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This Review discusses stimuli-responsive liquid crystalline polymer networks and elastomers as materials with programmable mechanics for use in functional devices.
Strength, ductility and corrosion resistance have been simultaneously obtained in a low-density lithium-containing magnesium alloy, thereby enhancing its potential use in transportation.
Porous solids comprising a self-entangled coiled polymer fibre or metal wire reversibly increase their volume when either stretched or compressed in an axial direction, possibly providing a new type of mechanical behaviour for tuning functional properties.
Molecular layers show antiferromagnetic ordering up to room temperature and are able to exchange bias a ferromagnetic electrode, demonstrating that molecules could be much more than a simple vehicle for transporting spin.
A supramolecular polymer that is stable in the acidic environment of the stomach but dissolves in the neutral-pH environment of the intestines prolongs the safe retention of gastric devices.
Advanced microscopy techniques provide unique insight into a material's structure. This Progress Article discusses how the application of big, deep and smart data to image analysis might permit the design of materials with advanced functionality.
The coupling of the electronic structure of organic semiconductors with the electromagnetic field in the vacuum by means of plasmonic antennas allows for a mobility boost.
Ultrashort laser pulses create strain waves that generate highly mobile charges at an oxide interface. These charges propagate into the oxide layer destroying its antiferromagnetic ordering and insulating properties, providing insight into the physics of metal–insulator transitions.
Time-resolved measurements of the exciton dynamics in tungsten diselenide monolayers reveal ultrafast radiative recombination of the exciton ground state (∼150 fs) and the interplay between optically bright and dark excitons.
The unique properties of 2D materials, such as graphene or transition metal dichalcogenides, have been attracting much attention in the past decade. Now, metallically conductive and even superconducting transition metal carbides are entering the game.
Negative pressure in ferroelectric nanowires has been achieved by exploiting a phase transformation between crystal structures with differing densities, leading to substantial property enhancement.
