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Amorphous and nanostructured solids
the synthesis, characterisation, and modelling of crystals, nanocrystals, sol-gels and glasses.
This theme concerns inorganic solids (primarily ceramics and glasses) which possess useful functional properties (e.g. electrical, optical, catalytic) stemming from their composition and/or nanostructures. Our activities encompass the synthesis of novel materials, the experimental characterisation of their atomic- and nano-scale structure and the modelling of these structures and associated properties.
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Fig. 1: a silicate sol-gel |
Fig. 2: an X-ray scattering experiment |
Fig. 3: model of a silicate sol-gel |
One of the most challenging contemporary problems for materials characterisation is to collect sufficiently comprehensive experimental data sets from complementary techniques to be able to describe accurately and unambiguously the structure of amorphous and nanostructured materials, and to follow how their structure changes with processing. To understand these complex materials demands the use of a range of advanced modern characterisation methods. The truly atomic scale probes available to us are X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray and neutron diffraction. Porosimetry and analogous techniques such as small angle scattering allow us to probe length scales approaching microns. Our work relies on access to world-class international facilities such as the ISIS pulsed neutron source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and the ILL neutron and ESRF synchrotron X-ray sources in Grenoble (France). The use of advanced computer modelling and simulation methods is increasingly being integrated with the experimental work, creating a powerful combination.