Pub Date : 2026-02-11DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102043
Yu Wang, Xiao Li, Haowei Zhou, Zilin Huang, Moustafa Adel Darwish, M.M. Salem, Tao Zhou, Murat Yilmaz, Azim Uddin, Di Zhou
{"title":"Fe3O4-CNFs@MXene with Encapsulated Magnetic Nanoparticles for Tunable High-Performance Microwave Absorption via Dual Electromagnetic Wave Loss Pathways","authors":"Yu Wang, Xiao Li, Haowei Zhou, Zilin Huang, Moustafa Adel Darwish, M.M. Salem, Tao Zhou, Murat Yilmaz, Azim Uddin, Di Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102043","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"98 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146152795","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.2026.102038
Zhihui Zhang , Xiuchen Wang , Yajing Wang , Jiaxin Feng , Bobo Shi , Zhe Liu
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":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102038","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 102038"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"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}
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":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 102040"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"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 : 2026-02-07DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102044
Huajian Wu , Haiqi Li , Kejia Liu , Yujie Huang , Xiaofang Li , Pengfei Li , Lin Xie , Yue Chen , Chen Chen
Thermoelectric materials represent a unique pathway to directly convert heat into electricity. Herein, we present MnGeTe2, an emerging thermoelectric material with a cubic rock-salt structure. Capitalizing on the entropy-stabilized nature of the MnGeTe2 matrix, we employed a two-step optimization strategy: first by alloying with I-V-VI2 compounds to lower the lattice thermal conductivity, followed by Bi doping to optimize the carrier concentration. This strategy yielded an ultralow lattice thermal conductivity of 0.33 W m−1 K−1 at 823 K, approaching the theoretical minimum predicted by the diffusion model, while a high effective mass of ∼11me and weighted mobility of ∼90 cm2 V−1 s−1 were retained. Leveraging successful cation modulation, the optimized composition (Mn0.93Ge0.93Bi0.14Te2)0.85(AgSbTe2)0.15 achieved a peak zT of ∼1.55 and an average zT of ∼0.96 between 300 and 823 K; a corresponding single-leg device exhibited a conversion efficiency of ∼9.5% under a temperature gradient of 523 K. This study demonstrates the potential of cation modulation in developing high-performance, sustainable thermoelectric materials for waste-heat recovery.
{"title":"Cation modulation in MnGeTe2 Realizes high thermoelectric performance for power generation","authors":"Huajian Wu , Haiqi Li , Kejia Liu , Yujie Huang , Xiaofang Li , Pengfei Li , Lin Xie , Yue Chen , Chen Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102044","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102044","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Thermoelectric materials represent a unique pathway to directly convert heat into electricity. Herein, we present MnGeTe<sub>2</sub>, an emerging thermoelectric material with a cubic rock-salt structure. Capitalizing on the entropy-stabilized nature of the MnGeTe<sub>2</sub> matrix, we employed a two-step optimization strategy: first by alloying with I-V-VI<sub>2</sub> compounds to lower the lattice thermal conductivity, followed by Bi doping to optimize the carrier concentration. This strategy yielded an ultralow lattice thermal conductivity of 0.33 W m<sup>−1</sup> K<sup>−1</sup> at 823 K, approaching the theoretical minimum predicted by the diffusion model, while a high effective mass of ∼11<em>m</em><sub>e</sub> and weighted mobility of ∼90 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>−1</sup> s<sup>−1</sup> were retained. Leveraging successful cation modulation, the optimized composition (Mn<sub>0.93</sub>Ge<sub>0.93</sub>Bi<sub>0.14</sub>Te<sub>2</sub>)<sub>0.85</sub>(AgSbTe<sub>2</sub>)<sub>0.15</sub> achieved a peak <em>zT</em> of ∼1.55 and an average <em>zT</em> of ∼0.96 between 300 and 823 K; a corresponding single-leg device exhibited a conversion efficiency of ∼9.5% under a temperature gradient of 523 K. This study demonstrates the potential of cation modulation in developing high-performance, sustainable thermoelectric materials for waste-heat recovery.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 102044"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134590","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 ab initio quantum transport simulations, the anisotropic transport properties of CrSb AFMTJs are systematically explored. First, the <> 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 <> and <> directions where TMR is suppressed. Second, incorporating an MgO () barrier with favorable matching of low-decay evanescent states and interfacial reconstruction enhances the TMR ratio to ∼1700%. Third, further optimization through barrier thickening and electron doping raises the TMR ratio to ∼2900% and ∼5400%, respectively, comparable to the ideal coherent-tunneling limits theoretically predicted for Fe/MgO/Fe junctions, and the TMR ratio of the optimized junction maintains at ∼670% even under a practical 0.05 V bias. These findings establish CrSb/MgO AFMTJs as a viable pathway toward nonvolatile, high-speed, high-density antiferromagnetic memories with strong signal contrast.
{"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":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102046","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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><math><mrow><mn>11</mn><mover><mn>2</mn><mo>‾</mo></mover><mn>0</mn></mrow></math></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><math><mrow><mn>0001</mn></mrow></math></span>> and <<span><math><mrow><mn>10</mn><mover><mn>1</mn><mo>‾</mo></mover><mn>0</mn></mrow></math></span>> directions where TMR is suppressed. Second, incorporating an MgO (<span><math><mrow><mn>110</mn></mrow></math></span>) barrier with favorable matching of low-decay evanescent states and interfacial reconstruction enhances the TMR ratio to ∼1700%. Third, further optimization through barrier thickening and electron doping raises the TMR ratio to ∼2900% and ∼5400%, respectively, comparable to the ideal coherent-tunneling limits theoretically predicted for Fe/MgO/Fe junctions, and the TMR ratio of the optimized junction maintains at ∼670% even under a practical 0.05 V bias. These findings establish CrSb/MgO AFMTJs as a viable pathway toward nonvolatile, high-speed, high-density antiferromagnetic memories with strong signal contrast.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 102046"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"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
Hard-soft 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":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102045","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hard-soft 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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 102045"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"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 : 2026-02-01DOI: 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":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102039","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102039"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","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 : 2026-02-01DOI: 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。
{"title":"Semi-supervised spatiotemporal segmentation of in situ transmission electron microscopy for nanoparticle dynamics","authors":"Manpreet Kaur , Ali Ebadi , Xingying Zhang , Huanjing Liu , Cheng-Yu Chen , Eric A. Stach , Qian Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102033","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102033","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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. <em>In-situ</em> 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 <em>in-situ</em> 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 <em>in-situ</em> 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 (<span><math><mo>≥</mo></math></span>800 °C) where conventional methods struggle to detect complex phenomena such as faceting, sintering, and fragmentation. Code and models are available at <span><span>https://github.com/kaur-manpreet325/TEM-Seg</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102033"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146072551","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.2026.102035
Yajing Qi , Tianci Wei , Lin He , Xiaoran Bi , Xiaoyue An , Chunji Li , Weiwei Yang , Yongsheng Yu , Menggang Li
Alloying has long been recognized as one of the most promising strategies for designing high-performance metal-based electrocatalysts. However, the limited range of available elemental species in conventional alloys often restricts the continuous-tuning of the surface electronic structure of metal catalysts. High-entropy nanoalloys (HENAs), with their diverse compositional and structural characteristics, offer a pathway to overcome the limitations of traditional binary or ternary alloys, providing adsorption/desorption energies towards reaction intermediates closer to the optimum. Therefore, HENAs have emerged as promising candidates for electrocatalytic reactions integral to various renewable energy technologies, such as fuel cells, water electrolyzers, etc., and have witnessed remarkable progress in recent years. This review summarizes recent advances in HENA-based electrocatalysts for energy-related applications and highlights the crucial role of rational structural design in enhancing their performance. It begins with an introduction to the fundamental concepts, physicochemical properties, and structural characterizations of HENAs. Then, we categorize state-of-the-art HENA electrocatalysts based on their dimensionality, with particular emphasis on understanding their formation mechanisms at the nanoscale and atomic-scale. Furthermore, we discuss the rational underlying the structural regulation of electronic structures, electrocatalytic properties, and functional mechanisms of HENAs in several key electrocatalytic reactions. Finally, we outline the remaining challenges and future perspectives in this field, aiming to inspire the development of more advanced HENA-based catalysts to touch the ceiling of electrocatalytic activity and stability.
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