{"id":29730,"date":"2025-10-16T08:55:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=29730"},"modified":"2025-10-16T08:57:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:12:19","slug":"why-some-quantum-materials-stall-while-others-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/why-some-quantum-materials-stall-while-others-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"Why some quantum materials stall while others scale\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a new study, MIT researchers evaluated quantum materials\u2019 potential for scalable commercial success \u2014 and identified promising candidates.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MIT<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Zach Winn<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Cambridge, Mass. — People tend to think of quantum materials \u2014 whose properties arise from quantum mechanical effects \u2014 as exotic curiosities. But some quantum materials have become a ubiquitous part of our computer hard drives, TV screens, and medical devices. Still, the vast majority of quantum materials never accomplish much outside of the lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes certain quantum materials commercial successes and others commercially irrelevant? If researchers knew, they could direct their efforts toward more promising materials \u2014 a big deal since they may spend years studying a single material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, MIT researchers have developed a system for evaluating the scale-up potential of quantum materials. Their framework combines a material\u2019s quantum behavior with its cost, supply chain resilience, environmental footprint, and other factors. The researchers used their framework to evaluate over 16,000 materials, finding that the materials with the highest quantum fluctuation in the centers of their electrons also tend to be more expensive and environmentally damaging. The researchers also identified a set of materials that achieve a balance between quantum functionality and sustainability for further study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team hopes their approach will help guide the development of more commercially viable quantum materials that could be used for next generation microelectronics, energy harvesting applications, medical diagnostics, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople studying quantum materials are very focused on their properties and quantum mechanics,\u201d says Mingda Li, associate professor of nuclear science and engineering and the senior author of the work. \u201cFor some reason, they have a natural resistance during fundamental materials research to thinking about the costs and other factors. Some told me they think those factors are too \u2018soft\u2019 or not related to science. But I think within 10 years, people will routinely be thinking about cost and environmental impact at every stage of development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper<\/a> appears in Materials Today<\/em>. Joining Li on the paper are co-first authors and PhD students Artittaya Boonkird, Mouyang Cheng, and Abhijatmedhi Chotrattanapituk, along with PhD students Denisse Cordova Carrizales and Ryotaro Okabe; former graduate research assistants Thanh Nguyen and Nathan Drucker; postdoc Manasi Mandal; Instructor Ellan Spero of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE); Professor Christine Ortiz of the Department of DMSE; Professor Liang Fu of the Department of Physics; Professor Tomas Palacios of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS); Associate Professor Farnaz Niroui of EECS; Assistant Professor Jingjie Yeo of Cornell University; and PhD student Vsevolod Belosevich and Assistant Professor Qiong Ma of Boston College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Materials with impact<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheng and Boonkird say that materials science researchers often gravitate toward quantum materials with the most exotic quantum properties rather than the ones most likely to be used in products that change the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResearchers don\u2019t always think about the costs or environmental impacts of the materials they study,\u201d Cheng says. \u201cBut those factors can make them impossible to do anything with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li and his collaborators wanted to help researchers focus on quantum materials with more potential to be adopted by industry. For this study, they developed methods for evaluating factors like the materials\u2019 price and environmental impact using their elements and common practices for mining and processing those elements. At the same time, they quantified the materials\u2019 level of \u201cquantumness\u201d using an AI model created by the same group last year, based on a concept proposed by MIT professor of physics Liang Fu, termed quantum weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor a long time, it\u2019s been unclear how to quantify the quantumness of a material,\u201d Fu says. \u201cQuantum weight is very useful for this purpose. Basically, the higher the quantum weight of a material, the more quantum it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers focused on a class of quantum materials with exotic electronic properties known as topological materials, eventually assigning over 16,000 materials scores on environmental impact, price, import resilience, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, the researchers found a strong correlation between the material\u2019s quantum weight and how expensive and environmentally damaging it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s useful information because the industry really wants something very low-cost,\u201d Spero says. \u201cWe know what we should be looking for: high quantum weight, low-cost materials. Very few materials being developed meet that criteria, and that likely explains why they don\u2019t scale to industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers identified 200 environmentally sustainable materials and further refined the list down to 31 material candidates that achieved an optimal balance of quantum functionality and high-potential impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers also found that several widely studied materials exhibit high environmental impact scores, indicating they will be hard to scale sustainably. \u201cConsidering the scalability of manufacturing and environmental availability and impact is critical to ensuring practical adoption of these materials in emerging technologies,\u201d says Niroui.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guiding research<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the topological materials evaluated in the paper have never been synthesized, which limited the accuracy of the study\u2019s environmental and cost predictions. But the authors say the researchers are already working with companies to study some of the promising materials identified in the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe talked with people at semiconductor companies that said some of these materials were really interesting to them, and our chemist collaborators also identified some materials they find really interesting through this work,\u201d Palacios says. \u201cNow we want to experimentally study these cheaper topological materials to understand their performance better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSolar cells have an efficiency limit of 34 percent, but many topological materials have a theoretical limit of 89 percent. Plus, you can harvest energy across all electromagnetic bands, including our body heat,\u201d Fu says. \u201cIf we could reach those limits, you could easily charge your cell phone using body heat. These are performances that have been demonstrated in labs, but could never scale up. That\u2019s the kind of thing we\u2019re trying to push forward.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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