Materials Horizons最新文献

Macroporous cryogels are formed by polymerising monomers around ice crystal templates, with water as the only waste product, making them appealing as tuneable and sustainable scaffolds. Cryogels have found diverse applications spanning pollutant removal, vaccine delivery, tissue culture and purification. However, an unmet challenge remains: ice crystal templates are intrinsically dynamic and evolve during polymerisation, leading to heterogeneity and complicating reproducibility. Here we overcome this challenge using ice-binding protein-inspired polymers that pre-program the ice crystal template size within cryogels through selective ice crystal surface binding. This ice-crystal programming is shown to fine-tune the rheological and mechanical properties of the resulting materials, without any change in the monomer composition or extensive optimization of reaction conditions, unlike conventional methods. This approach unlocks wider applications of cryogels, exploiting biomimetic solutions to tune the crucial ice crystal template.

Scientific conferences remain one of the most effective mechanisms for driving multidisciplinary materials research forward, stemming not just from the podium talks delivered and posters presented but also through the informal, often accidental exchanges that happen around them. At the same time, the carbon cost, financial burden, and unequal accessibility of conference travel are serious enough that the field cannot keep treating the traditional in-person meeting as the primary way to build a research network. The community's task is not to choose between showing up or logging on, but to instead design conference formats deliberately around the mechanism that works: sustained, trust-building contact between people who likely otherwise would have never read each other's papers.

Since various radionuclides, such as Cs⁺ and Sr²⁺, typically coexist in real-world radioactive-contaminated wastewater, the comprehensive, highly efficient, and highly selective separation of these radionuclides from complex water bodies remains a major challenge in environmental radioactive remediation. Herein, a dual-ligand Ti-based MOF heterostructure was constructed and subsequently regulated through controlled ammonia-based alkaline etching. Through a novel ammonia-based alkaline etching method, active Ti-O-related sites were effectively exposed within the MOF structure, endowing COMIL-2 with excellent adsorption performance. Benefiting from the synergistic effect between the in situ exposed active Ti-O-related sites and the intrinsic three-dimensional porous framework of the MOF, COMIL-2 exhibited ultrafast adsorption kinetics (with adsorption capacities approaching plateau values within approximately 15 s for Cs⁺ and 20 s for Sr²⁺) and high experimental adsorption capacities (252.45 mg g^-1 and 92.20 mg g^-1, respectively). Even in the presence of competing ions such as Na⁺, K⁺, and Mg²⁺, as well as in Cs⁺/Sr²⁺-spiked environmental water samples such as North Sea groundwater, COMIL-2 retained appreciable adsorption performance. Density functional theory calculations further indicate that interfacial electronic reconstruction and the resulting local polarization contribute to the favorable interaction of Cs⁺ and Sr²⁺ with the accessible Ti-O-related regions. This structural evolution induces spatial charge separation and the migration of surface electrostatic potential, enabling the electron-rich microenvironment to stably anchor the target cations via nucleophilic interactions. This study provides valuable insights for the rational design and fabrication of novel MOFs with multiple specific adsorption sites at the atomic scale.

Correction for 'From the up-converting multimodal luminescent thermometer to ratiometric visual power density meter based on Er³⁺,Yb³⁺ emission' by Anam Javaid et al., Mater. Horiz., 2026, 13, 417-429, https://doi.org/10.1039/d5mh01369k.

Modern technological demands require metals to integrate structural and functional performance, yet conventional metallurgy remains constrained by intrinsic trade-offs among strength, electrical conductivity, and wear resistance. Neutron-star evolution offers a natural blueprint for overcoming this limitation: load-bearing nuclear matter forms continuous frameworks, while a permeating electron sea enables efficient charge transport, intrinsically decoupling mechanical support from transport functionality. Inspired by this principle, we designed a neutron-star-inspired metallic metamaterial that assigns load bearing to a tungsten framework and electrical transport to a silver network. Realized through sequential 3D printing and metal infiltration, the resulting Ag-W architecture delivers high strength (≈213 MPa), high electrical conductivity (>50% IACS), and ultra-low friction-reduced to ∼20% of conventional bulk metals, demonstrating an unusually favorable convergence of mechanical, electrical, and tribological performance that is difficult to achieve through composition-based alloying alone. Crucially, the performance gain goes beyond a simple composite effect, as evidenced by the ∼75% reduction in friction relative to non-neutron-star-like architected comparators. These results establish topology-guided metallic architectures as a promising complementary route for mitigating multi-property trade-offs.

Developing thermally and mechanically robust insulation capable of maintaining performance under repeated vacuum cycling remains a critical challenge for aircraft, aerospace and cryogenic systems, where both thermal efficiency and structural integrity are required. This study focuses on overcoming the trade-off between low thermal conductivity and mechanical stability in polymer-based insulating materials that are prone to structural degradation under pressure fluctuations. Herein, we present a Kelvin lattice-reinforced foam that preserves intrinsic insulation properties of closed-cell polyurethane (PU). The lattice framework suppresses structural collapse during vacuum cycling, while the PU foam region preserves low thermal conductivity. As a result, the hybrid structure exhibits a peak stress enhancement of up to 25 times compared to pristine PU foam. Furthermore, after 50 vacuum cycles, the hybrid structure retains thermal conductivity to within 10%, and peak-to-plateau ratio by less than 20% from their initial values, demonstrating excellent retention of both thermal and mechanical properties. These results establish the PU-Kelvin hybrid as a viable insulation architecture for environments subject to repeated pressure fluctuations, including aircraft cabins, aerospace structures, and cryogenic applications.

Thermal instability remains a fundamental bottleneck in oxide-based resistive random-access memory (RRAM), where elevated operating temperatures invariably increase the high-resistance-state (HRS) leakage current and collapse the ON/OFF switching window, severely limiting reliable deployment. Here, an Au/AgHfO_3-x/Al₂O₃/FTO (fluorine-doped tin oxide) memristor is reported in which this paradigm is inverted. The HRS current anomalously decreases with increasing temperature, yielding a reversible ∼25-fold enhancement in the ON/OFF ratio from 300 K to 400 K. This counter-intuitive behavior originates from trap-controlled space charge-limited conduction (SCLC) at the chemically sharp 5 nm Al₂O₃ interlayer, where thermal energy depopulates shallow trap states, suppressing hopping-assisted leakage without disrupting filamentary conduction in the low-resistance state. The optimized heterostructure achieves a room-temperature ON/OFF ratio of 349 ± 53, endurance exceeding 10³ bipolar switching cycles, retention over 25 000 s, and ten discrete analog conductance states spanning six orders of magnitude. Device-derived conductance states are directly used as synaptic weights in software-level simulations of handwritten-digit classification and image denoising on the MNIST benchmark. The handwritten-digit classification achieves 97.74% accuracy via transfer learning without implementation in a physical crossbar array or its associated peripheral circuitry. These results establish interface-engineered trap control as a design principle for thermally self-correcting memristors, a class where elevated temperature enhances rather than degrades performance, with direct relevance to neuromorphic hardware in thermally demanding environments.

Water-soluble conjugated molecular materials (WSCMs) have exhibited hierarchical light harvesting, energy transfer, photosensitization, and photoconversion capabilities, thus achieving remarkable breakthroughs in disease-related biosensing, biotheranostics, and biophotoconversion. In contrast to the basic investigations, rare efforts have been devoted to truly realizing their biomedical translational applications toward industrialization. This review concisely summarizes the state-of-the-art applications of WSCMs in clinical gene detection, disease theranostics, and green biosynthesis of high-value chemicals. Furthermore, challenges and development directions of WSCMs toward biomedical translations in precise diagnosis kits, in vivo theranostics, and large-scale photobiocatalysis are discussed, clearly mapping future industrialization trajectories for personalized medicine, veterinary drugs, and industrial bio-related fermentation.

Implantable fiber sensors are emerging as viable platforms for continuous in situ monitoring of physiological signals, yet their clinical translation remains limited. The core challenge lies not only in balancing mechanical compliance, electrical reliability, analytical specificity, and long-term stability but also in maintaining these properties at the tissue-device interface throughout chronic implantation. Biomimetic hierarchical architectures, which are common in living systems, have provided a practical route by enabling structural and functional integration across multiple scales. In this review, we summarize recent progress in biomimetic design principles for improving the performance of implantable fiber sensors. We first discuss bioinspired hierarchically structured conductive fiber substrates that combine conductivity, flexibility, and resistance to cyclic deformation. We then focus on bioinspired interfaces, membranes, and surface coatings to improve sensitivity, regulate mass transport, and suppress biofouling. Finally, we address mechanically adaptive and self-stabilizing interphases and discuss biosafety, biocompatibility evaluation, and postprocessing compatibility for the clinical translation of these sensing systems. Overall, this review aims to provide actionable biomimetic design insights that can accelerate the development of next-generation implantable fiber sensors with improved long-term performance and clinical applicability.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as promising therapeutic agents for restoring ovarian function and fertility in chemotherapy-induced premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). However, their limited ovarian targeting capacity and inefficient mitochondrial delivery have substantially constrained their therapeutic efficacy. Here, we present a biomimetic, dual-targeted EV platform derived from Lycium barbarum (TPP-GCM-LBEVs) and demonstrate its therapeutic potential in a mouse POI model. Hybridization with granulosa cell membranes (GCMs) confers intrinsic ovarian-homing capability, whereas subsequent surface conjugation with triphenylphosphonium (TPP) promotes mitochondrial targeting following cellular uptake. TPP-GCM-LBEVs efficiently target granulosa cells and their mitochondria in vitro and in vivo, with cellular internalization mediated predominantly by caveolae- and lipid-raft-dependent endocytosis. Subsequently, TPP-GCM-LBEVs restore mitochondrial ultrastructure and bioenergetic function in granulosa cells, thereby re-establishing ovarian redox and metabolic homeostasis. This mitochondrial rescue enhances the paracrine metabolic support provided to oocytes, thereby improving oocyte quality and developmental competence. Consistent with these effects, treatment with TPP-GCM-LBEVs rescues follicular development, ovarian endocrine function, and natural fertility in POI mice. Collectively, this cross-species, dual-targeted, plant-derived EV strategy provides a translatable and effective therapeutic framework for POI, with broader implications for mitochondria-associated reproductive ageing.