About

Elizabeth J. Opila is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, serving as the Department Chair and holding the Rolls Royce Commonwealth Professor of Engineering title. She is also a professor in the Materials Science and Engineering department and a courtesy professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Her research focuses on materials for use in extreme environments, including aircraft engines, rocket engines, energy conversion technologies, and thermal protection systems. Her work involves creating laboratory conditions that simulate high temperatures up to 2000°C, reactive gases such as oxygen and water vapor, and high flow rates, to study material behavior through various characterization techniques. Her research questions address the reactions occurring in materials, their reaction rates, predictability of material lifetimes, and the development of improved materials. Dr. Opila has a background in materials science and engineering, with a Ph.D. from MIT, and has previously worked as a research scientist at NASA Glenn Research Center. She joined UVA Engineering to engage with students and collaborate across multiple departments, contributing significantly to the field of high-temperature materials science and corrosion and electrochemical sciences.

Research topics

• Metallurgy
• Thermodynamics
• Materials science
• Composite material
• Chemical engineering
• Nanotechnology
• Physics
• Computational chemistry

Selected publications

• Ab initio molecular dynamics prediction and experimental validation of the 14:4 rare-earth oxide-phosphate structure

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2026-04-29

  articleOpen access

  Rare-earth oxide-phosphates (historically termed oxyphosphates) occupy the compositional space between RE 2 O 3 and REPO 4 and form during REPO 4 melting and high-temperature degradation of REPO 4 -based environmental barrier coatings. For several reported stoichiometries, reliable structural models remain unavailable because these phases are low-symmetry, large–unit-cell compounds that seldom form crystals suitable for single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Here, we predict the crystal structure of the compounds reported in the literature as “RE 8 P 2 O 17 ” (RE: Sm to Lu, Y) by combining finite-temperature ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations with targeted experiments. Syntheses and electron microprobe analysis show the correct RE:P ratio is 3.5, corresponding to RE 14 P 4 O 31 (14:4). Starting from the melt, AIMD simulations in the SLUSCHI framework, followed by symmetry-constrained relaxation, yield a complex (62 distinct oxygen sites on general positions), monoclinic Pc structure which represents a hitherto unknown structure type. It can be described as a defect fluorite (bixbyite, C -type RE 2 O 3 ) structure penetrated along one direction by tunnels containing (PO 4 ) tetrahedra. The structure was initially predicted for Y 14 O 15 (PO 4 ) 4 and was validated for RE = Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, and Y against synchrotron or laboratory X-ray powder diffraction patterns. Extending the model across the rare-earth series yields consistent lattice trends and places all oxide-phosphates RE 14 O 15 (PO 4 ) 4 within 46 meV/atom of the 0 K convex hull. A finite-temperature free-energy analysis from MD trajectories predicts entropy stabilization of Y 14 O 15 (PO 4 ) 4 above ~1,305 K, reconciling metastability at 0 K with observed synthesis and helping resolve discrepancies among published Y 2 O 3 –YPO 4 phase diagrams.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multicomponent Rare‐Earth Monosilicate Reactions With Calcium‐Magnesium Aluminosilicate

  Journal of the American Ceramic Society · 2026-02-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT High‐temperature reactions of multicomponent rare‐earth monosilicates (REMS) with calcium‐magnesium aluminosilicate (CMAS) were investigated at 1300°C for 24 h. Three compositional series were tested, each ranging from 1‐cation to 4‐cation REMS, with cations selected to interrogate compositional effects on CMAS reactivity. The final members of these series were (LaNdGdDy)MS, (YDyYbLu)MS, and (YErYbLu)MS. Two additional 5‐cation compositions were also tested, (YNdDyYbLu)MS and (YNdErYbLu)MS. Although commonly dubbed “high entropy” rare‐earth monosilicates (HEREMS), no evidence was found to support the notion that entropy stabilization plays a role in CMAS reactions. Of all samples tested in this work, pure LuMS reacted least with CMAS. Multicomponent REMS reacted with CMAS to form multicomponent apatite reaction products, which contained the same relative rare‐earth composition as the starting REMS. It is proposed that the enthalpic stability of these multicomponent rare‐earth apatites, determined by the rare‐earth elements present, dictates the CMAS reactivity of multicomponent REMS.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• High-temperature thermal expansion of yttrium aluminum garnet, monoclinic and perovskite oxides: A comparative study using hot-stage X-ray diffraction and dilatometry

  Ceramics International · 2026-04-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Multicomponent rare earth oxide stability against high temperature CMAS exposures

  Materialia · 2026-04-03

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• High Entropy Rare-earth Oxide (HERO) Coatings for Refractory Alloys

  2026-04-04

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The HERO coating was developed to protect refractory alloys

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Oxidation behavior of tantalum in high temperature molecular and dissociated oxygen

  Materialia · 2025-06-05 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Broadband optical phonon scattering reduces the thermal conductivity of multi-cation oxides

  Nature Communications · 2025-04-08 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access

  Multicomponent oxides, such as many minerals and high entropy oxides, show promise as materials for protection in extreme environments. Similar to other phononically dominated materials, the spectrum of vibrational carriers and phonon scattering heavily influences thermal transport in multi-cation oxides. In this work, we experimentally and computationally investigate the nature of phonon scattering and thermal transport in a series of single and multi-cation rare earth sesquioxides and zirconates. A reduction in thermal conductivity was observed from the single to multi-cation oxides, which is directly correlated to measured optical mode lifetimes. Via spectroscopic ellipsometry, we observe red shifting of the optical modes from local bonding distortion. Density functional theory calculation was used to evaluate how bonding distortions influence the phononic scattering rate observed through modal broadening and reduced thermal conductivity. Compared to single-cation oxides, the multi-cation oxides, especially those with larger cation size variance, exhibited lower effective coordination number and greater bond distortion.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Oxygen tracer diffusion in yttrium silicates

  Journal of the European Ceramic Society · 2025-01-29 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Structure and stability of 7:3 rare earth oxide-phosphates: a combined ab initio and experimental study

  ArXiv.org · 2025-10-18

  preprintOpen access

  Rare earth oxide-phosphates (REOPs) form a largely unexplored family of refractory lanthanides and yttrium compounds with general formula RExOy(PO4)z. They are of interest for applications ranging from thermal barrier coatings to catalysts and magnetic materials. At least four REOPs phases were experimentally identified with RE/P ratios from 7:3 to 6:1, however the structures were solved only for 3:1 phases (RE3O3(PO4)). In this work we report the structure for the 7:3 phases (RE7O6(PO4)3) derived by ab initio analysis of models based on previously reported oxide-vanadate analogues. The most stable structures for all 7:3 REOPs were found to be isotypic, adopting monoclinic symmetry with space group P21/c. The structures were validated by comparison of their powder X-ray diffraction patterns to those of synthesized La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd and Tb 7:3 phases (Rietveld refinement for all except Tb). Ab initio analysis of thermodynamic stability showed that all 7:3 REOPs are unstable at 0 K toward decomposition to REPO4 and RE3PO7 or RE2O3. The entropy contribution stabilizes RE7O6(PO4)3 phases for light rare earth elements above 1000 K, however, starting with Dy, computationally predicted stabilization temperature is higher than estimated melting points of RE7O6(PO4)3, which is consistent with observed synthesis pattern.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Melting temperature, emissivity, and thermal conductivity of rare-earth silicates for thermal and environmental barrier coatings

  Scripta Materialia · 2025-01-27 · 6 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• DMREF:Collaborative Research: GOALI: Accelerating Discovery of High Entropy Silicates for Extreme Environments

  NSF · $1.3M · 2019–2024

Frequent coauthors

• Nathan Jacobson

  59 shared

• Dennis S. Fox

  49 shared

• Dwight L. Myers

  22 shared

• Mackenzie Ridley

  22 shared

• Lavina Backman

  United States Naval Research Laboratory

  22 shared

• Raiford E. Hann

  American Ceramic Society

  22 shared

• Patrick E. Hopkins

  University of Virginia

  21 shared

• R. Craig Robinson

  Glenn Research Center

  20 shared

Labs

• Opila Research Group: Advanced High Temperature MaterialsPI