Nature Reviews Materials最新文献

The quest for next-generation energy-storage technologies has pivoted towards all-solid-state batteries, primarily owing to their potential for enhanced safety and energy density. At the centre of this promising technology lie inorganic lithium superionic conductors, which facilitate rapid ion transport comparable to that in their liquid counterparts. Despite their promise, the limited availability of materials that both achieve superionic conductivity and fulfil all practical requirements necessitates the discovery of novel conductors. This Review comprehensively explores the diverse structural and chemical factors that improve ionic conductivity and the atomistic mechanism by which each factor affects it. We emphasize the importance of a dual approach: using structural factors to enable high-conducting prototypes, and chemical factors to further optimize the ionic conductivity. From these insights, we distil over 40 years of conductor development history to the key concepts that paved the way for today’s leading superionic conductors. In detailing the trajectory of ionic conduction advancements, this Review not only charts the progress in the field but also proposes a strategic approach for researchers to efficiently innovate with the ultimate goal of realizing the promise of all-solid-state batteries.

Now more than ever, researchers are rethinking the way robots are designed and controlled — from the algorithms that govern their actions to the very atomic structure of the materials they are made from. In this Perspective, we collect and comment on recent efforts towards multipurpose machines that use shape-morphing materials and components to adapt to changing environments. To frame our discussion, we point out biological adaptation strategies that have been adopted by robots across different sizes and timescales. This contextualization segways into the notion of adaptive morphogenesis, which is formally defined as a design strategy in which adaptive robot morphology and behaviours are realized through unified structural and actuation systems. However, since its introduction, the term has been more colloquially used to describe ‘evolution on demand’. We set out by giving examples of current systems that exhibit adaptive morphogenesis. Then, outlining projected key application areas of adaptive morphogenesis helps to scope the challenges and possibilities on the road to realizing future systems. We conclude by proposing performance metrics for benchmarking this emerging field. With this Perspective, we hope to spur dialogue among materials scientists, roboticists and biologists, and provide an objective lens through which we can analyse progress towards robots with rapidly mutable features that eclipse what is possible in biological processes.

Shape-morphing devices, with their capacity to undergo structural transformations, are on the verge of revolutionizing multiple domains, from human–machine interfaces to biomedical and aerospace applications. This Perspective classifies shape-morphing devices into two categories: pattern-to-pattern shape-morphing devices that deform from a starting shape to a predefined set of one or more deformed shapes, and programmable shape-morphing devices that can morph into different shapes on demand. We highlight the need for standardized assessment approaches to compare the performance of different shape-morphing devices and introduce an array of proposed metrics that are tailored to assess the functionality of these devices at the material, device and system levels. Notably, we propose a mathematical metric to quantify the complexity of a surface and a set of standard surfaces for evaluating programmable shape-morphing devices, providing objective benchmarks for this expanding field.

Spintronics aims to go beyond the charge-based paradigm of silicon-based microelectronics by utilizing the spin degree of freedom for memory, storage and computing applications. State-of-the-art spintronic devices rely on the manipulation of magnetic textures by spin torques that are generated from electrical currents within ferromagnets (FMs) (spin-transfer torque) or proximal heavy metals (spin-orbit torque). Although these concepts have led to important commercial applications, the use of FMs poses challenges owing to their stray fields, relatively slow dynamics and limited thermal stability. To overcome these challenges, new materials are needed, especially those that display negligible stray fields such as antiferromagnets (AFs). In this regard, synthetic AFs have been vitally important since their use in the very first spintronic field sensors and memories. Collinear AFs have found applications in stabilizing magnetic textures via interfacial exchange bias. Going beyond these classes of AFs, the family of non-collinear AFs (NCAFs) with triangular spin textures has attractive properties, some of them even reminiscent of FMs. These include, for example, large anomalous Hall and Nernst effects, and substantial magneto-optical responses, despite their nearly fully compensated magnetization. Thus, one can anticipate their use in substituting FMs in future spintronic devices. Furthermore, these novel AFs convert electrical currents to spin currents with unique symmetries, which may allow for new ways to manipulate spin textures. Here, we review recent developments in non-collinear antiferromagnetic spintronics. Emphasis is placed on spin current generation, switching of spin textures and applications in magnetic random access memory and racetrack memory, as well as so-far unexplored materials. We show that although key components of spintronic devices based on NCAFs have been demonstrated, a wide range of potential materials remain to be explored and many open questions remain to be answered. Thus, the field of NCAFs is a vibrant and exciting subfield of spintronics with much potential for next-generation memory and computing technologies.