ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Thermal shock synthesis

Thermal shock synthesis is when we use heat to make interesting materials. Imagine you have a really cool rock that you want to make. To do that, you need to mix some chemicals together and then heat them up really quickly. When you heat something up really fast, it can sometimes break or get damaged. That's why we call it "thermal shock."

When we make materials using thermal shock, we have to be really careful about how we heat them up. We use a special oven called a furnace, which can get very hot. We put the materials we want to make inside the furnace and turn up the heat very quickly. We have to be very careful not to heat them up too quickly, though, because they might break apart.

If we heat them up just right, the chemicals inside the materials will react with each other and form something new. This new thing is what we wanted to make all along! It might be a cool rock, or a new type of metal, or something else entirely.

Overall, thermal shock synthesis is a way to make cool materials by mixing chemicals together and heating them up really fast. We have to be really careful about how we do it, but when we get it right, we can make some amazing things!