Panoramic (in beam) studies of materials synthesis

As the interest in rational synthesis for solid-state materials accelerates, there is an urgent need to understand the design principles concealed within these reactions. In situ material synthesis provides such an avenue to not only uncover these assembling rules, but also for finding new materials even in seemingly familiar phase spaces. Historically, this technique was largely employed for crystallization observations. However, as described in this chapter, the increased accessibility of in-house diffractometer setups—and consequent decreased requirement for synchrotron or spallation sources—enables the science community to apply this powerful technique to their chemical class of interest (e.g. oxides, chalcogenides). As detailed in the chapter, all in situ material synthesis measurements yield novel information that build toward an overall understanding of the driving force for reaction progressions and assembly rules. These advances, along with technological improvements, point the way toward more wide-ranging studies to fully flesh out the design principles that can be applied to larger families of materials, as well as combinatorial studies with complementary probes or calculations that can guide or confirm these design principles to enable rational design of complex solid-state materials.