This article serves to introduce the January 2004 issue of MRS Bulletin on progress toward applications of ceramic nanostructures. Conventional ceramic materials are widely used today in areas ranging from structural to biological applications, and in devices as diverse as lasers, semiconductors, sensors, and piezoelectric components. Such materials include oxides, carbides, nitrides, mixed oxides, and composites.Over the last decade, the use of ceramic nanostructures has already changed the approach to materials design in many of these applications, by seeking structural control at the atomic level and tailoring of the engineering properties. The articles in this issue review the advantages of nanoceramics, their application in various fields, and the challenges involved in their fabrication.

Materials phenomena ranging from the melting or freezing of ice to biomineralization in living organisms, to lubrication and the commercial casting of superalloys, are known to be critically influenced by molecular-scale structure and processes occurring at the interfaces between the crystalline solid and liquid phases. The properties of solid–liquid interfaces have long been a topic of intense interest in materials science, primarily because of their role in governing nucleation, growth, and morphological evolution in crystal growth from the melt or solutions.This issue of the MRS Bulletin provides an overview, highlighting new developments in experiment, theory, and modeling techniques that have led to substantial recent progress in the characterization of the molecular-level structural and thermodynamic properties of solid–liquid interfaces and their consequences for a variety of crystallization phenomena.

This issue of MRS Bulletin on molecular transport junctions highlights the current experimental and theoretical understanding of molecular charge transport and its extension to the rapidly growing areas of molecular and carbon nanotube electronics. This introduction will outline the progress that has been made in understanding the mechanisms of molecular junction transport and the challenges and future directions in exploring charge transport on the molecular scale. In spite of the substantial challenges, molecular charge transport is of great interest for its intrinsic importance to potential single-molecule electronic, thin-film electronic, and optoelectronic applications.

This article serves to introduce the May 2004 issue of MRS Bulletin on Construction Materials: From Innovation to Conservation. By volume, building materials are by far the most widely used type of materials. The most common construction materials—concrete and wood—are paradigms of complex and hierarchical materials, with a microstructure extending quasi-continuously down to the nanoscale. In the past, most improvements have been obtained by modifying the microstructure at the largest scales, for instance, by reducing the macroporosity. Recent advances in our understanding of the interactions and microstructure development show that the major levers for improvement from now on will rely on surface and colloid science and the science of complex materials, often at the nanoscale. This can lead to remarkable properties, such as self-compaction and ultrahigh strength, and even new functionality, such as self-cleaning through photocatalysis. Construction materials face a wide range of challenges today, many of which are linked to the need for more sustainable development: reducing the consumption of raw materials, reducing the energy used in processing, and increasing service life. In many parts of the world, there is also an increasing need to repair, rehabilitate, and conserve old buildings. The articles in this issue touch on these challenges as well as the advances being made in construction materials through materials research.

This introductory article describes the content of the October 2004 issue of MRS Bulletin focusing on novel materials and applications of electronic noses and tongues.The articles in this issue review the state of the art in materials, devices, and data processing algorithms used in electronic olfaction and taste systems. The most common gas- and liquid-phase analyte detection tools are presented and compared with traditional chemical analysis instrumentation such as gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy systems. Metal oxides, polymer/polymer composites, and dyes are covered in these articles as key sensing materials. Resistive, optical, electrochemical, and other types of electronic nose and tongue systems are reviewed, and their use in diverse applications, including environmental and food-quality monitoring and medical diagnostics, is discussed.

This issue of MRS Bulletin provides an overview of the current status of research and development in the area of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) wires. High-temperature oxide superconductors, discovered in the late 1980s, are moving into the second generation of their development.The first generation relied on bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide, and the second generation is based on yttrium barium copper oxide, which has the potential to be less expensive and to perform better.The potential uses of HTS wires for electric power applications include underground transmission cables, oil-free transformers, superconducting magnetic-energy storage units, fault-current limiters, high-efficiency motors, and compact generators.Wires of 10–100 m in length can now be made, but material and processing issues must be solved before an optimized production scheme can be achieved.This issue covers a range of processing techniques using energetic beams, rolling, and laser and chemical methods to form wires with good superconducting properties.

The following article is based on the Von Hippel Award presentation given by Julia Weertman of Northwestern University on December 3, 2003, at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.Weertman received the award for “her lifelong exceptional contributions to understanding the basic deformation processes and failure mechanisms in a wide class of materials, from nanocrystalline metals to high-temperature structural alloys, and for her inspiring role as an educator in materials science.” It has been said that “the best things come in small packages,” and that is certainly in Weertman's mind in this presentation.She has spent much of her career “in pursuit of the small.” In this article, she first looks back at her experiences studying grain-boundary cavities and life in the spaces between grains.She then fast-forwards to modern work on nanocrystalline mechanical behavior, confirming that such nanocrystalline materials are indeed strong, but also brittle.Some of her experiences in studying these phenomena are also described.

This issue of MRS Bulletin focuses on the rapid progress that is ongoing in the development of hard x-ray microscopies with three-dimensional spatial resolutions ranging from micrometers to nanometers. The individual articles provide a crosscut of developments in hard x-ray projection tomography microscopy for imaging density and chemical fluctuations in crystalline and noncrystalline materials; large-angle diffractionbased, spatially resolved imaging of local structure, orientation, and strain distributions in crystalline materials; and emerging coherent diffraction imaging for nanometer-range Fourier transform imaging of crystalline and noncrystalline materials.

This brief article introduces the July 2004 issue of MRS Bulletin, focusing on Scanning Probe Microscopy in Materials Science.Those application areas of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) in which the most impact has been made in recent years are covered in the articles in this theme.They include polymers and semiconductors, where scanning force microscopy is now virtually a standard characterization method; magnetism, where magnetic force microscopy has served both as a routine analytical approach and a method for fundamental studies;tribology, where friction force microscopy has opened entirely new vistas of investigation;biological materials, where atomic force microscopy in an aqueous environment allows biosystems to be imaged and measured in a native (or near-native) state;and nanostructured materials, where SPM has often been the only approach capable of elucidating nanostructures.

This article outlines the content of the April 2004 issue of MRS Bulletin on Advances in Carbon Nanotubes. Essentially, carbon nanotubes are self-assembling nanostructures constructed of sheets of hexagonal-shaped carbon atoms rolled up into cylinders. Carbon nanotubes have attracted a great deal of attention as model systems for nanoscience and for potential applications. The special interest in carbon nanotubes stems from their unique structure and properties: their very small size (down to ∼0.42 nm in diameter); the possibility for carbon nanotubes to be metallic or semiconducting, depending on their geometrical structure; their exceptional properties of ballistic transport; their extremely high thermal conductivity and high optical polarizability; and the possibilities of high structural perfection. Research in the carbon nanotube field has now advanced to the stage where a good understanding of the structure and many of the basic properties are in place, together with much appreciation of their interrelation. On the other hand, major gaps in basic knowledge remain, with the major obstacles confronting the carbon nanotube field being the lack of a detailed understanding of the nanotube growth mechanism and control of the synthesis process to produce nanotubes with a desired diameter and chirality. The brief review of the carbon nanotube field by leading experts in this issue comes at an opportune time. Many exciting results on the structural, electronic, optical, and transport properties of these tiny well-ordered structures have already been achieved, and the research is well enough developed to assess present progress and identify new research directions waiting to be explored.

This introductory article reviews the topics covered in this issue of MRS Bulletin on New Developments in Colloid Science. Colloidal particles have a long history of importance in a broad range of applications in technology and materials processing. They can be made from many different materials and suspended in a wide variety of solvents. The rheological properties of colloidal suspensions have traditionally been of primary concern in their technological applications, and our understanding of these properties continues to evolve. However, new uses of colloidal particles are also emerging. Because they can be produced to a precise size, colloidal particles are now also being used in novel ways as building blocks for engineering completely new materials, including high-precision filters, controlled-porosity substrates, and photonic devices. In addition, new methods are evolving to alter the shape of the particles and create controlled structures with nonspherical particles. New experimental techniques are allowing improved measurement and increased understanding of the structure, properties, and behavior of colloidal suspensions. Significant progress continues to be made, and the potential uses of colloidal particles continue to grow. This issue presents a snapshot summary of recent developments in this field.

This article introduces the November 2004 issue of MRS Bulletin on the state of the art in solid-state memory and storage technologies.The memory business drives hundreds of billions of dollars in sales of electronic equipment per year. The incentive for continuing on the historical track outlined by Moore's law is huge, and this challenge is driving considerable investment from governments around the world as well as in private industry and universities. The problem is this: recognizing that current approaches to semiconductor-based memory are limited, what new technologies can be introduced to continue or even accelerate the pace of complexity? The articles in this issue highlight several commercially available memories, as well as memory technologies that are still in the research and development stages. What will become apparent to the reader is the huge diversity of approaches to this problem.

The ability of colloids to self-organize through a minimization of their free energy is a direct consequence of their well-defined thermodynamic temperature that manifests itself through the Brownian motion they perform. In this article, it will be shown that through the use of external fields such as electric and magnetic fields, gravity, structured or confining walls, and shear, this self-organization can be directed to make new advanced materials. Moreover, a start has been made toward colloidal model systems to study fundamental questions relating to materials science such as defect structure and dynamics, grain boundaries, wall and confinement effects, and tribology. Finally, we predict that the enhanced insights on how to use external fields will also lead to “smart” materials with properties that can be changed dynamically.

Since their discovery, carbon nanotubes, both single-walled and multiwalled, have been a focus in materials research. Fundamental research and application development hinge on high-quality nanotube materials and controlled routes to their organization and assembly. The aim of this article is to provide updated information on recent progress in the synthesis of carbon nanotubes.

The promises of nanotechnology are mostly based upon the ability to produce nanostructured materials with novel properties. Nanocomposites are defined here as a class of materials that contain at least one phase with constituents in the nanometer domain. This article describes the present state of knowledge of the fabrication of nanocomposite materials, with special emphasis on plasma forming of bulk parts. Future challenges facing the development of methods for consolidating nanocomposites with retained nanostructures are also highlighted.

In this article, we present the Pico electronic nose, an artificial olfactory system based on thin-film semiconductor sensors, and two applications: food-quality control (coffee analysis) and environmental monitoring (odors at a landfill site). For both applications, the electronic nose data correlated with that of panels of trained judges. For the coffee, a global index (called the hedonic index) characterizing the sensorial appeal could be predicted with the electronic nose, and for the landfill site, the intensity of odors could be quantified. In this article, we stress the importance of stable and sensitive sensors, such as metal oxide thin films produced by sputtering, and of multivariate data analysis for extracting knowledge (e.g., gaining selectivity) from the data.

The introduction of a new generation of dispersants in concrete allow this material to exhibit self-compacting properties in its fresh state and high durability and mechanical strength in its hardened state. These properties translate into many practical advantages for the construction field.Two of the most important are reducing the ecological impact of this sector of industry and reducing the labor-intensive work associated with placing ordinary concrete by vibration. In this article, it will be shown that knowledge of colloidal science has proven essential in the development of this new generation of dispersants for concrete. Indeed, the polymer molecules used in these dispersants are specifically designed to induce steric repulsion between cement particles, reducing their agglomeration and allowing high workability of fresh concrete prior to setting. While the linkage between interparticle forces and the rheological behavior of cement pastes is still only semiquantitative, recent advances in the modeling of concrete rheology show very promising results in terms of handling aggregates with a wide distribution of particle sizes and shapes. However, accurate modeling requires reliable input on the interaction of the dispersant with the hydrating cement at the molecular level, which is identified as a future research challenge.

This article is an edited transcript based on the David Turnbull Lecture given by Ellen D. Williams of the University of Maryland on December 2, 2003, at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.Williams received the award for “groundbreaking research on the atomic-scale science of surfaces and for leadership, writing, teaching, and outreach that convey her deep understanding of and enthusiasm for materials research.” This article focuses on the special properties of small structures that provide much of the exciting potential of nanotechnology.One aspect of small structures—their susceptibility to thermal fluctuations—may create or necessitate new ways of exploiting nanostructures.The advent of scanned probe imaging techniques created new opportunities for observing and understanding such structural fluctuations and the related evolution of nanostructure.Direct observations show that it is relatively easy for large numbers of atoms—the kinds of numbers that are present in nanoscale structures—to pick up and move about on the surface cooperatively with substantial impact on nano-to micron-scale structures.Such labile evolution of structure can be predicted quantitatively by using length-scale bridging techniques of statistical mechanics coupled with scanned probe observations of structural and temporal distributions.The same measurements also provide direct information about the stochastic paths of structural fluctuations that can be used outside of the traditional thermodynamic framework.Future work involves moving beyond the classical thermodynamic picture to assess the impact that the stochastic behavior has on the physical properties of individual nanostructures.

Revived interest in crystal growth from solutions is driven by a variety of demands, including the need to develop an understanding of biomineralization processes in bones, teeth, and shells;and efforts to characterize large optically nonlinear crystals, perfect crystals of proteins, nucleic acids, and complexes such as viruses. Producing and purifying drugs, food, paint, fertilizers, and other polycrystalline materials in industry are other expanding areas that rely on crystal growth from solution. These general practical incentives have activated in-depth studies that revealed new phenomena and raised new fundamental questions: Are thermal fluctuations of steps on a crystal face always fast enough to assure the step propagation at the rate controlled just by molecular incorporation at kinks? Is the Gibbs–Thomson capillarity shift of thermodynamic equilibrium always applicable to evaluate the crystallization driving force of polygonized steps? Is it possible to eliminate the step bunching on a growing crystal face that compromises crystal homogeneity, or at least to mitigate it? In this overview, we will discuss experimental findings and provide state-of-the-art answers to these questions.

The key strength of hard x-ray full-field microscopy is the large penetration depth of hard x-rays into matter, which allows one to image the interior of opaque objects. Combined with tomographic techniques, the three-dimensional inner structure of an object can be reconstructed without the need for difficult and destructive sample preparation. Projection microscopy and microtomography are now routinely available at synchrotron radiation sources. The resolution of these techniques is limited by that of the detector to 1 µm or slightly less. X-ray images and tomograms at higher spatial resolution can be obtained by x-ray optical magnification, for example, by using parabolic refractive x-ray lenses as a magnifying optic. Combining magnifying x-ray imaging with tomography allows one to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of an object, such as a microprocessor chip, with resolution well below 1 µm. In x-ray scanning microscopy, the sample is scanned through a small-diameter beam. The great advantage of scanning microscopy is that x-ray analytical techniques such as fluorescence analysis, diffraction, and absorption spectroscopy can be used as contrast mechanisms in the microscope. In combination with tomography, fluorescence analysis makes it possible to reconstruct the distribution of different chemical elements inside an object (fluorescence microtomography), while combining absorption spectroscopy with tomography yields the distribution of different oxidation states of atomic species.