Mathematical and Materials Science

[stanford1463]

Ok I feel this is the best place to place this subject. Well, I have been interested in materials science and crystallography lately, especially the future applications of this. What are some future materials we could make from studying crystal growth? How could we go about accomplishing this? What are the steps involved in mathematically modeling crystal growth, and then developing a high-tech material based on that? Any references, help, websites, is appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Nigel-Tufnfel]

Hi, not really my area but i know the Community Grid are involved in modelling materials for the Green Energy Project. This may be of some interest.


http://cleanenergy.harvard.edu/

 

[stanford1463]

alright thanks, any others?
Bumpppppppppp

 

[L62]

I think your question is too broad...how about narrowing it down a bit such as

what applications? clean energy, biotech, electronics, transportation...?

what classes of materials? polymers, ceramics, semiconductors etc...?

you could search through different universities' websites for their material science departments, or their solid state physics departments, or chemistry departments. Usually they will list the research projects they are working on and you can see which involve developing new materials and for what applications.

 

[Mapes]

A popular research area is the design of amorphous metals, where you want to avoid crystal growth (and this requires a deep understanding of crystal formation and crystallography). Amorphous metals have a relatively high strength because of their lack of well-defined slip systems.

 

[cmos]

Epitaxial growth of semiconductors is probably the largest application of crystal growth currently. This is especially true in optoelectronics (semiconductor laser, high efficiency solar cells, etc.). Nanostructure growth also encompasses this area. There's also been talk for a few years now of incorporating III-V's with Si for the microelectronics industry (we'll see about that one though =P ).