The complexity of modeling
In recent years, advances in materials synthesis techniques have enabled scientists to produce increasingly complex functional materials with enhanced or novel macroscopic properties. For example, ultra-small core-shell metallic nanoparticles used for catalysis, high entropy alloys made of 6 or 7 elements to give high strength at high temperatures and pharmaceuticals engineered at the nano-scale for more effective drug delivery. Modern engineered materials drive progress in many scientific disciplines and are at the heart of next-generation technologies in industrial fields including electronics, energy production and storage, environmental engineering, and biomedicine. As the optical, electronic and mechanical properties of such materials are deeply influenced by atomic structure, solving the structure of engineered materials is of critical importance to unlocking their true potential.