Response

Materials do amazing things when subjected to external forces. They can change colour, generate electricity or even expand when they ought to contract. We seek to understand and exploit materials’ structural responses to heat, pressure, chemicals and electric fields, which are important for applications such as batteries, computing and sensing.

Conductivity under pressure: “High Pressure Crystal Structure and Electrical Properties of a Single Component Molecular Crystal [Ni(dddt)₂] (dddt = 5,6-dihydro-1,4-dithiin-2,3-dithiolate)”

Extreme flexibility: “Hidden negative linear compressibility in lithium L-tartrate”

Chemical sensing: “Strain-based chemical sensing using metal–organic framework nanoparticles”