Themed collection Materials Horizons 10th anniversary cover articles

This review provides a comprehensive summary of recent advancements in hydrogel-based thermochromic smart windows, focusing on fabrication, chromic mechanisms, and improvements in responsiveness, stability, and energy-saving performance.

This review explores various mechanisms enabling threshold switching in volatile memristors and introduces recent progress in the implementation of neuromorphic computing systems based on these mechanisms.

A broad spectrum of materials that BASIS has explored to resolve the dynamics from pico- to nano-seconds using the quasielastic neutron scattering technique.

The structure of this review includes applications of MXenes in drug delivery, tissue engineering, antimicrobial, and in biosensors.

A new structure design was proposed by combining metallic glass with epsilon-near-zero thin films to achieve a dual-function system for infrared camouflage and thermal management within the atmospheric window.

A self-healing MoS₂/Ag/WC sandwich-like architecture utilizes spontaneous Ag atom diffusion to repair film defects and ensure long-lasting lubrication in extreme environments.

Solvate ionic liquids’ pressurisation-induced piezoelectric response and linear relationship with force. Similar effect in solid polymer electrolyte consisting of SIL and epoxy resin. Implications in passive charging of energy storage composites.

This study presents next-generation biometric “metainterface” enabling programmable mechanical, thermal, and active interfacial effects for intelligent materials and systems with highly engineerable interfacial properties.

Dopants with high charge density and structural complexity, combined with balanced operating conditions, can significantly enhance the performance and stability of a full-polymer ECDI system.

The multifunctional fluorescent probe PTZ enables investigation of the LDs and lysosome interaction from both phase transition and polarity perspectives, and the homogeneous transition of LDs and lysosomes during lipophagy was discovered.

We introduce an advanced multi-task deep learning framework, designed to predict the evolution of stress fields and the crack propagation across both time and space.

We introduce a novel deep learning-based inverse design framework with data augmentation for chiral mechanical metamaterials with a Bézier curve-shaped bi-material rib realizing a wide range of negative thermal expansion and negative Poisson's ratio.

This research demonstrates an OTS-based temperature-sensing afferent neuron that features low power consumption and a compact circuit structure.

A dual-responsive microemulsion capable of providing macroscale superlubrication in a broad temperature range and switching its coefficient of friction by ∼25 fold is reported. It also shows ultrahigh colloidal stability and anti-freezing properties.

With only a specific small amount of loss, perfect absorption of elastic waves can be achieved by a compact NHMG composed of only a single type of unit cell, enabling cloaking for arbitrary-shaped targets.