SYMPOSIUM 21 – Defects and Transport in Ceramics

This symposium highlights experimental and computational research aimed at understanding point defect equilibria and kinetics in ceramic materials. Defect chemistry governs conductivity and impacts interfacial reaction kinetics in electronic, ionic, and mixed-conducting ceramics. These materials are important for numerous applications, including solid-state batteries, memristors, dielectrics, solid oxide fuel/electrolysis cells, catalysts, and sensors. Many operate under extreme electrochemical conditions to gain higher energy, power density, and novel properties. In addition, defect transport is intimately related to microstructure evolution and many material degradation phenomena. We encourage symposium contributions that help establish a greater understanding of our ability to predict, design, and control defects to enhance ceramic properties and performance, including under extreme far-from-equilibrium conditions. This symposium furthermore includes the influence of dislocations and grain boundaries as higher-dimensional defects.

Session Topics:

Predictive bulk and interfacial point defect energetics and equilibria from density functional theory, molecular dynamics, and other computational methods
Structure, stability, and concentration of defects and defect complexes via in-situ and ex-situ measurement (e.g., EPR, TSDC, EXAFS, STEM, Positron)
Defect-mediated transport & reaction kinetics, including concerted/cooperative effects, via advanced in-situ and ex-situ measurement (e.g., QENS, NMR, isotope-APT, Raman)
High-throughput, screening, and combinatorial methods applied to the study of defect equilibria and point defect-mediated properties
Point defect segregation to or depletion from dislocations, surfaces, grain boundaries, and interfaces
Defect mobility and transport behavior, including under operando or in extreme environments (e.g., temperature, chemical reactions, stress, high E-fields, irradiation)
Defect-mediated properties (e.g., conductivity, surface oxygen or proton exchange kinetics, optical absorption, grain growth, creep, magnetism, ferroelectric imprint, dielectric degradation)
Impact of dislocations and grain boundaries on ceramic functional properties
Defect-phonon, Defect-photon, defect-electron, and defect-polaron interactions in functional ceramics
Coupled transport phenomena: ion, electron, heat, and stress interactions in ceramics
Transient defect dynamics and kinetic limitations during fast charging, pulsed fields, and ultrafast thermal processing
Defect control in quantum, correlated, and topological oxide systems
AI/ML-assisted defect discovery

Symposium Organizer(s):

Xin Xu, Arizona State University, USA
Till Frömling, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Tiffany Kaspar, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA
Nicola Perry, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
Yanhao Dong, Tsinghua University, China

Point(s) of Contact:

Xin Xu; xxu@asu.edu
Till Frömling; Froemling@ceramics.tu-darmstadt.de
Tiffany Kaspar; tiffany.kaspar@pnnl.gov
Nicola Perry; nhperry@illinois.edu
Yanhao Dong; dongyanhao@tsinghua.edu.cn

Division Sponsor(s):

Basic Science Division
Electronics Division
Energy Materials and Systems Division