Cover Picture: Stabilization of Undercooled Metals via Passivating Oxide Layers (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 11/2021)

Abstract

Cool frustration. Engineering composition across a thin surface oxide layer of a metal particle, and stabilizing it with appropriate ligands, leads to a sharp surface stress that frustrates solidification. Chemical potential gradients from compositional variation and ligand inductive effects all contribute to stabilization of a metastable state. An undercooled liquid metal particle is formed, highlighting a new paradigm in engineering energy landscape of a material using thin surface layer, as described by Martin Thuo et al. in their Research Article on page 5928.