Themed collection 2021 Materials Horizons most popular articles

This review summarizes the emerging anti-icing gels and corresponding anti-icing mechanisms, and provides a future perspective.

An emerging trend in the application of metal–organic frameworks is to engineer mobile devices to possess chemical detecting capabilities for environmental monitoring, point-of-care testing, artificial intelligence, food security and defence.

A review covering catalytic method development to enable efficient chemical recycling and upcycling of the most abundant commercial polymers.

The bio-inspired general synthesis strategies of anti-freezing hydrogels and their potential application fields.

Conjugated oligomers polymerize in vivo on the root system of intact plants forming an extended network of tissue integrated conductors while the plants continue to grow and develop. The conducting roots are used to store energy in the plant.

Hitchhiking bioorthogonal nanozymes on red blood cells for selective killing of pathogenic bacterial infections.

D–π*–A type planar chiral TADF emitters were synthesized and the enantiomer-based CP-OLEDs exhibited EQE_max of up to 20.1%.

Modulated self-assembly of Fe-terephthalate metal–organic frameworks allows fine control over phase formation, offers insight into kinetic and thermodynamic landscapes, and the discovery of novel materials in an already well-studied complex system.

Zero-dimensional Cs₃InX₆ QDs with broadband blue emission were synthesized at room-temperature. A white LED was further fabricated by using Cs₃InX₆ QDs powder as down-conversion phosphor, demonstrating a remarkable working stability.

By combining a photocurable and a thermogelling hydrogel, it is possible to perform 3D freeform structuring via two-photon-polymerization and to manufacture concatenated parts without additional support structures.

By leveraging tannic-acid-enabled dynamic interactions, we designed an ionic hydrogel with boosted bulk and interfacial properties such as ultra-stretchability, remarkable self-healing capability and robust adhesion.

We report herein an autonomously ultrafast self-healing, colorless elastomer as a substrate for embedding Ag NWs to fabricate transparent and stretchable EMI shielding materials capable of fully restoring EMI SE at the resting and stretching states.

The number and configurations of stable states existing in origami-inspired ferromagnetic structures can be tailored by creasing and compression. Reconfigurations among the stable states and potential applications in soft robotics were presented.

A bioinspired all-in-one strategy was proposed to construct fluorescent, electrically responsive and ultratough self-healing hydrogels via multifunctional and hierarchical polyelectrolyte–surfactant micelles.

A fully hydrophobic ionogel sensor possesses excellent underwater sensing performance with high sensitivity, rapid responsiveness and superior durability, showing great potential in underwater communication and marine biological research.

A self-powered strain sensing system based on a quasi-solid-state thermoelectrochemical cell is developed via combining remarkable thermoelectrochemical performance with excellent mechanical flexibility/stretchability.

Dynamic interfacial interactions between the HAPAA and PANI hydrogels are favorable for self-healing; thus, the PANI network can enhance the mechanical and electronic properties of HAPAA hydrogel without compromising its self-healing performance.

Two pairs of D*–A type blue and orange CP-TADF emitters based on a rigid point chiral donor reveal high molecular rigidity, excellent PLQYs, and intense luminescence dissymmetry factors, which jointly enable highly efficient CP-OLEDs.

Boron–nitrogen coordination in polyurethane elastomers enhances the dynamics of the boronic ester while introduces inter- and intra-molecular interactions, leading to mechanical robustness and excellent self-healing efficiency simultaneously.

A mechano-responsive strategy, known as strain-induced crystallization, is proposed to tailor room-temperature self-healing, highly mechanically-strong and unprecedentedly tough polyurethane elastomers.