{"title":"COP29 limps towards agreement on climate finance","authors":"Ariane Vartanian","doi":"10.1038/s41578-025-00771-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00771-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP29) adjourned in late November in Baku, Azerbaijan — over a day after it was scheduled to end — with a rushed and, to some, bitterly disappointing outcome. A key aim of the summit was to reach a new climate finance goal for high-income countries to help low- and middle-income nations cope with climate shocks and transition to renewable energy. But as seems to be a theme in international environmental summits of late, negotiations stalled until the final panicked moments of the meeting. Under intense pressure to reach a compromise, including a walkout by the most climate-vulnerable countries like small island states, high-income nations hastily pledged to channel at least US$300 billion per year to low- and middle-income countries by 2035. Although triple the existing climate finance goal, this commitment still falls far short of the annual US$1.3 trillion that low- and middle-income nations had hoped to secure, and the many trillions they will actually need. Negotiations will continue at COP30.</p>","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"83 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":83.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"No agreement yet on global plastics treaty","authors":"Ariane Vartanian","doi":"10.1038/s41578-025-00770-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00770-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly voted to establish the world’s first legally binding international treaty to end plastic pollution — with the goal of having it finalized by the end of 2024. In December 2024 in Busan, South Korea, the intergovernmental negotiating committee met for the fifth, and what was supposed to be final, round of talks. They did not leave with an agreement as hoped. Two main coalitions, with opposing environmental and economic desires, are at the heart of the impasse. On one side of the divide is the so-called High Ambition Coalition: more than 100 member states that are impatient for strict measures, fortified by support from scientists, certain businesses and public opinion. On the other side are a handful of primarily oil-producing countries whose economies are structured around fossil fuels, bolstered by corporations with similar vested interests. Whereas the former group is eager for regulations on the entire plastic life cycle — including, and even especially, upstream plastic production — the latter group opposes production caps and prefers to focus on downstream waste management and recycling instead. The committee will reconvene sometime in 2025.</p>","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":83.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Emergence of melt and glass states of halide perovskite semiconductors","authors":"Akash Singh, David B. Mitzi","doi":"10.1038/s41578-024-00759-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00759-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Metal halide perovskites have attracted considerable attention among emerging semiconductors because they can be fabricated at a low cost and have outstanding optoelectronic properties, exhibiting record-breaking performance in photovoltaic, light-emitting and sensing devices. Since the first report of halide perovskites in 1892, studies have predominantly focused on their crystalline state, characterized by long-range atomic order. Introducing the possibility of a melt and/or glass state, devoid of substantial periodicity, unlocks new avenues for property tunability, reminiscent of the transformative impact that chalcogenide glasses have provided for commercial applications, including memory and computing. In this Perspective, we highlight the mounting evidence suggesting that melt and/or glass states of halide perovskites and related hybrids hold substantial promise for expanding the property and application spectrum of this materials family. We provide a comprehensive overview of melt and glass-forming perovskites, underscore pivotal concepts behind generating low-melting-temperature and switchable crystalline or glassy states, and emphasize the crucial importance of investigating these states in the context of structure–property tunability and application.</p>","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":83.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142937176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Light delivery to pancreatic tumours","authors":"Giulia Pacchioni","doi":"10.1038/s41578-024-00768-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00768-w","url":null,"abstract":"An article in Advanced Materials reports the development of an implantable, shape-morphing 3D micro-light-emitting diode device that enables continuous and effective light irradiation of pancreatic tumours.","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":83.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142935850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Huanyu Li, Ning Zhang, Lei Wang, Jian-Xin Lu, Renhao Dong, Huabo Duan, Jian Yang
{"title":"The challenge of recycling fast-growing fibre-reinforced polymer waste","authors":"Huanyu Li, Ning Zhang, Lei Wang, Jian-Xin Lu, Renhao Dong, Huabo Duan, Jian Yang","doi":"10.1038/s41578-024-00762-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00762-2","url":null,"abstract":"Fibre-reinforced polymers are widely used — and waste is growing fast. Appropriate recycling technologies should be purposefully selected to reintegrate fibre-reinforced polymer waste into sustainable industries, yield high-quality industrial products and promote the broader recycling of fibre-reinforced polymers.","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":83.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142911575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Deformable soft magnetic fibres","authors":"Charlotte Allard","doi":"10.1038/s41578-024-00764-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41578-024-00764-0","url":null,"abstract":"An article in Nature Communications presents a one-step spinning technique to fabricate soft magnetic high-entropy alloy fibres that exhibit enhanced plasticity and low coercivity.","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"10 1","pages":"2-2"},"PeriodicalIF":79.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142832397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuanbin Liu, Ata Madanchi, Andy S. Anker, Lena Simine, Volker L. Deringer
{"title":"The amorphous state as a frontier in computational materials design","authors":"Yuanbin Liu, Ata Madanchi, Andy S. Anker, Lena Simine, Volker L. Deringer","doi":"10.1038/s41578-024-00754-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00754-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>One of the grand challenges in the physical sciences is to ‘design’ a material before it is ever synthesized. There has been fast progress in predicting new solid-state compounds with the help of quantum-mechanical computations and supervised machine learning, and yet such progress has largely been limited to materials with ordered crystal structures. In this Perspective, we argue that the computational design of entirely non-crystalline, amorphous solids is an emerging and rewarding frontier in materials research. We show how recent advances in computational modelling and artificial intelligence can provide the previously missing links among atomic-scale structure, microscopic properties and macroscopic functionality of amorphous solids. Accordingly, we argue that the combination of physics-based modelling and artificial intelligence is now bringing amorphous functional materials ‘by design’ within reach. We discuss new implications for laboratory synthesis, and we outline our vision for the development of the field in the years ahead.</p>","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":83.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142825600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Temporarily solid, permanently porous","authors":"Eren J. Peterson","doi":"10.1038/s41578-024-00765-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41578-024-00765-z","url":null,"abstract":"An article in Nature Communications demonstrates a modular synthetic method to create metal–organic polyhedra that maintain porosity during phase transformation.","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"10 1","pages":"3-3"},"PeriodicalIF":79.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142832398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Designing ductile refractory high-entropy alloys","authors":"Giulia Pacchioni","doi":"10.1038/s41578-024-00763-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41578-024-00763-1","url":null,"abstract":"An article in Science Advances reports the computational design and experimental validation of Al-enriched refractory high-entropy alloys that combine high strength and ductility with reduced cost and good oxidation resistance.","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"10 1","pages":"1-1"},"PeriodicalIF":79.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142815519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Non-faradaic junction sensing","authors":"Yecheng Wang, Kun Jia, Zhigang Suo","doi":"10.1038/s41578-024-00755-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00755-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A non-faradaic junction (NFJ) is a connection between an ionic conductor and an electronic conductor in which no electrochemical reaction takes place. The junction behaves like a capacitor and couples the ionic and electronic currents through chemistry, electricity and entropy. Its charge–voltage curve is sensitive to various environmental signals, allowing it to function as a sensor; because no reaction occurs, the sensing is non-destructive and long-lasting. NFJ sensors have high sensitivity, rapid response and small size, and they can be self-powered. These sensors are familiarly used in electrophysiology of the heart, brain and muscles, and applications are emerging in wearable and implantable devices and soft robotics, as well as in sensing pressure, sound, temperature and chemicals. In this Review, we discuss NFJ sensors, emphasizing the development of devices and materials for each side of the junction. The flexibility in choosing materials enables NFJ sensors to fulfil challenging requirements, such as softness, stretchability, transparency and degradability.</p>","PeriodicalId":19081,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Materials","volume":"83 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":83.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142797153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}