Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials最新文献

With the rising demand for sustainable materials in advanced electronics, biomedical devices, and protective systems, there is an increasing necessity for biodegradable nanocomposites that offer a balance between mechanical strength and electromagnetic shielding performance. This study investigates the synergistic effects of dual fillers, polyaniline (PANi) and magnetite (Fe₃O₄), at low concentrations on PLA/Mater-Bi starch composites. The hybrid nanocomposites were fabricated using twin-screw extrusion followed by hot/cold pressing. PANi enhanced the interfacial interaction between PLA and starch, creating a more homogeneous morphology. At 0.3 wt%, PANi improved tensile strength by 22% and increased elongation at break by 233% (from 5.4% to 18.0%). The incorporation of 0.6 wt% Fe₃O₄ further increased the tensile strength to 47.8 MPa while maintaining flexibility. All nanocomposites exhibited soft magnetic behavior with low coercivity, and saturation magnetization increased with higher Fe₃O₄ content. Radiation shielding properties including mass and linear attenuation coefficients (59% increase in LAC, 37% reduction in HVL at 0.03 MeV), effective atomic number, and fast neutron removal cross-section, were significantly enhanced with increasing Fe₃O₄ loading. The nanocomposite containing 1.0 wt% Fe₃O₄ demonstrated shielding performance comparable to conventional materials like water and concrete, while offering advantages in reduced density and flexibility. A preliminary LCA showed that these composites have a lower environmental footprint, with up to 78% less fossil resource use and 39% lower carbon emission compared to polyethylene. These findings suggest the potential of PANi/Fe₃O₄-reinforced PLA-based nanocomposites as sustainable, multifunctional materials for lightweight radiation shielding applications.

Stabilizing lithium metal anodes requires the synergistic contributions of lithiophilic components, conductive frameworks, and nanostructuring. Nevertheless, strategies that integrate all three remain scarcely reported, and the fundamental understanding of lithiophilic materials, particularly their conversion-alloying reactions, remains unexplored. In this study, a three-dimensional hierarchical void host structure composed of Sn-doped NiO-carbon-CNT (HV-Sn-NiO-C-CNT) microspheres was synthesized via a one-pot spray pyrolysis process. Upon initial lithiation, Sn-doped NiO undergoes conversion and alloying reactions to form Li-Sn alloy, metallic Ni, and Li₂O matrix. The lithiophilic Li-Sn alloy facilitates uniform lithium nucleation, metallic Ni provides conductive pathways, and the Li₂O matrix contributes to mechanical buffering and interfacial stabilization, collectively enabling uniform lithium deposition. The hierarchical voids buffer the volume changes during lithium plating and stripping, while CNTs reduce local current density and suppress dendritic growth. DFT calculation revealed that Sn doping lowers lithium adsorption energy and enhances the electronic conductivity of NiO, providing a fundamental explanation for uniform, dendrite-free lithium deposition. Benefiting from these synergistic effects, HV-Sn-NiO-C-CNT anode delivers a Coulombic efficiency of 97% over 300 cycles in asymmetric cell. Symmetric cells with HV-Sn-NiO-C-CNT-Li electrodes exhibit lower voltage polarization and enhanced cycling stability for over 2000 h. Notably, full cells with the LiFePO₄ (LFP) and LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂ (NCM811) cathode demonstrate robust cycling stability and high rate capability, indicating the practical applicability.

The rising demand for intelligent health monitoring and smart environments has driven the development of non-contact sensors capable of accurately detecting human motion without physical interaction. Here, we present a high-performance triboelectric sensor (TES) based on a 2,6-diaminopyridine-functionalized graphene oxide (DAP-GO)/silk composite paired with an electrospun PVDF-HFP/3 wt% MXene (PH3M) counter layer. Among the composites, 1.5 wt% DAP-GO (1.5SDAPG) exhibits synergistic improvements in tribopolarity and charge trapping, yielding an ~ 8-fold enhancement in open-circuit voltage compared to pristine silk. The optimized 1.5SDAPG/PH3M-TENG achieves a mechanical-to-electrical conversion efficiency of 0.18%, powers a digital stopwatch continuously for over 30 min, and demonstrates the capability to directly recharge a lithium-ion coin cell battery. Beyond energy harvesting, the device enables contactless detection of human activities (such as walking, running, and falling) through proximity-induced electrostatic field disturbances. It further supports spatially resolved motion tracking by localizing touch events at varying distances. This multifunctional platform integrates sustainable energy harvesting with advanced sensing, offering a promising pathway for remote elderly monitoring, fall detection, and smart surveillance. Collectively, the 1.5SDAPG/PH3M-TES establishes a foundation for IoT-enabled, self-powered, contactless human–machine interfaces and next-generation intelligent living systems.

Silica (SiO₂) aerogels are incredibly lightweight, highly porous materials known for their exceptional thermal insulation properties, making them suitable for a wide range of advanced applications, including drug delivery, thermal insulation, catalysis, and energy storage. Recent innovations, particularly the incorporation of nanofibers and polymers, have significantly improved the mechanical strength and stability of SiO₂ aerogels, addressing their inherent brittleness. This review highlights the latest advancements in the synthesis of SiO₂ aerogels, with a focus on fibre-based composites that enhance their flexibility and performance. We discuss the sol-gel formation process and the structural characteristics of SiO₂ aerogels, which are critical for their future industrial applications. Despite their promising properties, the commercial use of SiO₂ aerogels has been limited by challenges such as hydrophobic instability, high production costs, and difficulties in scaling up. The review also examines the expanding applications of SiO₂ aerogels in various fields, including astronautics, sensing technologies, biomedicine, and environmental remediation, encompassing air and water purification. Finally, we address the ecological and economic concerns associated with SiO₂ aerogel production and offer recommendations for sustainable development to improve both the financial viability and environmental impact of large-scale manufacturing.

With the rise of data-centric applications such as edge AI and neuromorphic computing, there is increasing demand for memory solutions that overcome the limitations of conventional nonvolatile devices. Selector-only memory (SOM), which stores data through threshold voltage (V_th) modulation in chalcogenide-based selector materials, offers a compact and scalable alternative. However, narrow read window margins and V_th drift remain major reliability concerns. In this work, we introduce a Sn-doped GeSbSeTe (Sn-GSST) material system that enhances SOM performance by reducing trap depth, increasing the population of shallow band-tail trap states, and widening the V_th margin. These improvements enable stable multibit switching and improved endurance. We evaluate the device’s system-level applicability through binary neural network (BNN) inference on the German Traffic Sign Recognition Benchmark (GTSRB) dataset, where V_th-induced bit error rate (BER) are modeled using statistical distributions. Sn-GSST devices show significantly lower BER of less than 0.01, leading to improved inference robustness. Finally, Shannon entropy-based error correction code (ECC) analysis confirms that the reduced BER of Sn-GSST leads to lower redundancy overhead and higher inference efficiency. This study demonstrates how material-level engineering can directly translate to system-level reliability and performance in neuromorphic memory applications.

The growing demand for self-powered wearable electronics has spurred significant interest in flexible thermoelectric films for direct conversion from body heat into electricity. However, most thermoelectric films rely on flexible substrates and involve complex fabrication processes, proposing an urgent demand for cost-effective, high-performance, free-standing alternatives. Herein, we report a free-standing Ag₂Se-based nanocomposite film modified with Bi₂Se₃, fabricated via scalable screen-printing followed by co-sintering. By tuning the Bi₂Se₃ content in the ink, nanocomposite structures primarily composed of Bi-doped Ag₂Se or AgBiSe₂/Ag₂Se were constructed. Theoretical calculations and experimental analyses reveal that Bi doping promotes band convergence and electrical conductivity, while the in-situ formed AgBiSe₂ and the heterointerface-induced energy-filtering effect boost the Seebeck coefficient. The film attains a maximum room-temperature power factor of ~ 2000 µW m^− 1 K^− 2, with an ultralow in-plane thermal conductivity below 0.8 W m^− 1 K^− 1, attributed to the synergistic effects of residual carbon, multi-dimensional defects, and nano-interfaces. The film achieves a maximum ZT value of 0.8 at room temperature. The excellent crystallinity and carbon acting as a nano-binder endow the outstanding flexibility. A six-leg flexible thermoelectric device delivers a power density of 3.20 mW cm^− 2 under a temperature gradient of 37 K, indicating great potential for wearable applications.

Hybrid fiber-reinforced polymer (HFRP) composites, composed of two or more distinct fiber types embedded within a common matrix, offer enhanced design versatility compared to conventional counterparts. By integrating different fibers at the strand, fabric, or ply level, HFRP composites mitigate the limitations of individual fiber types while leveraging their respective advantages. In many cases, hybridization induces synergistic effects or yields emergent properties not attainable by either constituent alone, though these effects can be complex and challenging to predict. Recent advancements in hybrid composite architecture have attracted significant attention due to their unique and tunable properties. HFRP composites are increasingly recognized as promising candidates for multifunctional material systems, capable of simultaneously delivering structural integrity with additional functionalities. Non-structural attributes integrated within structural components are especially pertinent in aerospace applications, such as urban aerial mobility, stealth aircraft, space habitats, energy storage, and smart skins. In these applications, properties such as radar avoidance, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, airfoil morphing, health monitoring, thermal insulation and environmental resilience are of paramount importance. This review provides a comprehensive overview of continuous, discontinuous, synthetic and natural fiber hybrid configurations, highlighting recent developments and key contributions in the field. It synthesizes the current state of research on multifunctional HFRP composites, emphasizing integrated functionalities such as electrical and thermal conductivity, sensing, actuation, flame retardancy, degradation resistance, EMI shielding, radiation resistance, damping, self-healing, and de-icing capabilities. The review also discusses current challenges and outlines future directions for advancing the design, manufacturing, and application of HFRP composites in high-performance aerospace systems.

Graphical Abstract

We report a novel Au-Ti₃C₂T_x-C (Au-TC) hybrid nanocomposite anode, synthesized through interfacial coordination and structural modulation. The gold quantum dots (Au QDs) are selectively anchored with Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene via electrostatic force. Driven by the effective work function (ϕ_eff) of Au QDs, a polarized hosting interface (PHI) is formed, promoting electron transfer from Au to Ti₃C₂Tₓ and inducing interfacial charge redistribution, lattice distortion, and stabilization of electron-deficient nanoscopic pouches. Our experimental results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations also confirm that the PHI significantly enhanced Li⁺ adsorption by inducing electron-deficient pouches. These pouches serve as efficient Li⁺ hosting sites during intercalation. The Au QDs also induced lattice distortions, which generated defects, including twin boundaries and junction points in Ti₃C₂Tₓ, that enhanced Li⁺ intercalation. The long cycling test demonstrates that Au-TC anode 465 mAh g⁻¹ outperforms 20.9% and 113.6% higher capacity in comparison to Ti₃C₂Tₓ-C and pure carbon (initial Coulombic efficiency of 73%) and excellent cycling stability at 0.1 A g⁻¹ current density. Furthermore, the Au-TC anode exhibits a low charge transfer resistance of 24 Ω and a superior lithium-ion diffusion coefficient of 4.72 × 10⁻¹¹ cm²/s. These results confirm Au-TC as a high-capacity and fast charge rate anode material for next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

The recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is crucial for the sustainable utilization of metal resources. However, challenges such as range anxiety hinder its widespread adoption, thereby driving the pursuit of next-generation energy storage systems with higher energy densities. In this study, we report the development of a trifunctional electrocatalyst, URCA-800, derived from recycled carbon black obtained from ternary LIB cathode materials. The activation process involved vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) irradiation in the presence of melamine as a nitrogen source, enabling effective N-doping and structural modification. Following calcination at 800 °C, the resulting URCA-800 catalyst exhibited enhanced electrocatalytic performance toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and iodine reduction reaction (IRR). Specifically, URCA-800 achieved an ORR half-wave potential of 0.80 V (vs. RHE) and an OER overpotential of 363 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^− 2 in 0.1 mol L^− 1 KOH, comparable to the performance of commercial Pt/C and IrO₂ catalysts. When applied as a cathode in zinc-air batteries, URCA-800 delivered a high-power density of 196 mW cm^− 2 and demonstrated excellent operational stability exceeding 400 h. Furthermore, in zinc-iodine batteries, it achieved a high specific capacity of 188.8 mAh g^− 1, an impressive iodine utilization efficiency of 89.6%, and outstanding cycling stability over 3,400 cycles. This work presents a scalable and environmentally friendly approach to convert battery waste into high-performance, multifunctional electrocatalysts, offering a promising pathway for advanced energy storage technologies.

Covalent peptide assembly through integrating robust covalent bonds with dynamic non-covalent interactions offers a promising strategy for creating stable long-lasting assemblies with novel functionalities. However, significant challenges remain in understanding the intricate relationship between covalent bond formation kinetics and assembly pathways, as well as in achieving precise structural control and morphological diversity. Herein, we demonstrate kinetically controlled covalent peptide assembly through light-modulated tyrosine photo-crosslinking to fabricate hierarchical hollow nanostructures. Modulating the light intensity induces spatial inhomogeneity within the assemblies by creating covalent-supramolecular gradients that enable unprecedented control over the hierarchy and morphology. Selective dissociation of the non-covalent-supramolecular compartments results in hollow nanoparticles with tunable structural parameters (e.g., size, shell thickness, and cavity dimensions), which is achieved by balancing the covalent and non-covalent domains. This method enables diverse architectures, including bumpy capsules, core-shell, and yolk-shell structures. Furthermore, the co-assembly and biomineralization properties of peptides enable the creation of biotin-functionalized co-assemblies for enzyme immobilization and metal-peptide hybrid nanozymes with photothermal and peroxidase-like catalytic activity. These findings provide crucial insights into hierarchical assembly mechanisms and advance the design of tailored hollow peptide nanostructures for a wide range of applications.