The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) is dedicated to the understanding, control and optimization of grain boundary dominated materials properties.

Approach to Research

For years materials researchers have known that the types of grain boundaries in a polycrystal and the way that they are arranged influence a material’s performance and resistance to failure. However, no one has yet been able to draw the “map” that connects the performance of polycrystals to specific characteristics of the grain boundary network. Producing such a map may seem unrealistic when one considers the natural complexity of a typical grain boundary network – millions of distinct types of grain boundaries can be found in the average polycrystalline solid.

The challenge of the drawing this map has been taken up by MRSEC researchers. The problem of complexity has been overcome through the development of new, automated microscopic tools that collect and analyze unprecedented quantities of data without human intervention. The resulting maps that are being drawn by the MRSEC have already led to new insights on the origins of grain boundary network structures and in the future will point the way to improved materials. The center's findings have applications in a range of materials industries, including steel, aluminum, hard metals, ceramics, and thin films.

Research activities

• The Mesoscale Interface Mapping Project: The aim of this project is to develop and exploit new characterization tools that can be used to systematically and comprehensively map grain boundary properties (energy, mobility, charge, chemistry) and to apply these data to predictive models for microstructural evolution.

• The Chiral Solids and Surfaces Project: The objective of the Chiral Solids and Surfaces Project is to design surfaces of traditional solid state, inorganic materials for use in the processing of biochemical compounds. When a structure has the property of handedness and cannot be superimposed upon its mirror image, it is said to be chiral. All important biomolecules such as DNA, pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals are chiral and thus exist in two nominally identical left- and right-handed forms. The traditional methods for manufacture of these biochemicals usually result in a mixture of the two forms, each of which interacts differently with living organisms. In some cases, one form of a molecule can be therapeutic while its mirror image is toxic. Therefore, developing strategies to synthesize only one chiral form or of separating the left- and right-handed forms is critical for the implementation of biochemical products.