Progress in Materials Science最新文献

The continuous advancement of materials and technologies has significantly propelled the progress of human civilization. However, the more humans achieved, the more bottlenecks we encounter which span from space exploration, cutting edge advanced cooling to the clinical therapy of a single malignant tumor. The revolution to break through such barriers lies in the identification of extreme materials that can easily tackle the existing challenges and fundamentally extend the technological boundary, thus potentially leading to the creation of entirely new devices and systems. The emergence of room-temperature liquid metals (LMs) with their unique characteristics and diverse unconventional capabilities distinguished from traditionally developed electrical, soft, and fluidic materials, is anticipated to revolutionize a broad range of interdisciplinary fields. This review is dedicated to extracting the extreme features of LMs and systematizing their distinct applied scenarios from pervasive electronic fabrication to thermal management, and healthcare systems until human-like transformable robotics. The prospects and challenges of LM extreme materials are outlined. It is expected that further investigations on the clarified scientific and technological categories lying behind will contribute well to the next generation human civilization in the coming time.

Metalloids and transition/refractory elements typically differ significantly in the electronic structure and atomic size, allowing for stronger solid-solution hardening in high-entropy alloys (HEAs) as well as improved work-hardening capability, which leads to exceptional strength-ductility balance. In this regard, Si addition has opened up a new pathway for developing novel and high-performance Cantor-based, lightweight, and refractory HEAs, which has recently attracted considerable attention from the materials science community. Accordingly, the present review paper summarizes the recent progress in tailoring the mechanical properties and strengthening mechanisms of Si-added HEAs. After reviewing the general strengthening mechanisms of HEAs, the impact of Si addition is critically discussed, especially its effects on the (I) solid-solution hardening by local lattice distortion and chemical short-range order (SRO) hardening, (II) second-phase strengthening by promoting the formation of disordered solid-solution phases, silicides, σ-phase, and other intermetallics, (III) structural refinement and facilitating the development of heterostructures, and (IV) work-hardening behavior by altering the dislocation arrangements, boosting the twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) effect as well as HCP and BCC transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) effect by reduced and variable stacking fault energy (SFE). Finally, the research gaps and future prospects are introduced, including metastability engineering, superplasticity, application of severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques for grain refinement, and additive manufacturing.

The prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infections has emerged as a serious threat to clinical treatment and global human health, and has become one of the most important challenges in clinical therapy. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop safe, effective, and new antibacterial strategies based on multifunctional nanomaterials for the accurate detection and treatment of MDR bacterial infections. Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) is an emerging antibacterial therapeutic strategy that uses Fenton/Fenton-like metal-based nanocatalysts to convert hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) into hydroxyl radicals (OH) to destroy MDR bacterial infections. Despite the enormous potential of CDT, a single CDT has limitations such as low catalytic efficacy and insufficient production of H₂O₂. In this regard, CDT can be combined with other antibacterial strategies, such as photothermal therapy (PTT), in which CDT efficacy can be effectively enhanced by the PTT heating effect. Thus, the rational combination of PTT and CDT into one nanoplatform has been demonstrated as a highly efficient antibacterial strategy for achieving a better therapeutic effect. This review summarizes and discusses the latest advances in photothermal-enhanced CDT (PT/CDT) based on multifunctional nanomaterials for bacterial infection theranostics as well as the advantages, challenges, and future research directions for clinical applications, which will inspire the development of new PT/CDT based on metal-based photothermal nanocatalysts for future bacterial infection theranostics.

Skin acts as a protective barrier for the underlying organs against external events such as irradiation of ultraviolet rays, incursion of harmful pathogens, and water evaporation. As the skin is constantly liable to damage, the wound-healing process is vital to the survival of all organisms. Materials design and development for enhanced wound healing and skin tissue regeneration have been found highly valuable in recent years. A wide range of materials and structures, including dressings and tissue-engineered substitutes composed of synthetic and/or natural biopolymers and their composites have been developed and examined. Although some have clinically been proven and are available in the market, mimicking the architecture of native extracellular matrix is still an open challenge with fundamental limitations in reproducing skin appendages, sufficient vascularization, adherence to the wound bed, and scarless wound management. Biomimetic nanofibers with tunable morphological, biological, and physicochemical features are promising candidates to overcome these drawbacks. Combined with advanced biomanufacturing and cell culturing techniques, enabling the incorporation of growth factors and stem cells within morphologically-controlled nanostructures, the fibrous structures allow the regeneration of functional skin. This paper overviews the advances in state-of-the-art strategies for designing biomimetic nanofibrous materials with a high potential for wound healing and skin regeneration. An emphasis is given to multifunctional nanocomposites with mechanobiological properties matching those of natural skin. Opportunities, challenges, and commercial status of these materials for skin repair are outlined, and their future perspective is demonstrated. The advances in smart wound management are also discussed, particularly by highlighting the potential of stimuli-responsive materials and integrated sensors in the progress of next-generation dressings for simultaneous monitoring and on-demand treatment of wounds.

Proton-conducting polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is a vital clean hydrogen generation technology that can ease the energy crisis resulting from global warming and dependence on fossil fuels. However, the long-term catalytic activity and stability of the extensively studied benchmark RuO₂ catalysts in an acidic environment is insufficient for large-scale renewable energy conversion devices. Thus, significant recent efforts have focused on identifying and exploring acid-stable Ru-based electrocatalysts with low overpotential and high stability for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). This review offers a comprehensive analysis of recent advances in Ru-based acidic OER catalysts, starting with a detailed understanding of design principles for Ru-based catalysts, encompassing the reaction mechanisms, degradation mechanism, and activity-stability relationships. Subsequently, advanced Ru-based catalysts regulating strategy are into four categories, within each category, a critical assessment of catalyst design and synthesis, electrocatalytic performance, along with typical examples and existing challenges. Representative examples in practical PEMWE are also provided to illustrate these advancements. Finally, the challenges and prospects for future studies on the development of Ru-based acidic OER catalysts towards the ultimate application of PEMWE are also examined.

Radiative cooling with eco-friendly and zero-energy advantages is considered one of the most viable solutions to address the conflict between traditional energy-intensive cooling systems and global decarbonization. Despite significant advances, the development of radiative cooling still faces many challenges, such as fine-engineering of materials and structures to enhance solar reflection and mid-infrared emission, solar absorption caused by coloring for colorful radiative cooling, and spectral modulation for environmental-adaptative dynamic radiative cooling. Over millions of years of natural selection, utilizing a limited set of biomaterial palettes, optimized strategies, and micro-nano structural design, natural organisms have demonstrated fine control over light-matter interactions at different wavelength scales. Including broadband reflection of the sunlight to prevent solar heating, narrowband reflection of visible light to display brilliant colors, strong emission of mid-infrared wave to complete its cooling, and environmental-adaptative spectral modulation to achieve camouflage or thermal regulation. These biological structures and strategies provide extremely valuable inspiration for the development of advanced radiative cooling techniques. In this review, we systematically summarized the research progress of bioinspired radiative cooling technologies. Emphatically introducing the mechanism of key biological structures to achieve several optical functions, and discussing the various bioinspired radiative coolers and their application potential in different fields. Finally, we present the remaining challenges and outlook on the possible research directions in the future. It is hoped that this review will contribute to further research on bioinspired radiative cooling technology and make exciting progress.

Fatigue performance in both traditional and additively manufactured materials is severely affected by the presence of defects, which deserve special attention to ensure the in-service reliability and the structural integrity of complex engineering components. The traditional empirical or semi-probabilistic approaches, provided in standards and codes, only account for defects statistically; such design methodologies cannot fully exploit the material mechanical properties. Design strategies aim to explicitly account for defects features constitute a promising solution to achieve both required safety performance and material mechanical property exploitation. With the development of non-destructive techniques, such design methodologies have become applicable. However, there is still a tardiness in adopting new design strategies especially when it comes to industrial applications, e.g. emerging additive manufacturing (AM). In this review, a systematic overview is provided on the recent developments regarding fatigue behavior and failure mechanisms affected by defects, together with the methodologies for defects features characterization and probabilistic assessment. Moreover, the defects criticality and design approaches of AM parts are introduced and compared with traditional counterparts. Finally, the status of AM standardization is presented.

This comprehensive review explores the potential of tailored carbon materials (TCM) for efficient photocatalytic degradation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are persistent and toxic organic pollutants posing significant environmental challenges. The unique structure and properties of TCM including graphene and carbon nanotubes to activated carbon and carbon dots, have projected them as next-generation technological materials for innovation. A careful and critical discussion of state-of-the-art research sheds light on their effectiveness in catalyzing the breakdown of PAHs, which projects TCM suitable for managing other environmental pollutants-of-concerns like polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pharmaceuticals, micro/nano-plastics, textile waste, industrial effluents, etc. Beyond this viewpoint, this article expands the scope of TCM for 1) biomedical and healthcare, 2) energy storage and conversion, and 3) advanced electronics. The challenges, opportunities, and future perspectives related to the role of TCM for environmental applications, inspiring further research, and innovation in photo-induced degradation techniques are also carefully discussed in this article. This focused article serves as a valuable resource for researchers and industrialists interested in harnessing the capabilities of carbon-based materials for efficient and sustainable photocatalytic degradation of PAHs and other environmental pollutants. It addresses the pressing need for effective environmental remediation and pollution control strategies.

Stretchable conductive fibers (SCFs) are emerging materials that combine the advantages of both fibers and stretchable electronics, with broad applications in various electronic devices. Owing to their excellent stretchability, compliance, conductivity, and integratability, SCFs have drawn considerable attention from both academia and industry. Despite the emerging research enthusiasm in this field, the intrinsic correlation between the design and application of SCFs has not been explicitly stated, which severely hinders their further development. In this review, we establish an internal connection between the design and application for the first time by elaborately analyzing the key properties of the SCFs, aiming to provide comprehensive guidance for the application-oriented design. First, the design of structures, conductive materials, and preparation methods, which determine the mechanical and electrical properties of the SCFs, is summarized in detail. Then, the key properties of SCFs as well as their relationship with design and applications are analyzed. Next, several representative applications of SCFs that possess high dependency on the key properties are described. Finally, a brief discussion is presented on the current challenges and the vision for future development directions of SCFs. We believe this review will broadly benefit scientists, engineers, and postgraduates in the areas of functional fibrous materials research.