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Our newest special issue, "Higher-order Functional Mesostructures" focuses on the recent innovations in hierarchical mesostructured materials based on nanotechnology and nanoarchitectonics.
Excess carbon emissions have greatly impacted the human society...We announce call for papers for Review/Original Articles, awaiting submissions on these topics by October 31, 2023.
SPECIAL ISSUE | Hydrogels are of great interests from the viewpoints of their diverse applications such as disposal water absorbent, tissue engineering, drug delivery, etc. New synthetic techniques as well as analytical methods have opened new gates to intelligent and advanced hydrogel-related materials.
The photodiode, FET, spintronic, piezoelectric, thermoplastic and molecular sensing applications of free-standing 2D GaN synthesized by sonochemical and Hummer’s method.
This work presents a design guide for anlog memristive devices for artificial synapses in neuromorphic computing. Ge implanted a-Si serves multiple fuctions to induce multifilamentary switching and prevent silicide formation. The linear synapse update behaviors were observed thanks to multi-filament formation, which was confirmed by TEM.
A facile and scalable approach was developed using ultrafine bubble (UFB)-assisted heteroagglomeration to fabricate high-concentration, impurity-free nanoceramic/metal composite powders for additive manufacturin. Individual ZrO2 or Al2O3 nanoparticles up to ~10 wt% were homogeneously decorated on the surface of Ti-6Al-4V powders through the bridging effect of the negatively charged UFBs. The nanoceramics were completely decomposed and dissolved into the matrix upon laser irradiation; therefore, a unique Ti nanocomposite exhibiting both high strength and ductility was obtained.
We evaluated the liquid fragility and structural and dynamic heterogeneity of glassy solids. The most fragile alloy exhibited the maximum dynamic heterogeneity in the mechanical unfreezing process. We observed that atomic displacement significantly correlated with degrees of clustering of local atomic orders. The clustering produced during the glass-forming quenching process enhanced structural and dynamic heterogeneities. Therefore, there are correlations among liquid fragility, dynamic heterogeneity in liquid alloys, and dynamic and structural heterogeneities in glassy solids. In addition, the alloy with the most fragility exhibited the largest difference in atomic mobility between the densely and loosely packed local atomic orders.
A liquid–solid dual-phase magnetoactive microlattice metamaterial composed of flexible 3D-printed polymer shell and magnetorheological (MR) fluid has been designed and fabricated. The MR fluid-filled magnetoactive microlattices demonstrated remarkable recoverability (~50%) and be substantially stiffened in the presence of a magnetic field, with an ~200% increment in stiffness at 60 mT. Based on specific applications, the mechanical properties of this magnetoactive microlattice metamaterial can be modulated on demand, leading to certain programmable stress-strain behavior.
Drawing inspiration from the structural attributes of mussels, we have introduced a riveting layer into our hydrogel-plastic hybrids, facilitating robust bonding between hydrogel networks and plastic substrates. This work underscores the immense potential and advantages that this integration of hydrogels and plastics holds, especially in the development of intelligent robotics.
In this work, we report a strategy with which to realize efficient manipulation of CNT networks by forming double networks with branched polyethylenimine (PEI). The double network was highly viscoelastic and ductile and enabled efficient film stretching or creeping for CNT alignment, which dramatically improved the mechanical strengths of the CNT films. Due to viscous drag from the polymer network, the CNTs showed enhanced movability in reconstructing new networks, which made the film repairable. The repairability resulted from the branched polymeric structure. This double-networking strategy provides a new way to manipulate CNT assemblies for high-performance applications.
Despite enormous efforts by many research groups, Sr2IrO4 was found to stay remarkably insulating in thin film form. Now, a high-pressure oxygen annealing treatment on the Sr2IrO4 thin film realized the long-sought metallicity for the first time. An emerging transport phase diagram was deduced from the experiment that features an interplay between two states: the robust insulating state, which is likely dominated by the defect scattering effect of planar oxygen vacancies O(2), and the new metallic state, which likely reflects an intrinsic bulk-like property of the IrO2 planes with effective electron doping due to apical oxygen vacancies O(1).
The single crystals of lithium rare earth fluorides exhibit remarkable magnetocaloric performance with a record-high entropy change of 16.73 J kg-1 K-1 achieved under a very small magnetic field of 5 kOe.
Hydrogels are of great interests from the viewpoints of their diverse applications such as disposal water adsorbent, tissue engineering, drug delivery, etc. New synthetic techniques as well as analytical methods have opened new gates to intelligent and advanced hydrogel-related materials. In combination with the broad term “healing”, the hydrogel-related materials have also been experiencing remarkable innovations. Some of the healing materials are designed for their own repair, others to assist the healing of the damaged bio-organisms. This special issue of NPG Asia Materials is focusing on the recent innovations related to hydrogels and hydrogel-related healing material, and presents state-of-the-art original articles as well as comprehensive reviews in this fast-growing field.
Guest editor: Liping Wen, Chinese Academy of Science, China
Submission Guideline: https://www.nature.com/documents/am-gta.pdf