The wide application of high-end electronic products is leading to a growing prominence of the electromagnetic pollution issue. Therefore, the exploration of lightweight, highly efficient microwave absorption materials (MAMs) constitutes a crucial step toward addressing electromagnetic interference (EMI) pollution, which is essential for ensuring the operation of electronic equipment and safeguarding human health. In recent years, structural design has garnered significant attention in microwave absorbers, and by optimizing the structure, microwave-absorbing materials can be made lightweight, thin, strong, and broad. This review comprehensively summarizes recent advancements in structural magnetic microwave-absorbing composites, focusing on typical architectures such as core-shell, porous (e.g., hollow, honeycomb, foam, gel), sandwich, and metamaterial structures. Based on the characteristics of each architecture, it explores innovations and developments in conductive polymer-based, carbon-based, and MXene-based electromagnetic composites. The comprehensive discussion highlights the advantages of heterostructured magnetic composites in microwave absorption and anticipates future challenges and broad prospects in this field.
{"title":"Progress on structured magnetic microwave absorbing composites","authors":"Zhihui Zhang, Xiuchen Wang, Yajing Wang, Jiaxin Feng, Bobo Shi, Zhe Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102038","url":null,"abstract":"The wide application of high-end electronic products is leading to a growing prominence of the electromagnetic pollution issue. Therefore, the exploration of lightweight, highly efficient microwave absorption materials (MAMs) constitutes a crucial step toward addressing electromagnetic interference (EMI) pollution, which is essential for ensuring the operation of electronic equipment and safeguarding human health. In recent years, structural design has garnered significant attention in microwave absorbers, and by optimizing the structure, microwave-absorbing materials can be made lightweight, thin, strong, and broad. This review comprehensively summarizes recent advancements in structural magnetic microwave-absorbing composites, focusing on typical architectures such as core-shell, porous (e.g., hollow, honeycomb, foam, gel), sandwich, and metamaterial structures. Based on the characteristics of each architecture, it explores innovations and developments in conductive polymer-based, carbon-based, and MXene-based electromagnetic composites. The comprehensive discussion highlights the advantages of heterostructured magnetic composites in microwave absorption and anticipates future challenges and broad prospects in this field.","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"217 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134577","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}
Pub Date : 2026-02-07DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102040
Seydanur Yücer, Begüm Sarac, Burhan Adıgüzel, Fatih Ciftci
Wearable electronic patches have attracted significant attention as platforms for continuous, non-invasive monitoring of physiological and physicochemical signals at the skin interface. Recent literature highlights MXene materials as particularly promising candidates for wearable biosensing applications due to their high electrical conductivity, tunable surface chemistry, mechanical flexibility, and favorable biocompatibility. When combined with micro- and nano-engineering strategies, MXene-based sensing elements can be integrated into compact and multifunctional MEMS/NEMS architectures, enabling smart patches with enhanced sensitivity, signal stability, and mechanical durability. On-skin sensing technologies reported in previous studies enable reliable acquisition of biopotential, biomechanical, and chemical biomarkers, supporting real-time health monitoring across diverse physiological conditions. Furthermore, the integration of these smart patches into emerging digital health ecosystems facilitates wireless data transmission to mobile devices, cloud-based platforms, and clinical networks, promoting continuous and connected healthcare monitoring. This review summarizes recent advances in MXene-based MEMS/NEMS wearable biosensors, with particular emphasis on material–device integration strategies, sensing mechanisms, detected biomarker classes, and system-level connectivity. In addition, current challenges, including long-term biocompatibility, scalable manufacturing, material stability under physiological conditions, and secure data management, are critically discussed. Addressing these limitations will be essential for the translation of MXene-enabled wearable technologies toward personalized, predictive, and adaptive healthcare applications.
{"title":"Wearable Electronic Patch for Physicochemical Data Transmission: MXene-Based MEMS/NEMS Biosensors","authors":"Seydanur Yücer, Begüm Sarac, Burhan Adıgüzel, Fatih Ciftci","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102040","url":null,"abstract":"Wearable electronic patches have attracted significant attention as platforms for continuous, non-invasive monitoring of physiological and physicochemical signals at the skin interface. Recent literature highlights MXene materials as particularly promising candidates for wearable biosensing applications due to their high electrical conductivity, tunable surface chemistry, mechanical flexibility, and favorable biocompatibility. When combined with micro- and nano-engineering strategies, MXene-based sensing elements can be integrated into compact and multifunctional MEMS/NEMS architectures, enabling smart patches with enhanced sensitivity, signal stability, and mechanical durability. On-skin sensing technologies reported in previous studies enable reliable acquisition of biopotential, biomechanical, and chemical biomarkers, supporting real-time health monitoring across diverse physiological conditions. Furthermore, the integration of these smart patches into emerging digital health ecosystems facilitates wireless data transmission to mobile devices, cloud-based platforms, and clinical networks, promoting continuous and connected healthcare monitoring. This review summarizes recent advances in MXene-based MEMS/NEMS wearable biosensors, with particular emphasis on material–device integration strategies, sensing mechanisms, detected biomarker classes, and system-level connectivity. In addition, current challenges, including long-term biocompatibility, scalable manufacturing, material stability under physiological conditions, and secure data management, are critically discussed. Addressing these limitations will be essential for the translation of MXene-enabled wearable technologies toward personalized, predictive, and adaptive healthcare applications.","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134578","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}
Pub Date : 2026-02-06DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102039
Wenxing Luo, Minming Zou, Jue Wang, Yan Ma, Xiaowu Hu, Wenjing Chen, Xiongxin Jiang, Qinglin Li
Phase change materials (PCMs) with photothermal properties can effectively convert solar energy into thermal energy and store it via phase change, subsequently provide heat for human body in cold environments. The introduction of photothermal fillers into polyurethane PCMs to develop photothermal polyurethane PCMs has been widely studied. However, the incompatibility between photothermal fillers and matrix leads to severe deterioration in the composite's flexibility. Therefore, achieving both the mechanical and photothermal properties of polyurethane PCM in wearable products is a pressing issue. In this work, a polyurethane PCM with intrinsic flexibility and photothermal properties was designed. It consists of small molecules filled with π-π conjugated structures and polyethylene glycol crosslinked through chemical interactions. By selecting diamine crosslinkers with varying conjugation strengths, the influence of π-π conjugation on flexibility and photothermal properties of polyurethane PCM was investigated. The results demonstrate that the stronger the π-π conjugation, the better the photothermal performance, with a photothermal conversion efficiency reaching up to 71.4%. Additionally, the strong intermolecular forces generated by π-π stacking also endow polyurethane PCM with high-temperature morphological stability, high tensile strength (22.4 MPa), and excellent toughness (351.1 MJ/m3). The intrinsic photothermal properties and good mechanical performance of polyurethane PCM make it suitable as a material for fabrics and coatings, ideal for wearable products in extreme cold environments, such as north pole and snowfields, where thermal energy is required.
{"title":"Intrinsic photothermal performance and flexibility of polyurethane phase change materials via π-π conjugation for personal thermal management in outdoor cold environments","authors":"Wenxing Luo, Minming Zou, Jue Wang, Yan Ma, Xiaowu Hu, Wenjing Chen, Xiongxin Jiang, Qinglin Li","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102039","url":null,"abstract":"Phase change materials (PCMs) with photothermal properties can effectively convert solar energy into thermal energy and store it via phase change, subsequently provide heat for human body in cold environments. The introduction of photothermal fillers into polyurethane PCMs to develop photothermal polyurethane PCMs has been widely studied. However, the incompatibility between photothermal fillers and matrix leads to severe deterioration in the composite's flexibility. Therefore, achieving both the mechanical and photothermal properties of polyurethane PCM in wearable products is a pressing issue. In this work, a polyurethane PCM with intrinsic flexibility and photothermal properties was designed. It consists of small molecules filled with π-π conjugated structures and polyethylene glycol crosslinked through chemical interactions. By selecting diamine crosslinkers with varying conjugation strengths, the influence of π-π conjugation on flexibility and photothermal properties of polyurethane PCM was investigated. The results demonstrate that the stronger the π-π conjugation, the better the photothermal performance, with a photothermal conversion efficiency reaching up to 71.4%. Additionally, the strong intermolecular forces generated by π-π stacking also endow polyurethane PCM with high-temperature morphological stability, high tensile strength (22.4 MPa), and excellent toughness (351.1 MJ/m<sup>3</sup>). The intrinsic photothermal properties and good mechanical performance of polyurethane PCM make it suitable as a material for fabrics and coatings, ideal for wearable products in extreme cold environments, such as north pole and snowfields, where thermal energy is required.","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"91 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134580","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}
Pub Date : 2026-02-05DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102046
Shiqi Liu, Yingmei Zhu, Xiaobing Chen, Sheng Bi, Jie Yang, Tiejun Zhou, Bo Liu
Altermagnets, a newly discovered class of collinear antiferromagnets with vanishing net magnetization yet sizable momentum-dependent spin splitting, provide a unique platform for high-performance spintronic devices. Among known altermagnets, CrSb stands out with a large ∼1 eV spin splitting near the Fermi level and a high Néel temperature above 700 K, making it particularly promising for applications in antiferromagnetic magnetic tunnel junctions (AFMTJs). Through <em>ab initio</em> quantum transport simulations, the anisotropic transport properties of CrSb AFMTJs are systematically explored. First, the < <span><span style=""></span><span data-mathml='<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" />' role="presentation" style="font-size: 90%; display: inline-block; position: relative;" tabindex="0"><svg aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" height="0.24ex" role="img" style="vertical-align: -0.12ex;" viewbox="0 -51.7 0 103.4" width="0" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g fill="currentColor" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="0" transform="matrix(1 0 0 -1 0 0)"></g></svg><span role="presentation"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"></math></span></span><script type="math/mml"><math></math></script></span> > crystalline orientation is identified as symmetry-allowed direction for tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) generation, yielding a spin-splitting-induced TMR ratio up to 870%, in contrast to the <<span><span style=""></span><span data-mathml='<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" />' role="presentation" style="font-size: 90%; display: inline-block; position: relative;" tabindex="0"><svg aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" height="0.24ex" role="img" style="vertical-align: -0.12ex;" viewbox="0 -51.7 0 103.4" width="0" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g fill="currentColor" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="0" transform="matrix(1 0 0 -1 0 0)"></g></svg><span role="presentation"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"></math></span></span><script type="math/mml"><math></math></script></span> > and <<span><span style=""></span><span data-mathml='<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" />' role="presentation" style="font-size: 90%; display: inline-block; position: relative;" tabindex="0"><svg aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" height="0.24ex" role="img" style="vertical-align: -0.12ex;" viewbox="0 -51.7 0 103.4" width="0" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g fill="currentColor" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="0" transform="matrix(1 0 0 -1 0 0)"></g></svg><span role="presentation"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"></math></span></span><script type="math/mml"><math></math></script></span> > directions where TMR is suppressed. Second, incorporating an MgO (110) barrier with favorable matching of low-decay evanescent states and interfacial reconstruction enhances the TMR ratio to ∼1700%. Third, further optimization through bar
{"title":"Anisotropic Transport in CrSb Altermagnetic Tunnel Junction with Giant Tunneling Magnetoresistance","authors":"Shiqi Liu, Yingmei Zhu, Xiaobing Chen, Sheng Bi, Jie Yang, Tiejun Zhou, Bo Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102046","url":null,"abstract":"Altermagnets, a newly discovered class of collinear antiferromagnets with vanishing net magnetization yet sizable momentum-dependent spin splitting, provide a unique platform for high-performance spintronic devices. Among known altermagnets, CrSb stands out with a large ∼1 eV spin splitting near the Fermi level and a high Néel temperature above 700 K, making it particularly promising for applications in antiferromagnetic magnetic tunnel junctions (AFMTJs). Through <em>ab initio</em> quantum transport simulations, the anisotropic transport properties of CrSb AFMTJs are systematically explored. First, the < <span><span style=\"\"></span><span data-mathml='<math xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" />' role=\"presentation\" style=\"font-size: 90%; display: inline-block; position: relative;\" tabindex=\"0\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" height=\"0.24ex\" role=\"img\" style=\"vertical-align: -0.12ex;\" viewbox=\"0 -51.7 0 103.4\" width=\"0\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\"><g fill=\"currentColor\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"0\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 -1 0 0)\"></g></svg><span role=\"presentation\"><math xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"></math></span></span><script type=\"math/mml\"><math></math></script></span> > crystalline orientation is identified as symmetry-allowed direction for tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) generation, yielding a spin-splitting-induced TMR ratio up to 870%, in contrast to the <<span><span style=\"\"></span><span data-mathml='<math xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" />' role=\"presentation\" style=\"font-size: 90%; display: inline-block; position: relative;\" tabindex=\"0\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" height=\"0.24ex\" role=\"img\" style=\"vertical-align: -0.12ex;\" viewbox=\"0 -51.7 0 103.4\" width=\"0\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\"><g fill=\"currentColor\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"0\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 -1 0 0)\"></g></svg><span role=\"presentation\"><math xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"></math></span></span><script type=\"math/mml\"><math></math></script></span> > and <<span><span style=\"\"></span><span data-mathml='<math xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\" />' role=\"presentation\" style=\"font-size: 90%; display: inline-block; position: relative;\" tabindex=\"0\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" height=\"0.24ex\" role=\"img\" style=\"vertical-align: -0.12ex;\" viewbox=\"0 -51.7 0 103.4\" width=\"0\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\"><g fill=\"currentColor\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"0\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 -1 0 0)\"></g></svg><span role=\"presentation\"><math xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"></math></span></span><script type=\"math/mml\"><math></math></script></span> > directions where TMR is suppressed. Second, incorporating an MgO (110) barrier with favorable matching of low-decay evanescent states and interfacial reconstruction enhances the TMR ratio to ∼1700%. Third, further optimization through bar","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146115626","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}
Pub Date : 2026-02-05DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102045
Yingzhengsheng Huang, Wei Quan, Qiyao Geng, Longfei Ma, Qiang Zheng, Juan Du
Soft-hard magnetic nanocomposite magnets hold great promise for next-generation permanent magnets due to their ultrahigh theoretical maximum energy product ((BH)max) and low-cost, while the low coercivity (Hc) of the currently fabricated SmCo/FeCo nanocomposites limits their performance. In this work, two types of microstructures with and without direct contacts between soft and hard magnetic phases in nanocomposites were designed and analyzed by micromagnetic simulations. The results showed that the directly contact nanocomposites exhibit a larger magnetic domain size and stronger interphase exchange coupling, facilitating magnetization of the hard magnetic phase and impeding reversal of the soft magnetic phase during magnetization and demagnetization processes. The simulation results were validated through the fabrication of SmCo/FeCo nanocomposites featuring an in-situ formed semi-coherent soft/hard magnetic phase. This nanocomposite was synthesized by crystallizing an as-milled amorphous Sm-Co-Fe precursor derived from a Sm-Co-Fe ingot. A reference magnet of without soft/hard magnetic phase contact, i.e. with amorphous-separated between two phases was fabricated by crystallizing amorphous-nanocrystalline precursor from co-milling Sm-Co alloy and Fe powders. Comparatively, the semi-coherent contact nanocomposite magnet showed a 28% increase in Hc and an 18% improvement in (BH)max. Microstructural analysis revealed that the semi-coherent structure forms through synchronous crystallization driven by a compositional gradient. Micromagnetic simulations, Henkel curves, and in-situ domain observations confirmed that enhanced exchange coupling is the origin of Hc enhancement. This work provides a viable microstructural regulation strategy for developing high-performance nanocomposite magnets.
{"title":"Magnetic hardening via in-situ formed semi-coherent soft/hard magnetic phases in SmCo/FeCo nanocomposites","authors":"Yingzhengsheng Huang, Wei Quan, Qiyao Geng, Longfei Ma, Qiang Zheng, Juan Du","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102045","url":null,"abstract":"Soft-hard magnetic nanocomposite magnets hold great promise for next-generation permanent magnets due to their ultrahigh theoretical maximum energy product ((<em>BH</em>)<sub>max</sub>) and low-cost, while the low coercivity (<em>H</em><sub>c</sub>) of the currently fabricated SmCo/FeCo nanocomposites limits their performance. In this work, two types of microstructures with and without direct contacts between soft and hard magnetic phases in nanocomposites were designed and analyzed by micromagnetic simulations. The results showed that the directly contact nanocomposites exhibit a larger magnetic domain size and stronger interphase exchange coupling, facilitating magnetization of the hard magnetic phase and impeding reversal of the soft magnetic phase during magnetization and demagnetization processes. The simulation results were validated through the fabrication of SmCo/FeCo nanocomposites featuring an in-situ formed semi-coherent soft/hard magnetic phase. This nanocomposite was synthesized by crystallizing an as-milled amorphous Sm-Co-Fe precursor derived from a Sm-Co-Fe ingot. A reference magnet of without soft/hard magnetic phase contact, i.e. with amorphous-separated between two phases was fabricated by crystallizing amorphous-nanocrystalline precursor from co-milling Sm-Co alloy and Fe powders. Comparatively, the semi-coherent contact nanocomposite magnet showed a 28% increase in <em>H</em><sub>c</sub> and an 18% improvement in (<em>BH</em>)<sub>max</sub>. Microstructural analysis revealed that the semi-coherent structure forms through synchronous crystallization driven by a compositional gradient. Micromagnetic simulations, Henkel curves, and in-situ domain observations confirmed that enhanced exchange coupling is the origin of <em>H</em><sub>c</sub> enhancement. This work provides a viable microstructural regulation strategy for developing high-performance nanocomposite magnets.","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"89 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146116216","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}
Pub Date : 2026-02-04DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102042
Di Wu, Shuyue He, Wenbo Liu, Jason Y. Fang, Yue Wang
Conventional polymers lose mechanical properties at elevated temperatures, driving interest in polymers that show reversible heat-triggered stiffening. This review focuses on summarizing recent advances in smart polymer systems that exhibit reversible thermal stiffening, an unconventional property, where mechanical strength increases upon heating. Triggered temperature, stiffening factor, and response time are the three parameters for characterizing this behavior. We observed two primary material classes: polymer gels and solvent-free polymer melts, examining their design strategies, preparation methods, and underlying mechanisms. In gel systems, thermal stiffening is predominantly achieved upon lower critical solution temperature (LCST) polymer in solutions, while solvent-free polymer melts demonstrate more diverse and system-specific mechanisms. Although the material designs are distinguished, the reported thermal stiffening mechanisms can be summarized as reversible thermally triggered continuous polymer phases separation, denser polymer network, self-assembly polymer network, and particle network. To our knowledge, this article offers a comprehensive overview discussing various strategies for realizing thermal stiffening behavior in polymers. It also provides guidance for future developments in this emerging field of temperature-responsive smart polymer materials with self-enhanced performance capabilities.
{"title":"Reversible Thermal Stiffening in Polymers: A Mini Review","authors":"Di Wu, Shuyue He, Wenbo Liu, Jason Y. Fang, Yue Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102042","url":null,"abstract":"Conventional polymers lose mechanical properties at elevated temperatures, driving interest in polymers that show reversible heat-triggered stiffening. This review focuses on summarizing recent advances in smart polymer systems that exhibit reversible thermal stiffening, an unconventional property, where mechanical strength increases upon heating. Triggered temperature, stiffening factor, and response time are the three parameters for characterizing this behavior. We observed two primary material classes: polymer gels and solvent-free polymer melts, examining their design strategies, preparation methods, and underlying mechanisms. In gel systems, thermal stiffening is predominantly achieved upon lower critical solution temperature (LCST) polymer in solutions, while solvent-free polymer melts demonstrate more diverse and system-specific mechanisms. Although the material designs are distinguished, the reported thermal stiffening mechanisms can be summarized as reversible thermally triggered continuous polymer phases separation, denser polymer network, self-assembly polymer network, and particle network. To our knowledge, this article offers a comprehensive overview discussing various strategies for realizing thermal stiffening behavior in polymers. It also provides guidance for future developments in this emerging field of temperature-responsive smart polymer materials with self-enhanced performance capabilities.","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"384 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146122213","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}
Pub Date : 2026-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102033
Manpreet Kaur , Ali Ebadi , Xingying Zhang , Huanjing Liu , Cheng-Yu Chen , Eric A. Stach , Qian Liu
Understanding the real-time morphological evolution of nanoparticles under varying thermal and environmental conditions is crucial for revealing the mechanisms that govern their stability, growth, and functional performance in applications such as catalysis and nanomanufacturing. In-situ transmission electron microscopy provides direct, atomic-scale visualization of these dynamic processes through sequential imaging, capturing subtle transformations on a frame-by-frame basis. However, extracting reliable shape descriptors from such sequential image data remains challenging due to high noise, low contrast, inter-particle overlap, and the manual effort required for annotation. Existing segmentation methods often treat each frame independently, overlooking the temporal continuity inherent in in-situ imaging and failing to capture subtle but critical morphological transitions that underpin particle reshaping, coalescence, and structural evolution. To address these limitations, we present Swin U-Net Transformer with Temporal Convolutional Network for Segmentation (SwinTCN-Seg), a semi-supervised, spatiotemporally-aware framework that fuses transformer-based spatial encoding with temporal modeling to enable reliable analysis of morphological evolution in dynamic nanoparticle systems. Moreover, to reduce the need for dense manual labels, SwinTCN-Seg employs a pseudo-label propagation scheme that utilizes high-confidence predictions from labeled frames to guide learning on unlabeled ones, thereby uncovering transitional configurations. We validate SwinTCN-Seg on a large corpus of in-situ sequences of gold (Au) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles imaged from 650 °C to 900 °C under vacuum and air environments. Despite being trained on only 5% of the labeled frames, the model achieves high segmentation accuracy, particularly in high-temperature regimes (800 °C) where conventional methods struggle to detect complex phenomena such as faceting, sintering, and fragmentation. Code and models are available at https://github.com/kaur-manpreet325/TEM-Seg.
了解纳米颗粒在不同温度和环境条件下的实时形态演变对于揭示其稳定性、生长和功能性能的机制至关重要，这些机制在催化和纳米制造等应用中具有重要意义。原位透射电子显微镜通过顺序成像提供了这些动态过程的直接的、原子尺度的可视化，在逐帧的基础上捕捉细微的变化。然而，由于高噪声、低对比度、粒子间重叠以及注释需要人工操作，从此类连续图像数据中提取可靠的形状描述符仍然具有挑战性。现有的分割方法通常独立处理每一帧，忽略了原位成像固有的时间连续性，无法捕捉到支撑粒子重塑、聚并和结构演变的微妙但关键的形态转变。为了解决这些限制，我们提出了Swin U-Net Transformer with Temporal Convolutional Network for Segmentation (swintn - seg)，这是一种半监督的、时空感知的框架，融合了基于变压器的空间编码和时间建模，能够可靠地分析动态纳米颗粒系统的形态演变。此外，为了减少对密集手动标签的需求，SwinTCN-Seg采用了一种伪标签传播方案，该方案利用标记帧的高置信度预测来指导未标记帧的学习，从而揭示过渡配置。我们在650°C至900°C的真空和空气环境下的大量金（Au）和铂（Pt）纳米颗粒原位序列上验证了swintn - seg。尽管仅在5%的标记框架上进行了训练，但该模型实现了很高的分割精度，特别是在高温条件下（≥800°C），传统方法难以检测复杂现象，如切面、烧结和破碎。代码和模型可在https://github.com/kaur-manpreet325/TEM-Seg上获得。
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