Composites articles within Nature Communications

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  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Hypersonic vehicles experience extreme temperatures, high heat fluxes, and aggressive oxidizing environments. Here, the authors highlight key materials design principles for critical vehicle areas and strategies for advancing laboratory-scale materials to flight-ready components.

    • Adam B. Peters
    • , Dajie Zhang
    •  & Suhas Eswarappa Prameela

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To maximize composite reinforcing efficiency, a semi-infinite reinforcement should be aligned in the matrix. Here, the authors report a float-stacking strategy for graphene-PMMA laminate with precisely aligned monolayer graphene in a polymer matrix.

    • Seung-Il Kim
    • , Ji-Yun Moon
    •  & Jae-Hyun Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft composite solids are building blocks for many functional and biological materials, yet it remains challenging to predict their mechanical properties. Zhao et al. propose a criticality framework to connect the mechanics to the critical behaviour near the shear-jamming transition of the dispersed inclusions.

    • Yiqiu Zhao
    • , Haitao Hu
    •  & Qin Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Development of high-performance, comfortable and sustainable air filters is challenging. Here, authors design an ultrathin, ultralight dual scale fiber mat composed of true nanofibers and submicron-fibers to integrate the high protection, thermal wet comfort and save raw materials.

    • Yuchen Yang
    • , Xiangshun Li
    •  & Yuekun Lai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, authors demonstrate highly stretchable conductive porous elastomers that can achieve up to 1200% strain with low or negative Poisson’s ratios by uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial hot-pressing strategies.

    • Xiaoyu Zhang
    • , Qi Sun
    •  & Guoqing Zu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microporous polymer ligand provides particle size reduction, enhanced ultramicroporosity (3–4 Å), and better colloidal stability in the polymer–metal–organic framework (polyMOF) system. This leads to defect-free and scalable composite membranes for efficient CO2 separation.

    • Tae Hoon Lee
    • , Byung Kwan Lee
    •  & Ho Bum Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stress concentrations make the design of durable interfaces between hard and soft materials a challenging task. Here, the authors, inspired by nature, combine mechanical tests and simulations on multiple geometries to generate design guidelines that yield strong and tough soft-hard interfaces.

    • M. C. Saldívar
    • , E. Tay
    •  & A. A. Zadpoor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of highly permeable polyamide (PA) membrane capable of precise ionic sieving remains challenging. Here, the authors report an anhydrous interfacial polymerization on the solid-liquid interface to eliminate water-caused side reactions, leading to a PA layer with an ionic sieving accuracy of 0.5 Å.

    • Guangjin Zhao
    • , Haiqi Gao
    •  & Hong Meng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving reversible phase transformation of shape memory ceramics (SMCs) in a densified composite can have scientific and technological impacts, but is challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate the reversible martensitic transformation of SMCs confined in aluminum without destructive impact.

    • Wangshu Zheng
    • , Yan Shi
    •  & Qiang Guo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Smart monitoring devices with integrated mechanical protection and piezoelectric induction are limited. Here, the authors report a strategy to grow piezoelectric Rochelle salt crystals in 3D-printed cuttlebone-inspired structures to produce smart monitoring devices with integrated mechanical protection and electrical sensing capability.

    • Qingqing He
    • , Yushun Zeng
    •  & Yang Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Physical realizations of time crystals, non-equilibrium many-body systems with broken time-translation symmetry, typically require periodic driving. Here the authors demonstrate a time crystal without external periodic drive in a collection of erbium atoms under a continuous laser excitation.

    • Yu-Hui Chen
    •  & Xiangdong Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, the authors demonstrate a ‘jointly modulated’ amplifying programmable metasurface (APM) for simultaneous wireless information and power transmission (SWIPT). Their technique outperforms existing methods, significantly improving power transmission and adaptability for conveying energy and data across various domains, including wireless implants, 6 G networks, and IoT systems.

    • Xin Wang
    • , Jia Qi Han
    •  & Tie Jun Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Heterointerface and defect promote the development of electromagnetic wave absorbers. Here, the authors show the 3D flower-honeycomb CuCo2S4@Expanded Graphite heterostructure, report the mechanism of crystal-crystal/amorphous heterointerfaces and cation defects on electromagnetic wave absorption.

    • Zhimeng Tang
    • , Lei Xu
    •  & Jinhui Peng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The performance of membrane desalination of seawater is hampered by fouling. Here the authors develop smart gating hybrid membranes by surface coating with polymer-embedded thermosalient crystals. These membranes enhance pure water flux by over 40% in saltwater desalination by osmotic distillation.

    • Elvira Pantuso
    • , Ejaz Ahmed
    •  & Gianluca Di Profio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, the authors demonstrate that pulse current can effectively be used to reduce delamination damage and residual deformation in 3D orthogonal woven composites, enhancing mechanical properties and damage tolerance.

    • Yan Li
    • , Fusheng Wang
    •  & Laohu Long

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Liquid crystal elastomer printing methods are often limited to planar structures. In this work, authors integrate 4D printed structures with fully impregnated composite interfaces to enable programmable deformation ability and high bearing capacity by adjusting the off-centre distribution of the fibres.

    • Qingrui Wang
    • , Xiaoyong Tian
    •  & Dichen Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite widely used in the construction sector, Portland cement’s high brittleness and low toughness still pose challenges in some applications. Here, authors apply an ice-templating method to fabricate a cement-hydrogel composite with alternating layered microstructure resulting in significantly increased toughness.

    • Yuan Chen
    • , Yangzezhi Zheng
    •  & Changwen Miao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing materials which mimic thermal homeostasis is limited by complicated fabrication steps or unidirectional temperature transport. Here, the authors develop a homeostatic hydrogel that shows improved heat trapping at low temperatures, and enhanced evaporative cooling at high temperatures.

    • Gyeongsuk Park
    • , Hyunmin Park
    •  & Steve Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High-performance fibers are promising materials in the impact protection field but fabricating fibers with high strength and high toughness is challenging. Here, the authors polymerize carbon nanotubes into aramid fibers to simultaneously improve strength and toughness.

    • Jiajun Luo
    • , Yeye Wen
    •  & Jin Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optically transparent wood composites are commonly prepared by delignification of wood and subsequent infiltration of thermo- or photocurable polymer resins but the fabrication is still limited by the intrinsic low mesopore volume of the delignified wood. Here, the authors report a facile approach to fabricate transparent wood using wood xerogel which allows solvent-free infiltration of resin monomers into the wood cell wall under ambient conditions.’

    • Shennan Wang
    • , Lengwan Li
    •  & Qi Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulation of Janus particles is challenging and has limited precision. Here, the authors propose manipulation of Janus particles by optical forces in the evanescent field of an optical nanofiber, and demonstrate that they exhibit strong transverse localization on the nanofiber and much faster propulsion compared to all-dielectric particles of the same size.

    • Georgiy Tkachenko
    • , Viet Giang Truong
    •  & Síle Nic Chormaic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-healing materials hold great promise for applications in wearable electronics, artificial muscles and soft robots but selfhealing at subzero temperatures remains a great challenge. Here, the authors present a robust subzero healable glassy polymer by incorporating polyphenol nano-assemblies with a large number of end groups into polymerizable deep eutectic solvent elastomers.

    • Nan Wang
    • , Xin Yang
    •  & Xinxing Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Development of Soft shape-memory materials is often limited to the synthesis of two-dimensional specimens and rely on bending mechanisms and scaffolding topology to perform three-dimensional morphing. Here, the authors demonstrate a shape-memory composite material made from main-chain liquid crystal elastomer microparticles dispersed in a silicone polymer matrix which enables molding into full-volume objects of any shape or size.

    • Matej Bobnar
    • , Nikita Derets
    •  & Andraž Rešetič

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft robotics holds promise for realizing easy control over complex locomotion and deformation. Lin et al. report an earthworm-inspired untethered magnetic robot that consists one-piece-mold folded diaphragm to achieve large three-dimensional deformation with inside-volume change capability.

    • Dezhao Lin
    • , Fan Yang
    •  & Ruihong Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Catastrophically mechanical failure, of soft self-healing materials often stems from its poor resistance to crack, propagation. Here, the authors present a strategy of surpassing trade-off, between soft self-healing and high fracture toughness, enabling the, conversion of soft and weak into soft yet tough self-healing materials.

    • FuYao Sun
    • , LongFei Liu
    •  & JiaJun Fu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fouling is a continuous challenge for the effective application of membranes in oily wastewater treatment. Here, the authors present a hydrophobic chain engineering strategy to regulate the surface of graphene oxide-based membranes at a molecular scale for increased antifouling even at high permeance.

    • Chao Yang
    • , Mengying Long
    •  & Zhongyi Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic materials that can repeatedly self-repair, akin to biological systems, are vital to meeting the 21st century’s infrastructural demands. Here, authors develop fiber-reinforced composites with rapid and prolonged in situ self-healing while also preserving structural integrity.

    • Alexander D. Snyder
    • , Zachary J. Phillips
    •  & Jason F. Patrick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cellulose biocomposites from nanocellulose or plant fibers with polymer matrix are often not degradable and suffer from insufficient mechanical properties to replace established materials. Here, the authors demonstrate the fabrication of hydrolytically degradable polymers through in-situ polymerization of new functionally balanced oligomers within high-content lignocellulose reinforcement networks.

    • Erfan Oliaei
    • , Peter Olsén
    •  & Lars A. Berglund

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Finding efficient photothermoelectric materials remains critical to the development of clean and renewable energy conversion technologies. Here, authors prepare a silver nanostructure film/carbon nanotube film heterojunction with excellent photothermal and photoelectric conversion performance.

    • Bocheng Lv
    • , Yu Liu
    •  & Jia-Lin Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthesizing architected materials with strong adhesion has been challenging. Here the authors fabricate architected polymer networks by sequential polymerization and photolithography, and attain adherent interface by topological entanglement.

    • Xiao Liu
    • , Jingping Wu
    •  & Jian Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nature-inspired design motifs have contributed to the development of advanced materials. Here the authors present a segmental design motif to realize a compression-resisting lightweight mechanical metamaterial with a progressive failure behavior and rotational degree of freedom.

    • Wei Wang
    • , Shu Jian Chen
    •  & Kwesi Sagoe-Crentsil

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thin-film composite membranes formed by conventional interfacial polymerization generally suffer from depth heterogeneity of the polyamide layer. Here, authors investigate salt-mediated polymerization approaches to achieve membranes with tuneable structural homogeneity.

    • Liang Shen
    • , Ruihuan Cheng
    •  & Yan Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The limited strength of green parts have been a major hurdle in the Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing. Here the authors apply polyethyleneimine binder to print silica sand structures with double the flexural strength of green parts and 8-fold increase in the strength upon reactive infiltration.

    • Dustin B. Gilmer
    • , Lu Han
    •  & Tomonori Saito

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The morphology of semicrystalline plastics on the 1-100 μm scale, such as spherulites, strongly affect mechanical and other properties of the material but currently only 2D imaging techniques are available. Here, the authors use fluorescence labels and confocal microscopy to visualize the internal structure of neat polymers and composites in 3D and reveal unsuspected morphologies.

    • Shu-Gui Yang
    • , Zhen-Zhen Wei
    •  & Goran Ungar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Upscale fabrication of functionalized microparticles is a pending challenge. Here, Kim et al. exploit the rheology of a thixotropic medium to grind sizeable amounts of raw material into well-defined colloidal dispersions, physically stabilized for further production steps.

    • Sang Yup Kim
    • , Shanliangzi Liu
    •  & Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Osmotically assisted reverse osmosis can overcome limitations of the reverse osmosis process but a strong membrane which can withstand a high hydraulic pressure is crucial. Here, the authors develop strong polymer thin film composite hollow fiber membranes with exceptionally high hydraulic burst pressures of up to 110 bar, while maintaining high water permeance and salt rejection.

    • Can Zeng Liang
    • , Mohammad Askari
    •  & Tai-Shung Chung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Homojunctions are very promising in photocatalysis, but challenging to achieve. Herein, authors report a well-defined hierarchical metal–organic framework-based homojunction, formed via a one-pot synthesis route directed by hollow transition metal nanoparticles, as photocatalysts for CO2 reduction.

    • Yannan Liu
    • , Chuanshuang Chen
    •  & Dongling Ma

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