ERC grant for Bernhard Bayer

© Bernhard Fickl Disorder can have its advantages: Bernhard C. Bayer will produce "high-entropy materials- as thin 2D layers. For this project, he is now receiving an ERC Consolidator Grant. In materials science, things are not always absolutely clean and controlled: In so-called "high-entropy materials", several different types of atoms are used, which mix and arrange themselves quite randomly without a fixed pattern. It is precisely this randomness that makes it possible to achieve very specific material properties. Bernhard Bayer and his team at TU Wien now want to transfer these findings to the science of 2D materials - i.e. apply them to ultra-thin layers that consist of only one or a few atomic layers. Such a combination of high-entropy materials and 2D materials has not been studied before, and the technique opens up interesting new possibilities for electronics or novel catalysts. To implement this idea, Bernhard Bayer has now been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant, endowed with 2 million euros - one of the most highly endowed and prestigious grants in the European research landscape.