Negative materials: nature’s surprises

When:
October 20, 2016 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
2016-10-20T18:30:00+01:00
2016-10-20T19:30:00+01:00
Where:
Skeel Lecture Theatre, People's Palace
London E1 4NS
UK
Cost:
Free
Contact:
Queen Mary University of London

Common experience, together with a bit of knowledge about how atoms work together, tells us that materials expand when heated, and get stiffer when squashed. We expect no exceptions, yet in recent years we are finding an increasing number of materials whose behaviour is exactly the opposite of our intuition; these are often called “negative materials”. I will describe the types of material that show negative thermal expansion (shrinking instead of expanding when heated) and discuss the ideas we have recently develop to explain this phenomenon. This work has led us to predict that materials that show negative thermal expansion will also show another negative property, that of becoming elastically softer when compressed, which I will also discuss.

The lecture will be followed by a networking drinks reception.