure to extreme conditions. [O’Quinn et al., Science Advances 2020]