Themed collection Materials Horizons 10th anniversary regional spotlight collection: China

In-depth discussion on recent progress of fundamental understanding of AIE mechanisms, identifying the existing challenges and opportunities for future developments.

A rich variety of unconventional computing paradigms has been raised with the rapid development of nanoscale devices. Magnetic skyrmions, spin swirling quasiparticles, have been endowed with great expectations for unconventional computing.

This review focuses on the research progress of the efficient iodine capture in porous POP and MOF materials.

Recent progress in black phosphorus-based photonics, electronics, sensors and energy devices has been reviewed.

This review systematically summarizes the limitations of solid electrolytes including inorganic solid electrolytes, solid polymer electrolytes, and composite solid electrolytes.

Incorporating flexible pressure sensors with organic electronic devices allows their promising applications in artificial intelligence and the health care industry.

Non-fullerene acceptors are undergoing rapid development, and are emerging as a hot horizon in organic electronics. Solution-processed bulk heterojunction solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors have shown encouraging power conversion efficiencies of over 4%. This article reviews recent developments in several classes of solution-processable non-fullerene acceptors for organic photovoltaics.

The formation of polymorphs and multi-component solids (e.g. co-crystals) has played an important role in tuning luminescence of molecular materials.

We proposed a sensing–transducing coupled strategy by embedding the high piezoresponse Sm-PMN-PT ceramic into a moisture-sensitive PEI via electrospinning to conjugate the humidity perception and signal transduction synchronously and sympatrically.

The tobramycin-doped polydopamine nanoparticles were developed to construct solar evaporator, which exhibited synergistic antibacterial behaviors and high water evaporation rate, thus achieving stable reuse even under microbe-rich environment.

Utilizing an MgO insulation interlayer reduces electrical conduction and enhances the electric breakdown strength of PEI dielectric films, this facile but effective method significantly improves the high temperature capacitive performance.

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.

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.

Shape-programmable soft actuators are developed through the integration of electrically conductive liquid metals with shape-morphing liquid crystal networks. Their applications in light-fueled oscillator, crawler and programmable robotic Shadow Play are demonstrated.

Novel underwater tissue-selective adhesive hydrogels with adhesion energy to wet porcine skin of ∼1011 J m⁻² were made by bio-mimicking Mfps.

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.

A self-powered integrated strain sensor system which could be attached to the human body to detect human motion was developed.

Stretchable, self-healing, and fatigue resistant polyzwitterionic nanocomposite hydrogels with polydopamine robustly adhere to the heart and lungs for in situ monitoring of dynamic motions through wireless transmission.

Single atom Pt significantly improves the sensing performances of ultrathin SnO₂ films for detection of triethylamine.

Two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic semiconductors (FMSs) exhibit novel spin-dependent electronic and optical properties, opening up exciting opportunities for nanoscale spintronic devices.

A zwitterionic poly(ionic liquid) hydrogel with super-stretchability, self-healing ability, and high conductivity at −20 °C was fabricated and used for ionic skin for a soft robotic gripper.

A general strategy for the fabrication of mechanically robust ionogels by hydrogen bonding between elastomers and [NTf₂]-based ILs is demonstrated.

An all-weather steam generation system is achieved based on the alternative photo-thermal and electro-thermal conversion of crosslinked MXene aerogels.

Nonfullerene acceptors tend to decompose in the presence of ZnO due to photocatalytic activity, and SnO₂ is an alternative for higher efficiency and better stability.

A facile solvent-exchange strategy is devised to fabricate anti-drying, self-healing and transparent organohydrogels for stretchable humidity sensing applications.

A unique hydrophilic/hydrophobic nanoporous double layer structure was designed for efficient and stable solar water evaporation distillation.

A facile strategy for the preparation of multifunctional Janus membranes was proposed, and excellent controllability of the membrane was demonstrated.

A 3D printed thermo-responsive hydrogel is designed as a novel multifunctional skin-like sensor.

Strain sensors with both of stretchability and ultrahigh sensitivity have been designed and fabricated for various wearable monitoring applications.

Understanding guest diffusion in nanoporous host–guest systems is crucial in the efficient design of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) for chemical separation and drug delivery applications.

A strain sensing structure with high gauge factors (GFs) is designed by engineering channel cracks in a gold thin film. The developed strain sensors possess GFs as high as 200 (ε < 0.5%), 1000 (0.5% < ε < 0.7%), and even exceeding 5000 (0.7% < ε < 1%).

Two crystalline polymorphs of TMPE (C_p-form and C_c-form) exhibit totally different mechanoluminescence properties.

Devices utilizing sterically shielded blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters achieve high efficiencies and long lifetimes simultaneously.