Czech-Austrian colloquium on first-principles modeling of advanced materials 2019
On May 14, 2019, Mgr. Martin Friák, Ph.D., organized at IPM an international Czech-Austrian colloquium on quantum-mechanical modeling of advanced materials. 25 scientists and students from the Czech Republic (Brno, Praha and Ostrava) and Austria (Leoben and Vienna) gathered to synergically interlink advanced theoretical and experimental methods in materials science. One of the most discussed topics of the colloquium was represented by internal interfaces. These can have either positive or negative impact on materials properties. For example, extended internal defects of crystalline lattice, such as grain boundaries, are critically important for mechanical behavior – they can make materials easily deformable but can also be behind their catastrophic failure. On the other hand, one of modern trends in materials science is to actively exploit unique properties of internal interfaces, such as those in nanocomposites. The participants of the colloquium discussed ways of systematically employing internal interfaces when designing new materials with unprecedented properties.
