Materials Horizons最新文献

{"title":"Bioinspired electrode design for enhancing gas-involving electrochemical reactions: fundamentals, advances, and perspectives.","authors":"Yi Han, Yuejing Zhao, Chunhui Zhang, Ziwei Guo, Fuyao Dong, Chuanqi Nie, Kesong Liu, Cunming Yu, Lei Jiang","doi":"10.1039/d6mh00846a","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh00846a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In electrochemical multiphase interactions, the regulation of gas behavior is of great significance, and gas-involving electrochemical reactions (such as gas-evolution reactions and gas-consumption reactions) are pivotal for green energy conversion. However, these reactions are often constrained by bubble-related issues, which shield active sites, increase ohmic resistance, and limit the mass transfer of reactants and products. Bioinspired surface engineering, which modulates bubble behavior through the rational design of functional interfaces, provides an efficient strategy for resolving these aforementioned issues. This review systematically demonstrates how bioinspired surface engineering enhances the performance of gas-involving electrochemical reactions <i>via</i> optimized bubble management. First, we elucidate the fundamental principles of bubble dynamics and their direct impact on reaction efficiency. Subsequently, we explore diverse electrode design strategies derived from biological prototypes, including the development of superaerophilic, superaerophobic, wettability-heterogeneous, and geometry-gradient architectures. Finally, we highlight current challenges and outline future opportunities in this field, aiming to provide both theoretical frameworks and technical guidelines for the advanced design of high-efficiency electrodes.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10001-10027"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148667669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Filling the gap: electrochemical access to the missing group IV HfO-based rocksalt compound.","authors":"Christian Bechteler, Richard I Todd","doi":"10.1039/d6mh01419d","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh01419d","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rocksalt structured group IV transition metal carbides and nitrides (δ-MeX) are well-known materials and are used for various applications. However, the corresponding group IV transition metal monoxides (δ-MeO) are either rarely researched, or, in the case of hafnium, their existence is unknown. In this investigation, electrical loading of yttria-stabilised hafnia was conducted in an inert atmosphere (argon) to achieve electrochemical reduction. Resistive heating of the sample was maintained as the furnace cooled down such that on removing the current, the sample was rapidly quenched, avoiding reoxidation or diffusion-limited phase transformations. XRD, SEM, EDS, and Raman spectroscopy showed that defective rocksalt structure δ-(Y)HfO with a lattice constant of 0.4527 nm was formed and retained at room temperature for the first time. Yttria was rejected from the hafnia-based phase during reduction, leaving a relatively low concentration of yttrium in solid solution. The new compound has a metallic-gold-brown colour and conducts electricity at room temperature (∼0.67 Ω cm). Furthermore, the compound fills the gap in the non-radioactive group IV transition metal carbide, nitride, monoxide rocksalt structure series.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10305-10314"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148878597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"High-strength and thermally conductive bacterial cellulose-based composites <i>via</i> the synergy of aligned nanosheets and interfacial interactions.","authors":"Yiqing Gong, Linlin Ma, Xin Zhang, Cheng Qian, Xiangshang Chen, Ziqiang Zhao, Meng Yu, Shengwen Kong, Chuangqi Zhao, Lei Jiang","doi":"10.1039/d6mh01272h","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh01272h","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Polymer-based thermally conductive composites hold great promise for thermal management in miniaturized and high-power-density electronics. However, their practical performance remains limited by discontinuous heat-transport pathways arising from the poor orientation of thermally conductive nanofillers and weak polymer-filler interfacial interactions. Here, we develop an <i>in situ</i> biosynthesis strategy to fabricate high-strength and thermally conductive bacterial cellulose-based nanocomposites by integrating modified nanosheets into the bacterial cellulose growth process. The growing bacterial cellulose nanofibrillar network confines and preliminarily organizes the nanosheets through polydopamine-enhanced interfacial interactions, while subsequent drying-induced compaction further improves their in-plane orientation, resulting in an integrated polymer/nanosheet architecture with continuous heat-transport pathways. The resulting composites achieve a tensile strength of 444.0 ± 19.4 MPa and an in-plane thermal conductivity of 25.24 ± 0.15 W m^-1 K^-1. Quantitative analysis reveals that aligned nanosheets and strong interfacial interactions are essential for the simultaneous enhancement of mechanical robustness and thermal conductivity. This work offers a bio-enabled strategy for designing advanced bacterial cellulose-based composites.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10094-10103"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148816844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Synergistic cell-wall architecture tuning and skeleton reinforcement for wood sponges with superelasticity and exceptional fatigue resistance.","authors":"Mingzhi Jiang, Yinghao Zhao, Zhiyong Peng, Junjie Luo, Yuxi Luo, Wenxuan Mo, Gaosheng Wang, Chaoji Chen, Bo Li","doi":"10.1039/d6mh01263a","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh01263a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Elastic wood sponges are sustainable, low-cost, and multifunctional materials that have gained extensive attention and rapid development. However, their dense cell walls and fragile cellulose skeleton severely constrain the compressive recoverability and fatigue resistance. This constraint hinders their use as an elastic functional material toward high-performance, advanced applications. Herein, a synergistic strategy that combines multilevel cell-wall engineering with skeletal reinforcement is developed to fabricate superelastic and fatigue-resistant wood sponges. Specifically, by integrating the selective removal of non-skeletal components of the cell walls with a multi-hierarchical arched lamellar microstructural design and a robust hydrogen-covalent dual crosslinking network, wood sponges with expanded spacing and arched lamellar structure are obtained. Benefiting from this structure, the sponges achieve unprecedented elasticity (100% and 94.10% single-cycle height recovery at 90% and 95% compression strain, respectively) and superior fatigue resistance (96.99% height retention rate at 50% strain under 10 000 cycles). After conductivity modification, they exhibited multifunctional pressure-sensing capabilities with a broad detection range (1.57 MPa), high sensitivity (9.73 kPa^-1), and exceptional signal stability (12 000 cycles). These superior metrics guarantee broad applications in machine learning-assisted motion/gesture recognition and human-machine interaction. This work offers a novel perspective for designing multifunctional, superelastic, and fatigue-resistant wood sponges through structural construction.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10222-10235"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148816907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Regulating the growth of biomimetic multilayers using bacteria-laden graphene oxide membranes.","authors":"Yuling Li, Xiaoqiang Yan, Shahrouz Amini, Yanan Sun, Yuan Jiang","doi":"10.1039/d6mh01117a","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh01117a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microbial induction becomes a sustainable pathway for the growth of engineering and functional materials under ambient conditions. The properties of microbially induced materials can be adjusted through structural regulation, with the introduction of a biomimetic structure being the preferred option. Herein, a bacteria-laden membrane is developed for structural regulation of biomimetic inorganic-organic multilayers on planar surfaces and in cylindrical pores. The urease-producing bacteria, <i>Sporosarcina pasteurii</i>, are encapsulated within a superimposed graphene oxide membrane to facilitate ureic hydrolysis. Subsequently, the diffusion of the bicarbonate constituents in a permeable microcompartment promotes the growth of biomimetic multilayers locally. While extracellular polymeric substances of bacteria contribute to the formation of multilayers with high strength and toughness, the bacteria themselves are responsible for this physicochemical process from a distance. The introduction of bacteria-laden membranes in a perforated polypropylene sheet fulfills the <i>in situ</i> formation of a biomimetic multilayer in each channel and complete sealing. Subsequently, the perforated polypropylene sheet integrated with biomimetic multilayers successfully impedes liquid permeation under hydraulic pressure. The present study demonstrates that bacteria-laden membranes guarantee the introduction of biomimetic multilayers with mechanical merits in porous microenvironments for complete sealing, which represents a primary objective of microbially induced materials.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10181-10191"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148890390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A <i>Pistia stratiotes</i> inspired armored Janus system enabling synergistically reinforced daylong freshwater harvesting.","authors":"Zihan Li, Jinlong Wang, Lin Li, Xing Li, Yitan Li, Jiaqian Li","doi":"10.1039/d6mh01124a","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh01124a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The integration of solar interfacial evaporation and passive fog collection constitutes an efficient hybrid paradigm for all-day continuous freshwater harvesting, but their collection efficiencies undesirably compromise each other, failing to enable synergistic reinforcement. In this study, we develop a <i>Pistia stratiotes</i> inspired armored Janus system consisting of a superhydrophilic carbon nanotube aerogel armored by superhydrophobic copper meshes on three surfaces for all-day continuous freshwater harvesting. This biomimetic armored Janus system enables a superior water harvesting performance, including an evaporation rate of 6.60 kg m^-2 h^-1 (system height 4 cm) under one-sun illumination and a fog collection rate of 5.53 g cm^-2 h^-1 (system height 0.5 cm) under high humidity conditions, completely surpassing previous all-weather water harvesting strategies. The substantial improvement in water harvesting efficiency intrinsically stems from the exquisite biomimetic design of the harvesting system, which effectively enhances the photothermal effect and salt resistance simultaneously. More importantly, although the two water harvesting strategies are independent in time and have different mechanisms, they synergistically enhance each other as manifested by the fact that fog droplets dissolve the salt deposition on the superhydrophilic aerogel caused by seawater evaporation, while evaporation removes the excessive accumulation of fog droplets on the superhydrophobic meshes. The designed system enables a stable continuous freshwater collection performance, approximately 33.49 L m^-2 each day under natural conditions for 15 days. The bionic design of the daylong freshwater harvesting system with excellent self-cleaning function provides an effective route for realizing continuous all-day freshwater production with robust anti-salt fouling performance, and holds great application potential in practical water harvesting scenarios.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10370-10381"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148904527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"1,4-Oxaborine fusion as an atom-precise strategy for efficient narrowband polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emitters and hybridized local and charge-transfer sensitizers.","authors":"Hye Won Han, Seoung Jeong You, Sai Krishna Chilaka, Yeonju Jeong, Rajkumar Nagavath, Mohan Gandhi Devulapally, Sunwoo Kang, Taekyung Kim, Wan Pyo Hong","doi":"10.1039/d6mh01154c","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh01154c","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) possess rigid π-conjugated frameworks and intrinsically narrow emission profiles; however, their practical application as emitters is often limited by low photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) arising from symmetry-restricted transitions. We present a general, atom-precise design strategy that overcomes this limitation <i>via</i> 1,4-oxaborine fusion. By annulating a boron/oxygen-containing unit onto representative PAH cores, this approach simultaneously introduces moderate charge-transfer character and preserves substantial locally excited character within a rigid framework. The resulting 1,4-oxaborine-fused PAHs exhibited markedly enhanced PLQYs exceeding 60% and radiative decay rates approaching 10⁸ s^-1 while maintaining relatively narrow emission bandwidths. This molecular design enables the realization of high emission efficiency and color purity, overcoming a long-standing limitation of PAH-based emitters. Furthermore, the electronic structures of these materials are well-suited for hot-exciton processes. Extension of this platform to a donor-acceptor architecture yields a hybridized local and charge-transfer (HLCT)-type emitter that achieves efficient exciton utilization and an external quantum efficiency of 9.91% with improved operational stability in deep-blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). When the designed compound BO-Phen-Pyr is employed as a sensitizer rather than solely as a direct emitter, a cyclic hot-exciton Dexter energy transfer (CH-DET) process is proposed, in which host-derived excitons are harvested and recirculated through BO-Phen-Pyr<i>via</i> Dexter-mediated transfer channels before being funneled to the terminal emitter. The CH-DET pathway provides an additional exciton management channel that can utilize excitons otherwise lost in conventional triplet-triplet fusion (TTF)-based processes and mitigate triplet-related degradation pathways. Overall, this work establishes 1,4-oxaborine fusion as a general molecular design principle for transforming weakly emissive PAHs into efficient narrowband emitters. It also provides new insights into the development of color-pure organic optoelectronic materials.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10266-10277"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Polysilazane-impregnated high-entropy LDH-grown cellulose nanofiber aerogels for flame-resistant thermal insulation.","authors":"Hyesu Yang, Jinhyun Park, Junho Kim, Seohyun Yoon, Dabin Park, Jooheon Kim","doi":"10.1039/d6mh01466f","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh01466f","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Lightweight flame-resistant thermal barriers are required for systems exposed to localized heat or flame, where low heat transfer and structural stability must be maintained simultaneously. However, conventional organic porous materials often suffer from flammability, limited thermal stability, and collapse of their pore structures under severe thermal exposure. In this study, a polysilazane-based porous composite was fabricated through the <i>in situ</i> growth of a high-entropy layered double hydroxide (HE-LDH) on a cellulose nanofiber aerogel (CNFA), followed by polysilazane (PSZ) impregnation and thermal curing. The interconnected CNFA framework provided a lightweight air-filled scaffold, while HE-LDH contributed endothermic heat absorption and the formation of inorganic residues during thermal decomposition. PSZ further reinforced the porous framework and generated a protective ceramic-containing residue upon heating. Structural and compositional analyses confirmed the incorporation of multimetal HE-LDH along the CNF network and the retention of the porous aerogel-derived structure after PSZ impregnation. The resulting PSZ/HE-LDH@CNFA composite exhibited a low thermal conductivity of 0.0761 W m^-1 K^-1 and a high residue yield of 83.98 wt% at 800 °C. It also showed reduced afterflame time and improved structural retention compared with the corresponding PSZ/CNFA samples under repeated flame exposure. In addition, the composite exhibited an electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of approximately 21.3 dB and maintained improved tensile properties relative to pure PSZ and PSZ/HE-LDH. These results demonstrate that integrating a porous CNFA scaffold, HE-LDH-derived inorganic protection, and ceramic-forming PSZ is an effective strategy for developing lightweight multifunctional thermal barrier composites with enhanced heat and flame resistance.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10422-10431"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148910196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"High-entropy lattice inspired Voronoi mechanical metamaterial.","authors":"Juzheng Chen, Yinong Li, Shiyu Ma, Jingzhuo Zhou, Ruihan Xu, Kefan Guo, Jiayi Li, Yiling Lian, Fanling Meng, Tiqing Zhao, Yutong Wu, Yang Lu","doi":"10.1039/d6mh01253a","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh01253a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Inspired by the lattice distortion in high-entropy alloys (HEAs), this study presents a generative Voronoi mechanical metamaterial approach that enables continuous, quantitative tuning of topological disorder. In this method, the physical domain of the target structure is utilized to directly define the boundaries of the Voronoi lattice, making this generative approach highly applicable to various complex components. By introducing a pseudo-random displacement field into perfectly ordered nodal networks, we define a dimensionless lattice distortion index to quantify the deviation of Voronoi lattices from an ordered crystalline state to a lattice distorted and topologically disordered state. <i>In situ</i> compression testing shows how this progressive disorder governs the mechanical response. This method also offers a potential approach to describing Voronoi mechanical metamaterials using pseudo-random seed parameters, enabling the decoupling of mechanical properties from specific architectural configurations at the same degree of lattice distortion. Furthermore, it provides implicit anti-counterfeiting encoded in its generation processes and simplifies the information that needs to be stored to reproduce a specific structure.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10104-10112"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Synaptic memristors fabricated based on 2D layered CuInP₂S₆ through chemical intercalation for neuromorphic computing.","authors":"Xiao Chen, Xiushan Tu, Yan Xie, Mengdie Li, Hao Kan, Didi Zhang, Ludan Xu, Yujie Liu, Wenjing Jie","doi":"10.1039/d6mh01318j","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6mh01318j","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Chemical intercalation provides a versatile atomic-scale route for the rational design of molecular hybrid architectures within the van der Waals (vdW) layered hosts, enabling precise modulation of their structure and electrical, optical, and chemical functionalities. Therefore, it provides us a feasible way to achieve modified two-dimensional (2D) vdW materials for stable analog resistive switching (RS) behaviors which are highly desirable for synaptic devices and neuromorphic computing. In this work, we synthesized benzyltriethylammonium-intercalated CuInP₂S₆ (TEBA-CIPS) hybrid crystals by using benzyltriethylammonium chloride (TEBA-Cl) as the intercalation agent to provide anions of TEBA⁺ into the vdW gaps of CIPS, where the charge balance can be maintained by partial substitution of Cu⁺. The intercalated TEBA-CIPS samples can be exfoliated for fabrication of Au/TEBA-CIPS/Au vertical memristors and the fabricated devices exhibit stable analog RS behavior and successfully emulate diverse synaptic plasticity. In neural network simulations, it achieved 90.3% recognition accuracy for handwritten digits, and the recognition accuracy can be enhanced to 93.8% by using step pulses to stimulate the synaptic memristors based on TEBA-CIPS. Furthermore, the device effectively simulates the classical honeybees' proboscis extension reflex (PER). This work demonstrates a feasible strategy to modulate the crystal structure of the CIPS through a chemical intercalation method to achieve stable and reliable RS behaviors which are suitable for artificial synapses and neuromorphic computing.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":"10236-10245"},"PeriodicalIF":11.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148816854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}