Crystal Structures Key to Steel’s Design Flexibility Feb. 7, 2023 Material engineers have mapped out the reasons some steels are better than others and how to make those better still.

image: (a) Crystal structure of the team’s new material. (b) The lengths of repeating unit cells (lattice constants) as a function of iron to nickel ratio.

When the pre-heated transition metal hydroxide reacts with lithium salt to form the cathode, it creates a uniform single-crystal NMC structure that looks smooth, even under magnification.