Supra-ceramics: a molecule-driven frontier of inorganic materials

Discoveries and technological innovations over the past decade are transforming our understanding of the properties of ceramics, such as 'hard', 'brittle', and 'homogeneous'. For example, inorganic crystals containing molecular anions exhibit excellent secondary battery characteristics, and the fusion of inorganic solids and molecules results in innovative catalytic functions and physical properties. Different from the conventional ceramics such as metal oxides that are formed by monatomic cations and anions, unique properties and functions can be expected in molecular-incorporated inorganic solids, due to the asymmetric and dynamic properties brought about by the constituent molecular units. We name the molecular-incorporated inorganic materials that produce innovative properties and functions as supra-ceramics. In this article, we describe various kinds of supra-ceramics from the viewpoint of synthesis, analysis and physical properties/functions for a wide range of applications.