This award by the Division of Materials Research to Cornell University is to develop a coherent structural and electronic understanding of hidden patterns and symmetries of intermetallic compounds through synthesis, structure determination, property measurement, and theory. The main focus will be on complex noble and near noble metal structures. Through this work a new understanding and relationship among the Samson compounds, the Vernier structures and quasicrystalline phases will be developed and could unify these seemly unrelated areas. This project could expand how solid-state chemists, condensed matter physicists, and materials scientists will consider using X-ray diffraction and band theory. In addition, these proposed studies may provide important insights into the structure and electronic characteristics of quasicrystals.
The project could provide unique opportunities to the students participating in this program in experimental and theoretical approaches of materials science. The outreach activities could have tremendous impact on the society with books and TV series about sciences and chemistry in particular. The "fourth dimension" is an important and useful concept that could be introduced to general public in an understandable and meaningful way.
Metals form a part of daily life. While many metals have been known for a long time, metals like steel, bronze, and gold, new metals are constantly being invented. And there remains a need for these new metals. New metals could be used not just to make better golf clubs or make better mettalic tips for rockets. It would also be great to have a metal which could eliminate the mercury used in dental fillings or to have a metal to remove the poisonous cadmium from nickel-cadmium batteries. To invent new metals we need top know better the factors which lead to stable metal compositions. Unfortunately, unlike the organic chemicals used in the pharmaceutical or polymer industries, we know very little about the factorsa which connect metallic stability to the atomic elements which make up the metal composition. In our just completed research, we helped further establish the principles which connect metallic composition to mettalic stability. We found that there is a hidden symmetry, related to the pentagon, which is responsible for the stability in a number of new metallic compositions. We could use this new found symmetry to explain the ratios of the metals found in metals composed of mercury, cadmium, zinc, copper, silver, gold, nickel, palladium, and platinum.
