Issue 8, 2024

Hybrid and composite materials of organic crystals

Abstract

Organic molecular crystals have historically been viewed as delicate and fragile materials. However, recent studies have revealed that many organic crystals, especially those with high aspect ratios, can display significant flexibility, elasticity, and shape adaptability. The discovery of mechanical compliance in organic crystals has recently enabled their integration with responsive polymers and other components to create novel hybrid and composite materials. These hybrids exhibit unique structure–property relationships and synergistic effects that not only combine, but occasionally also enhance the advantages of the constituent crystals and polymers. Such organic crystal composites rapidly emerge as a promising new class of materials for diverse applications in optics, electronics, sensing, soft robotics, and beyond. While specific, mostly practical challenges remain regarding scalability and manufacturability, being endowed with both structurally ordered and disordered components, the crystal–polymer composite materials set a hitherto unexplored yet very promising platform for the next-generation adaptive devices. This Perspective provides an in-depth analysis of the state-of-the-art in design strategies, dynamic properties and applications of hybrid and composite materials centered on organic crystals. It addresses the current challenges and provides a future outlook on this emerging class of multifunctional, stimuli-responsive, and mechanically robust class of materials.

Graphical abstract: Hybrid and composite materials of organic crystals

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
03 des. 2023
Accepted
07 jan. 2024
First published
08 jan. 2024
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2024,15, 2684-2696

Hybrid and composite materials of organic crystals

X. Yang, M. B. Al-Handawi, L. Li, P. Naumov and H. Zhang, Chem. Sci., 2024, 15, 2684 DOI: 10.1039/D3SC06469G

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