Negative and Zero Thermal Expansion Materials
This community develops materials that contract or remain dimensionally stable as temperature changes, solving the problem of thermal stress in precision engineering.
The research focuses on identifying and engineering compounds—primarily tungstates, molybdates, and antiperovskites—that exhibit negative thermal expansion (NTE) or near-zero thermal expansion (ZTE). Key mechanisms involve anharmonic correlated vibrations and transverse phonon modes, often analyzed through X-ray absorption spectroscopy and crystal structure refinement. Applications include electronic packaging, where dimensional stability prevents component failure, and the creation of composites that combine NTE phases with standard materials to achieve zero net expansion. Recent work extends to high-entropy alloys and two-dimensional materials, while also exploring the interplay between NTE and magnetic or electronic properties in transition metal oxides.
The community is most prominent in research tracked for Tungsten, representing 0.2% of all tungsten research, and Scandium, representing 0.5% of all scandium research. Tungsten also contributes the highest raw paper count within this group, with 185 papers.
The community comprises 1,434 papers, primarily published in Physical Review B, Ferroelectrics, and the Journal of the American Ceramic Society.
Recent work includes the development of low-thermal-expansion magnesium alloys with enhanced strength and ductility, the synthesis of zero-thermal-expansion high-entropy molybdates, and the investigation of NTE in amorphous Fe-Y-Zr-B alloys and zinc tetracyanoborate.