Picture a future where factories can create materials and chemical compounds more quickly, at lower cost, and with fewer production steps. Imagine your laptop processing complex data in seconds or a supercomputer learning and adapting as efficiently as the human brain. These possibilities depend on one fundamental factor: how electrons behave inside materials. Researchers at Auburn University have now developed a groundbreaking type of material that allows scientists to precisely control these tiny charged particles. Their findings, published in ACS Materials Letters, describe how the team achieved adjustable coupling between isolated-metal molecular complexes, called solvated electron precursors, where electrons are not tied to specific atoms but instead move freely within open spaces.
Electrons are central to nearly every chemical and technological process. They drive energy transfer, bonding, and electrical conductivity, serving as the foundation for both chemical synthesis and modern electronics. In chemical reactions, electrons enable redox processes, bond formation, and catalytic activity. In technology, managing how electrons move and interact underpins everything from electronic circuits and AI systems to solar cells and quantum computers. Typically, electrons are confined to atoms, which restricts their potential uses. However, in materials known as electrides, electrons move independently, opening the door to remarkable new capabilities.
“By learning how to control these free electrons, we can design materials that do things nature never intended,” explains Dr. Evangelos Miliordos, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Auburn and senior author of the study, which was based on advanced computational modeling.
To achieve this, the Auburn team created innovative material structures called Surface Immobilized Electrides by attaching solvated electron precursors to stable surfaces such as diamond and silicon carbide. This configuration makes the electronic characteristics of the electrides both durable and tunable. By changing how the molecules are arranged, electrons can either cluster into isolated “islands” that behave like quantum bits for advanced computing or spread into extended “seas” that promote complex chemical reactions.
This versatility is what gives the discovery its transformative potential. One version could lead to the development of powerful quantum computers capable of solving problems beyond the reach of today’s technology. Another could provide the basis for cutting-edge catalysts that speed up essential chemical reactions, potentially revolutionizing how fuels, pharmaceuticals, and industrial materials are produced.
“As our society pushes the limits of current technology, the demand for new kinds of materials is exploding,” says Dr. Marcelo Kuroda, Associate Professor of Physics at Auburn. “Our work shows a new path to materials that offer both opportunities for fundamental investigations on interactions in matter as well as practical applications.”
Earlier versions of electrides were unstable and difficult to scale. By depositing them directly on solid surfaces, the Auburn team has overcome these barriers, proposing a family of materials structures that could move from theoretical models to real-world devices. “This is fundamental science, but it has very real implications,” says Dr. Konstantin Klyukin, Assistant Professor of Materials Engineering at Auburn. “We’re talking about technologies that could change the way we compute and the way we manufacture.”
The theoretical study was led by faculty across chemistry, physics, and materials engineering at Auburn University. “This is just the beginning,” Miliordos adds. “By learning how to tame free electrons, we can imagine a future with faster computers, smarter machines, and new technologies we haven’t even dreamed of yet.”
The study, “Electrides with Tunable Electron Delocalization for Applications in Quantum Computing and Catalysis,” was also coauthored by graduate students Andrei Evdokimov and Valentina Nesterova. It was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and Auburn University computing resources.
