Volume 20 Issue 6, June 2021

Liquid-metal networks have been developed that can be stretched to extreme deformations with minimal change in electrical resistance, ushering in approaches for breathable and integrated soft and stretchable electronic devices.

Clever 3D-printed acoustic materials allow probing a new higher-order semimetallic topological phase using audible sound.

Ferroelectricity in bulk crystals of hafnium oxide demonstrates that these properties are not limited to films prepared by thin-film deposition techniques.

Bright hot plasmon emission is observed in graphene due to the ultrafast relaxation of hot carriers that were excited by femtosecond laser pulses of visible light.

The stiffness of the basement membrane is a determinant of the process of metastasis and patient survival. Netrin-4 is now shown to be a key regulator of the basement membrane stiffness.

This Perspective provides an overview of the different approaches used to understand the behaviour of materials at different length scales and timescales through computation, and outlines future challenges in the description of complex systems or ultrafast non-equilibrium behaviour.

Simulations can be used to accelerate the characterization and discovery of materials. Here we Review how electronic-structure methods such as density functional theory work, what properties they can be used to predict and how they can be used to design materials.

Materials simulations are now ubiquitous for explaining material properties. This Review discusses how machine-learned potentials break the limitations of system-size or accuracy, how active-learning will aid their development, how they are applied, and how they may become a more widely used approach.

This Review provides an overview of computational tools and strategies, from simulation methods to machine learning and reverse-engineering approaches, used for the design of soft materials made from self-assembling colloids and nanoparticles.

Multiscale modelling is a powerful tool to simulate materials behaviour, which has important features across multiple length and time scales. This Review provides an overview of multiscale computation methods and discusses their development for use in material design.

A percolation theory of alloy passivation is developed accounting for selective dissolution and the quantity of metal dissolved during the primary passivation process, which provides a quantitative way for designing corrosion-resistant alloy compositions.

Symmetry is utilized to realize a phononic higher-order Weyl semimetal.

A magnetic spin Hall effect is reported in the collinear antiferromagnet Mn₂Au.

The optical emission of graphene under pumping with femtosecond laser pulses contains a strong component linked to plasmon emission from the hot electrons in the system.

A second-order topological Weyl semimetal based on a 3D-printed acoustic crystal, exhibiting Weyl points, Fermi arc surface states, and hinge states, has been experimentally demonstrated.

CrSe₂ nanosheets grown on WSe₂ show no apparent change in surface roughness or magnetic properties after months of exposure in air. Calculations suggest that charge transfer from the WSe₂ substrate and interlayer coupling within CrSe₂ play a critical role.

Hafnia ferroelectrics are of industrial interest owing to their compatibility with silicon-based electronics, but the ferroelectricity only exists in nanoscale films. Here, using a floating zone growth approach, ferroelectricity in bulk Y-doped hafnia is demonstrated.

Although the photogeneration yield spectrum is a key property for photoabsorbers in photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells, its characterization remains challenging. An empirical method to extract this parameter through quantum efficiency measurements of ultrathin films is proposed.

Metal-fluoride-based lithium-ion battery cathodes are typically classified as conversion materials because reconstructive phase transitions are presumed to occur upon lithiation. Metal fluoride lithiation is now shown to be dominated instead by diffusion-controlled displacement mechanisms.

Conductors made of a mixture of liquid and solid domains of Ga–In alloy can be stretched over 1,000%, keeping almost constant conductivity, and used to connect commercial electronic components and realize stretchable multilayer printed circuit boards.

Coating of liquid metals on electrospun elastomeric fibre mats leads to the realization of conducting buckled meshes that can be stretched up to 1,800% strain while preserving both stable electrical properties and permeability to air and moisture.

A polymer gel composite self-strengthens in response to mechanical vibrations due to activation of mechanically sensitive ZnO crosslinking agents in its matrix, in a process that resembles bone remodelling observed in animals.

Light-responsive myosin motors enable spatial and temporal control over the dynamics and transport of active nematic liquid crystals composed of actin filaments and myosin at an oil–water interface.

Molecular motors destroy a microtubule lattice as they walk on it, but it is now shown that a self-healing process incorporates new dimers in the damaged regions and prevents microtubule disassembly.

The basement membrane stiffness is shown to be a more dominant determinant than pore size in regulating cancer cell invasion, metastasis formation and patient survival. This stiffness is now known to be affected by the ratio of netrin-4 to laminin, with more netrin-4 leading to softer basement membranes.

Olga Malinkiewicz, founder of Saule Technologies, discusses her transition from academia to industry.