Structure as a strategy

We live in a time when chemists can arrange atoms, molecules and layers with a precision that was once unimaginable. Progress in materials chemistry has often come from changing what things are made of, yet today we understand that how those components are arranged is just as important. Structure, and the interactions it enables, can be as powerful as composition in tuning materials’ properties and uncovering new phenomena and functions.

Here are three recent studies that come from fields that illustrate this notion.