Andrew Cairns and Ines Collings, DPhil students in the Goodwin Group, explain how they make single crystals in the lab and study their unusual properties. By showing how to break the rules governing 'normal' materials, this research could lead to the design of brand new and useful substances in future.

Chemistry for the Future: Strange Substances and Structures

Crystals, Hydrothermal Bombs, and the Study of Strange Mechanical Properties

It was here in Oxford, in the 1600s, that great minds such as Hooke, Boyle, Willis and Wren laid the foundations of modern experimental science. Like their famous forebears, today's Oxford scientists continue to undertake world-leading research: making fundamental new discoveries and applying cutting-edge knowledge to the major societal and technological challenges of the day. The research happening right now in the Department of Chemistry is uniquely poised to have a major impact on everything from our health to our energy sources - in other words, it is enabling our shared future. To read more about our research, please visit http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/researchthemes.asp. This series focuses on current physical and materials chemists as they explore a range of 'strange' materials with unusual properties and functionality. In the future, these materials may revolutionize areas as diverse as friction and energy storage, and inspire the design of new substances with properties we can't yet imagine. Goodwin Group: http://goodwin.chem.ox.ac.uk/goodwin/HOME/HOME.html Perkin Group: http://research.chem.ox.ac.uk/susan-perkin.aspx

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Chemistry for the Future: Strange Substances and Structures