Advanced Materials Characterization

The section "Advanced Materials Characterization" focuses on contributions that have a significant component linked to the (advanced) structural characterization of solid materials. In many applications, the exact structure, crystal structure, position of the functional groups, and other structural parameters have a significant effect on the characteristics and properties of the material. These are commonly known as "structure–property" or "structure–activity" relationships.

Advanced spectroscopic techniques are able to describe the structure and configurations in materials in great detail. "Operando" spectroscopic techniques or hyphenated techniques are becoming more and more sophisticated. Synchrotron X-Ray techniques show the structure and the neighbors of any given atom in a material, and microscopic techniques are reaching atomic resolution. NMR and EPR and their multidimensional variants reveal more and more information about the proximity of neighboring atoms. Gas sorption techniques reveal pore sizes and pore shapes. Luminescence, electrochemistry, and photo-responsive measurements are just a few examples of the many tools scientists have to unravel the secrets of solid materials. Scientists specializing in modeling techniques are in constant interaction with experimentalists to get a deeper insight into solid material and its changes and interactions with other molecules or external triggers. Such insights allow scientists to truly "design" materials towards very specific properties or applications.

Contributions that can relate the structural and functional information of a material to its specific properties and characteristics are highly welcomed in this section, together with all papers that describe an important advancement of any solid-state characterization techniques. Additionally, modeling papers with experimental input are welcomed.