Themed collection 2019 Materials Horizons Most Popular Articles

The emergence of oxidized oxygen RIXS features at high voltages for Ni-rich layered oxide cathodes.

A non-coaxial microfluidic method is presented to generate hollow hydrogel microfibers for potential application as a tubular vascular scavenger.

To combat the growing global healthcare threat from drug-resistant pathogens, we demonstrate that midblock-sulfonated block polymers can kill 99.9999% of “superbugs,” including bacteria and viruses, in just 5 minutes due to an abrupt pH reduction.

A V_oc-increased approach with ITCT as the higher-LUMO-level acceptor guest supplies 16.1%-efficiency fullerene-free ternary solar cells with both V_oc and FF simultaneously increased.

The liquid layer generators enable excellent dynamic anti-icing performance and show great potential at temperature of −60 °C.

We demonstrate a novel oligomeric odd–even effect of mesogenic segments connected by flexible chains with an odd number of methylene groups.

A visualized digital analysis is presented to reveal the effect of structural evolution on the sensing performance.

Ultra-flexible egg albumen protein paper with a permittivity of 15–21, which is an improvement of nearly 300% compared with native egg albumen, and the protein-based memristor arrays and photoelectric logic gates are developed.

Theoretical and experimental investigations of diacetylene-linked COFs with remarkable charge-transport properties.

Scintillators detect ionising radiation by converting energy deposited in them to a proportional number of photons. They are omnipresent in large-scale technical applications around us. Here, we report excellent scintillation properties of perovskites at low temperatures providing the potential for a new generation of cryogenic scintillators. One intriguing option would be replacing current medical scintillation detectors with cryogenic perovskites that could achieve higher imaging resolutions, for example for diagnosing early-stage brain cancer.

Metal–organic framework/polypyrrole hybrids are synthesized and directly used in capacitive deionization for the first time.

We quantify activation energy, concentration, and diffusion coefficient of mobile ions in MAPbI₃ perovskite solar cells using transient ion-drift measurements.

Efficient solution-processed exciplex OLEDs were developed by incorporating a novel small molecule electron-donor and utilizing the strategy of ternary exciplexes.

Splitting energy (Δε)-controlled thermally activated reversed phase transformation from the low-lying dark state to the high-lying transition-allowed state of H-aggregation plays a key role in the organic ultralong room-temperature phosphorescence.

A hydrogel is crosslinked by disulfide bonds enabling photo-induced plasticity which can be encoded with pore patterns after melting of ice.

A cephalopod-inspired mechanoluminescence material with skin-like self-healing and sensing properties was developed by the construction of a unique strain-dependent microcrack-structured conductive UV-shielding layer upon a self-healable supramolecular fluorescent elastomer with synergistic dynamic crosslinking network design.

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

Liquid metals (LMs) are used as liquid fillers in hydrophilic polymer networks to realize ultra-stretchable hydrogels as asymmetric force-sensors. The existence of liquid metals endows the hydrogel with unique features in synthetic methods and sensing applications.

Nature-inspired ionic conductors based on supramolecular nanofibril are developed for flexible and stretchable strain/pressure sensors.

“Milk skin”-analogous ensembles enable fine control over colloid deposition processes, allowing their universal use for uniform nanomaterial patterning.