Frontiers of Materials Science最新文献

Herein, the rational design micromilieus involved silk fibroin (SF)-based materials have been used to encapsulate the osteoblasts, forming an extracellular coated shell on the cells, which exhibited the high potential to shift the regulation of osteoblasts to osteocytes by encapsulation cues. SF coating treated cells showed a change in cell morphology from osteoblasts-like to osteocytes-like shape compared with untreated ones. Moreover, the expression of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), collagen I (Col I) and osteocalcin (OCN) further indicated a potential approach for inducing osteoblasts regulation, which typically accelerates calcium deposition and cell calcification, presenting a key role for the SF encapsulation in controlling osteoblasts behavior. This discovery showed that SF-based cell encapsulation could be used for osteoblasts behavior regulation, which offers a great potential to modulate mammalian cells’ phenotype involving alternating surrounding cues.

The preparation of large-scale Cu-Al-Ni shape memory alloys with excellent microstructure and texture is a significant challenge in this field. In this study, large-scale Cu-Al-Ni shape memory alloy (SMA) slabs with good surface quality and strong orientation were prepared by the horizontal continuous casting (HCC). The microstructure and mechanical properties were compared with the ordinary casting (OC) Cu-Al-Ni alloy. The results showed that the microstructure of OC Cu-Al-Ni alloy was equiaxed grains with randomly orientation, which had no obvious superelasticity. The alloys produced by HCC had herringbone grains with strong orientation near ❬100❭ and the cumulative tensile superelasticity of 4.58%. The superelasticity of the alloy produced by HCC has been improved by 4–5 times. This work has preliminarily realized the production of large-scale Cu-Al-Ni SMA slab with good superelasticity, which lays a foundation for expanding the industrial production and application of Cu-based SMAs.

Superamphiphobic surfaces have attracted the attention of researchers because of their broad application prospects. Currently, superamphiphobicity is primarily achieved by minimizing the solid-liquid contact area. Over the past few decades, researchers have primarily focused on using physical deposition methods to construct superamphiphobic surfaces using fine-sized nanoparticles (< 100 nm). However, porous hollow SiO₂ particles (PH-SiO₂), which are typically large spheres, have a highly hierarchical structure and can provide lower solid-liquid contact fractions than those provided by fine-sized particles. In this study, we used PH-SiO₂ as building blocks and combined them with poly (dimethylsiloxane) to construct a mechanically robust coating on fiber by spray-coating. After chemical vapor deposition treatment, the coating exhibited excellent superamphiphobicity and could repel various liquids, covering a wide range of surface tensions (27.4–72.0 mN·m⁻¹).

Research on glass nanocomposites (GNCs) has been very active in the past decades. GNCs have attracted — and still do — great interest in the fields of optoelectronics, photonics, sensing, electrochemistry, catalysis, biomedicine, and art. In this review, the potential applications of GNCs in these fields are briefly described to show the reader the possibilities of these materials. The most important synthesis methods of GNCs (melt-quenching, sol-gel, ion implantation, ion-exchange, staining process, spark plasma sintering, radio frequency sputtering, spray pyrolysis, and chemical vapor deposition techniques) are extensively explained. The major aim of this review is to systematize our knowledge about the synthesis of GNCs and to explore the mechanisms of formation and growth of NPs within glass matrices. The size-controlled preparation of NPs within glass matrices, which remains a challenge, is essential for advanced applications. Therefore, a thorough understanding of GNC synthesis techniques is expected to facilitate the preparation of innovative GNCs.

We present a straightforward method for one-pot electrodeposition of platinum atoms-doped molybdenum oxide (Pt·MoO_3−x) films and show their superior electrocatalytic activity in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). A ∼15-nm-thick Pt·MoO_3−x film was prepared by one-pot electrodeposition at −0.8 V for 1 ms. Due to considerably different solute concentrations, the content of Pt atoms in the electrode-posited composite electrocatalyst is low. No Pt crystals or islands were observed on the flat Pt·MoO_3−x films, indicating that Pt atoms were homogeneously dispersed within the MoO_3−x thin film. The catalytic performance and physicochemical features of Pt·MoO_3−x as a HER electrocatalyst were characterized. The results showed that our Pt·MoO_3−x film exhibits 23- and 11-times higher current density than Pt and MoO_3−x electrodeposited individually under the same conditions, respectively. It was found that the dramatic enhancement in the HER performance was principally due to the abundant oxygen defects. The use of the developed one-pot electrodeposition and doping method can potentially be extended to various catalytically active metal oxides or hydroxides for enhanced performance in various energy storage and conversion applications.

The consumer demand for emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR), autopilot, and three-dimensional (3D) internet has rapidly promoted the application of novel optical display devices in innovative industries. However, the micro/nanomanufacturing of high-resolution optical display devices is the primary issue restricting their development. The manufacturing technology of micro/nanostructures, methods of display mechanisms, display materials, and mass production of display devices are major technical obstacles. To comprehensively understand the latest state-of-the-art and trigger new technological breakthroughs, this study reviews the recent research progress of master molds produced using nanoimprint technology for new optical devices, particularly AR glasses, new-generation light-emitting diode car lighting, and naked-eye 3D display mechanisms, and their manufacturing techniques of master molds. The focus is on the relationships among the manufacturing process, microstructure, and display of a new optical device. Nanoimprint master molds are reviewed for the manufacturing and application of new optical devices, and the challenges and prospects of the new optical device diffraction grating nanoimprint technology are discussed.

Heusler alloys are a kind of intermetallic compounds with highly-ordered arrangement of atoms. Many attractive functional materials have been developed in Heusler alloys. Due to the application requirements of materials in new-generation electronic devices and spintronics devices, one-dimensional nanostructured Heusler alloys with special functions are needed. In this work, it is proposed to grow one-dimensional Heusler alloy nanostructures (1D-HA-NSs) by magnetron sputtering plus anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. Nanowires with different shapes, amorphous-coated (AC) nanowires and nanotubes were successfully grown for several Heusler alloys. AC nanowires are the unique products of our method. Heusler alloy nanotubes are reported for the first time. The one-dimensional nanostructures grow on the surface of the AAO substrate rather than in the holes. The top of the pore wall is the nanostructure growth point, the shape of which determines the morphology of the nanostructures. A general growth mechanism model of one-dimensional nanostructures on AAO template was established and further confirmed by experimental observation.

Inorganic nanocarriers are potent candidates for delivering conventional anticancer drugs, nucleic acid-based therapeutics, and imaging agents, influencing their blood half-lives, tumor targetability, and bioactivity. In addition to the high surface area-to-volume ratio, they exhibit excellent scalability in synthesis, controllable shape and size, facile surface modification, inertness, stability, and unique optical and magnetic properties. However, only a limited number of inorganic nanocarriers have been so far approved for clinical applications due to burst drug release, poor target specificity, and toxicity. To overcome these barriers, understanding the principles involved in loading therapeutic and imaging molecules into these nanoparticles (NPs) and the strategies employed in enhancing sustainability and targetability of the resultant complexes and ensuring the release of the payloads in extracellular and intracellular compartments of the target site is of paramount importance. Therefore, we will shed light on various loading mechanisms harnessed for different inorganic NPs, particularly involving physical entrapment into porous/hollow nanostructures, ionic interactions with native and surface-modified NPs, covalent bonding to surface-functionalized nanomaterials, hydrophobic binding, affinity-based interactions, and intercalation through co-precipitation or anion exchange reaction.

Organometallic perovskite is a new generation photovoltaic material with exemplary properties such as high absorption co-efficient, optimal bandgap, high defect tolerance factor and long carrier diffusion length. However, suitable electrodes and charge transport materials are required to fulfill photovoltaic processes where interfaces between hole transport material/perovskite and perovskite/electron transport material are affected by phenomena of charge carrier separation, transportation, collection by the interfaces and band alignment. Based on recent available literature and several strategies for minimizing the recombination of charge carriers at the interfaces, this review addresses the properties of hole transport materials, relevant working mechanisms, and the interface engineering of perovskite solar cell (PSC) device architecture, which also provides significant insights to design and development of PSC devices with high efficiency.

Ammonia borane (NH₃BH₃) is a reducing agent, able to trap and convert carbon dioxide. In the present work, we used a reactive solid consisting of a mixture of 90 wt.% of NH₃BH₃ and 10 wt.% of palladium chloride, because the mixture reacts in a fast and exothermic way while releasing H₂ and generating catalytic Pd⁰. We took advantage of such reactivity to trap and convert CO₂ (7 bar), knowing besides that Pd⁰ is a CO₂ hydrogenation catalyst. The operation (i.e. stage 1) was effective: BNH polymers, and B—O, C=O, C—O, and C—H bonds (like in BOCH₃ and BOOCH groups) were identified. We then (in stage 2) pyrolyzed the as-obtained solid at 1250 °C and washed it with water. In doing so, we isolated cyclotriboric acid H₃B₃O₆ (stemming from B₂O₃ formed at 1250 °C), hexagonal boron nitride, and graphitic carbon. In conclusion, the stage 1 showed that CO₂ can be ‘trapped’ and converted, resulting in the formation of BOCH₃ and BOOCH groups (possible sources of methanol and formic acid), and the stage 2 showed that CO₂ transforms into graphitic carbon.