Materials Today Physics最新文献

{"title":"2D material-based smart sensors for efficient and non-invasive glucose monitoring","authors":"Sobia Nisar ,&nbsp;Ghulam Dastgeer ,&nbsp;Muhammad Wajid Zulfiqar ,&nbsp;Hammad Ghazanfar ,&nbsp;Muneeb Ahmad ,&nbsp;Muhammad Rabeel ,&nbsp;Aamir Rasheed ,&nbsp;Muhammad Imran ,&nbsp;Deok-kee Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102028","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102028","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Diabetes mellitus requires accurate and continuous glucose monitoring for early diagnosis, effective disease management, and prevention of severe complications. However, conventional glucose sensors often suffer from limited stability, frequent calibration, and invasive operation, which restrict their long-term and real-time use. In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) materials integrated into electrochemical, optical, and field-effect transistor (FET) platforms have emerged as promising alternatives due to their high surface area, tunable electronic properties, and excellent bio-interfacing capability. To address existing gaps in understanding and comparison, this review presents a systematic framework that categorizes glucose sensors according to both sensing mechanisms (electrochemical, optical, and FET-based) and application formats (invasive, non-invasive, and wearable). Beyond static classification, we analyze recent temporal trends in material selection, device architecture, and sensing performance, highlighting the evolution from graphene-based systems toward transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) and MXene-enabled platforms for flexible and biofluid-compatible sensing. A critical comparison of enzyme immobilization and surface functionalization strategies is also provided to clarify their influence on sensitivity, stability, and reproducibility. Finally, key challenges related to long-term stability, selectivity, and device integration are discussed, and emerging directions are outlined to support the development of reliable, flexible, and high-performance glucose sensors for real-time and personalized healthcare.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102028"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146000685","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":"Optoelectronic logic gates and chaotic encryption optical communication enabled by dual-band optical response in a-Ga2O3/Cr2O3 heterostructures","authors":"Quancai Yue ,&nbsp;Lijuan Ye ,&nbsp;Lai Yuan,&nbsp;Guoping Qin,&nbsp;Di Pang,&nbsp;Yan Tang,&nbsp;Honglin Li,&nbsp;Hong Zhang,&nbsp;Wanjun Li","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Self-powered bipolar photodetectors (PDs) have garnered significant attention for their potential in optoelectronic logic gates (OELGs) and secure optical communication systems, owing to their extremely low power consumption and cost-effectiveness. However, conventional unipolar PDs are constrained by functional rigidity and their reliance on passive decoding circuits. In this study, a self-powered bipolar photoelectrochemical detector (PEC-PD) is presented with a wavelength-dependent photoresponse in electrolytes, based on an amorphous gallium oxide/chromium oxide (a-Ga₂O₃/Cr₂O₃) <em>p–n</em> heterojunction. This distinctive behavior arises from variations in the competitive dynamics between interfacial redox reactions and photogenerated carrier transport at the semiconductor/electrolyte interface under short-wave ultraviolet (UV-C) and long-wave ultraviolet (UV-A) irradiation. The device exhibits a positive photocurrent response time of 82.1/91.2 ms under 254 nm illumination and a negative photocurrent response time of 9.1/13.6 ms under 380 nm without an external power supply. Utilizing this tunable photoresponse, five fundamental Boolean logic operations—“OR”, “AND”, “NOR”, “NOT”, and “NAND”—are demonstrated by tailoring the illumination at specific wavelengths. Furthermore, the distinct bipolar photocurrent behaviors enable encrypted optical communication within a single photoelectrode architecture. This study advances the understanding of carrier dynamics manipulation and provides a solid foundation for the development of multi-functional OELGs and secure optical communication systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102032"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146048519","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":"Designing a hybrid α/β-Ga2O3 polymorph heterostructure from strain-relaxed phase transition for high-voltage power diodes","authors":"Kaisen Liu ,&nbsp;Songhao Wu ,&nbsp;Shulin Hu ,&nbsp;Dongyang Han ,&nbsp;Li Chen ,&nbsp;Gaofeng Deng ,&nbsp;Shen Hu ,&nbsp;Li Ji ,&nbsp;Ping Cui ,&nbsp;Jichun Ye ,&nbsp;Wenrui Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) featuring several polymorphs holds great potential for high-power electronics and solar-blind optoelectronics. Designing electronic devices based on hybrid Ga₂O₃ polymorph structures appears highly attractive, but it meets persistent obstacles from epitaxy challenges and dopant activation problems. This study reports a 3 kV-class lateral Schottky barrier diode (SBD) based on a unique heteroepitaxial <em>α</em>/<em>β</em>-Ga₂O₃ heterostructure composed of conductive <em>β</em>-Ga₂O₃ domains embedded in an insulating <em>α</em>-Ga₂O₃ matrix. The <em>α</em>/<em>β</em>-Ga₂O₃ heterostructure is constructed from a strain-relaxed <em>α</em>-to-<em>β</em> Ga₂O₃ phase transition that strongly depends on the substrate orientation and film thickness. The formation of the <em>β</em>-Ga₂O₃ phase presents a minor impact on the crystallinity of the <em>α</em>-Ga₂O₃ matrix and exhibits more readily dopant activation during the sputtering growth. The lateral SBD based on this hybrid <em>α</em>/<em>β</em>-Ga₂O₃ heterostructure combines the benefits of efficient carrier transport in <em>β</em>-Ga₂O₃ and the superior breakdown field in <em>α</em>-Ga₂O₃, thus enabling a decent rectifying behavior and a 3 kV breakdown voltage two times larger than the single-phase <em>β</em>-Ga₂O₃ diode. This study provides critical insights into the phase-design strategy for developing advanced UWBG electronic devices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102010"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145937483","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":"Structural isomer engineering to create novel high TC: Predicting the dynamic donor-skeleton coupling mechanism of superconducting BeC4B4","authors":"Zhi-Yuan Qiu ,&nbsp;Zheng-Tang Liu ,&nbsp;Qi-Jun Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102019","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102019","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Exploring new types of high-temperature superconductors has always been a central topic in condensed matter physics and materials science. This study breaks through the traditional element substitution strategy and takes boron-carbon compound MB₄C₄ as the parent structure, innovatively proposing a new material design paradigm of \"structural isomer engineering (SIE)\". Through first-principles calculations, it systematically studies the structural isomers MC₄B₄ formed after the positions of B and C atoms are swapped. We conducted a high-throughput screening of 59 compounds and found that only SiC₄B₄ and BeC₄B₄ can maintain kinetic stability at normal pressure. SiC₄B₄ is an electron semiconductor similar to diamond, while BeC₄B₄ is predicted to be a new type of high-temperature superconductor with a superconducting transition temperature (<em>T</em>_<em>C</em>) of up to 87.52 K. Particularly noteworthy is that its <em>T</em>_<em>C</em> exhibits remarkable robustness compared to the original BeB₄C₄ (∼76–83 K). The analysis of the electronic structure reveals that the difference in physical properties is attributed to the degree of electron filling in the framework. The in-depth microscopic mechanism study indicates that the high-temperature superconductivity of BeC₄B₄ stems from an unprecedented \"dynamic donor-skeleton framework coupling\" mechanism. The strong electron-phonon coupling (EPC) (<span><math><mrow><mi>λ</mi></mrow></math></span> = 1.76) is mainly contributed by the high-frequency collective vibration mode driven by the light Be²⁺ ions, which efficiently couples with the delocalized electrons of the electron-deficient B-C framework. Based on this, we constructed a two-dimensional design descriptor centered on \"donor-skeleton coupling degree <span><math><mrow><mo>(</mo><msub><mi>Γ</mi><mi>X</mi></msub><mo>)</mo></mrow></math></span>\" and \"electron filling degree (<em>N</em>_<em>tot</em>)\", successfully explaining the superconducting trend of MB₄C₄ and its isomer systems, and providing a universal blueprint for systematically searching for new high-temperature superconductors driven by dynamic ionic coupling in three-dimensional rigid covalent frameworks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102019"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145956514","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":"Defect formation energy of impurities in 2D materials: How does data engineering shape machine learning model selection?","authors":"A. El Alouani,&nbsp;M. Al Khalfioui,&nbsp;A. Michon,&nbsp;S. Vézian,&nbsp;P. Boucaud,&nbsp;M.T. Dau","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2025.102006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2025.102006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Regressive Machine learning (ML) has emerged as an alternative method for theoretically evaluating materials properties. Most of ML-based study of materials properties including dataset handling, feature spaces, transformers and estimators have been reported without questioning the ML foundation of these components and their interactions with the outcomes because of the availability of homogeneous datasets, standardized training conditions and technical implementation challenges. In this paper, a database of defect impurities in 2D materials was used to assess the impact of ML workflow’s components on the training-inference process. By investigating descriptor engineering (vectorized matrix properties) and model algorithms (statistical tree-based and artificial neural network - ANN models) on two sub-datasets derived from the database (interstitial-int and adsorbate-ads impurities), we report a comprehensive study of the ML-based prediction of the energy formation of the impurities in 2D materials. Quantitatively, for the statistical models, the training errors lower than 1.4 eV and 1.1 eV were found thanks to the descriptor engineering for the int and the ads datasets, respectively. Regarding the ANN models, these values are 2.1 eV and 1.3 eV. The prediction errors on the unseen data (test sets) were found lower than the ones obtained without descriptor engineering for all models. However, the overfitting effect remains visible but less pronounced for the ads dataset than for the int dataset. This finding reveals the impact of the dataset characteristics on the performance of the ML ecosystem involving data engineering and model algorithms. Beyond the search of best performances in regressive ML prediction of 2D materials properties, our work demonstrates a full-scale study of the ML process starting from the data engineering to model evaluation and selection, allowing to benchmark the criteria for further ML assessment in terms of training, models and prediction. Our results could be reference for further works in ML-led prediction physics of materials science.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102006"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145956516","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":"Reversible thermal stiffening in polymers: A mini review","authors":"Di Wu ,&nbsp;Shuyue He ,&nbsp;Wenbo Liu ,&nbsp;Jason Y. Fang ,&nbsp;Yue Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102042","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102042","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102042"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","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}

{"title":"Pressure and composition tuning of structural and electronic properties of the ternary chalcohalide Pb4SeBr6","authors":"Junhui Liang ,&nbsp;Ying Sun ,&nbsp;Wenbo Qiu ,&nbsp;Shuangjiang Du ,&nbsp;Xinglong Deng ,&nbsp;Weizhao Cai","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102036","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102036","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Chalcohalides, a class of mixed-anion semiconductors featuring both chalcogenide and halide atoms, exhibit rich structural diversity and functional properties such as strong nonlinear optical responses and ferroelectricity. Although high-pressure studies have revealed dramatic electronic transformations, including metallization and superconductivity in several chalcohalides, Pb-based systems remain largely unexplored. Here, we combine high-pressure experiments with targeted chemical substitution to investigate the structural and electronic evolution of the ternary chalcohalide Pb₄SeBr₆. We show that both physical compression and Te substitution provide effective routes to electronic-structure tuning. The derivatives Pb₄Se_1-xTe_xBr₆ (x = 0.05 and 0.18) exhibit bandgap reductions of 5.3% and 8.3%, respectively, corresponding to the effect of applying ∼5.6 GPa and ∼8.6 GPa of external pressure to the parent compound. In the parent compound, compression induces a substantial redshift of the absorption edge, narrowing the bandgap by ∼64.9% at 25.2 GPa. At ∼20.0 GPa, Pb₄SeBr₆ undergoes a first-order phase transition with the noncentrosymmetric structure retained, whereas the Te substitution (x = 0.18) produces a modest upward shift of the transition pressure to ∼22 GPa. Combined high-pressure electrical transport measurements and first-principles calculations further predict a semiconductor-to-metal transition near 90 GPa. These results demonstrate that synergistically applying physical pressure and chemical substitution provides a robust strategy for engineering electronic properties in chalcohalides, offering guidance for designing next-generation functional mixed-anion materials.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102036"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146089227","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":"Accelerated discovery of MM′XT2 MXenes for catalysis, electronics, and energy storage using supervised machine learning","authors":"Umair Haider ,&nbsp;Gul Rahman ,&nbsp;Imran Shakir ,&nbsp;M.S. Al-Buriahi ,&nbsp;Norah Alomayrah ,&nbsp;Imen Kebaili","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102022","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102022","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We implement a reliable and generalizable multistep workflow that leverages supervised machine learning algorithms to construct accurate, data-driven models for predicting the work function (WF) of 4000 MM<span><math><msup><mrow></mrow><mrow><mo>′</mo></mrow></msup></math></span>XT<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>-type MXenes. Among the tested models, the <em>random forest regressor</em> demonstrates excellent performance, achieving a mean absolute error of 0.03 eV on the training set and 0.09 eV on the test set. Remarkably, through recursive feature elimination and hyperparameter tuning, the model attains even higher accuracy with only ten key descriptors, reducing the test MAE to 0.02 eV. The optimized model is employed to predict the properties of 150 unexplored MXenes for applications in catalysis (86 MXenes), electronics (38 MXenes), and energy storage (26 MXenes). The low-WF energy-storage candidates are dominated by nitride- and halide-terminated species, often incorporating early transition metals or rare-earth elements such as Y, Sc, and Hf. The intermediate-WF window contains compositions with balanced metallic and semiconducting features, such as <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>TiZrNCl</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>, <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>VMoNCl</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>, and <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>TiScCF</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>. The high-WF catalytic group is characterized by carbide-, oxide-, and chalcogen-terminated MXenes enriched in Mo, Zr, Hf, Ti, and Cr, e.g., <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>MnNbCS</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>, <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>CrTiCCl</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>, and <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>ZrMoCCl</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>. These predictions provide a robust starting point for experimental validation, supporting both multifunctional design and application-specific optimization of MXenes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102022"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145993423","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":"Phase transitions, dielectric response and lattice dynamics of dimethylammonium mixed lead halide perovskites","authors":"Furqanul Hassan Naqvi ,&nbsp;Syed Bilal Junaid ,&nbsp;Jae-Hyeon Ko ,&nbsp;Hyun Jung Kim ,&nbsp;Hyoungjeen Jeen ,&nbsp;Wonhyuk Shon ,&nbsp;Seongsu Lee ,&nbsp;Seong Heon Kim ,&nbsp;Yeong Uk Choi ,&nbsp;Jong Hoon Jung","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102024","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102024","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites exhibit rich structural dynamics that govern their stability and optoelectronic performance. Here we map the temperature-composition phase behavior of dimethylammonium lead mixed halides, DMAPbBr_3-<em>x</em>Cl_<em>x</em> with <em>x</em> = 0, 0.5, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3, by combining temperature-dependent powder X-ray diffraction, Raman and Brillouin spectroscopy, dielectric spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. All compositions undergo a first-order transition between an orthorhombic (<em>P</em>2₁2₁2₁) low-temperature phase and a hexagonal (<em>P</em>6₃/mmc) high-temperature phase. The transition temperature increases monotonically with Cl content at 251, 256, 265, 283, 306, and 318 K for <em>x</em> = 0, 0.5, 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3, respectively. Distinct experimental signatures include: (i) abrupt hardening/softening anomalies of low-frequency Raman modes (down to 10 cm⁻¹) associated with octahedral twists and Pb–X stretching; (ii) softening of the longitudinal acoustic phonon mode and a discontinuous jump at transition temperatures in the Brillouin spectra, evidencing elastic modulus renormalization; (iii) step-like increases in the real part of the dielectric permittivity (<em>ε</em>₁), reflecting increased DMA reorientational polarizability and (iv) sharp DSC endotherms that quantify latent heat and confirm the first-order character. We integrate these datasets to develop a temperature–composition phase diagram for DMAPbBr_3-<em>x</em>Cl_<em>x</em> and clarify how halide substitution stiffens the lattice and strengthens hydrogen-bond network to tune the transition temperature. The results provide mechanistic insight into cation–framework coupling in DMA-based perovskites and valuable insights for optimizing their structural properties to enhance device performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102024"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146048520","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 low-emissivity thermochromic coating for year-round window efficiency","authors":"Lin Tian ,&nbsp;Haibo Xu ,&nbsp;Zengyao Li ,&nbsp;Xinpeng Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102037","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mtphys.2026.102037","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Windows are among the weakest components of building envelopes, accounting for up to 50% of total energy loss from buildings. Conventional solar control coatings, such as silver-based low-emissivity (low-E) films, demonstrate solar spectral selectivity, effectively reducing solar heat gain in summer by blocking near-infrared radiation. However, their static optical properties also block desirable solar heat gain in winter, thereby restricting year‐round energy efficiency. Herein, we propose an IHO/MgF₂/VO₂/MgF₂/IHO/MgF₂ multilayer coating that provides dynamic solar modulation, high luminous transparency, and low mid-infrared (MIR) emissivity simultaneously. This structure integrates thermochromic VO₂ for dynamic near-infrared (NIR) switching with hydrogen-doped indium oxide (IHO) as a transparent low-E layer, while anti-reflective MgF₂ layers maximize visible comfort. To ensure high solar heat modulation ability while balancing luminous transmission and radiative heat loss (i.e., MIR emissivity), a genetic-algorithms-coupled transfer-matrix method was employed to optimize material selection and layer thickness. The optimized design achieves a solar heat gain modulation ability of 7% and a U-value of ∼1.78 W/(m²·K) while maintaining a luminous transmittance of ∼60% in double-glazed windows, representing a 250% improvement in modulation capability compared to single-layer VO₂ coatings (2%) and a 33% enhancement in visible transmission compared to bare VO₂ films (45%). Whole-building energy analysis indicates that applying this coating to medium office buildings reduces energy consumption by 21.8% compared to conventional double-glazed windows and 8.4% compared to low-E windows. This work provides a promising solution for next-generation smart windows that effectively balance solar heat gain with thermal insulation, offering significant potential for reducing global building energy consumption while maintaining occupant visual comfort.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":18253,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Physics","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 102037"},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146095708","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}