Living systems, including cells and viruses, exhibit intrinsic adaptivity that enables them to navigate complex biological environments through dynamic regulation of their structural and functional states. Inspired by these natural processes, bio-inspired adaptive nanoparticles have emerged as a promising strategy to overcome the limitations of static nanocarriers. These engineered systems sense or recognize changes in the local microenvironment and subsequently undergo spatiotemporal remodeling of their structures, biointerfaces, or biological functions, thereby meeting stage-specific requirements for cancer delivery and therapy. In this Review, we summarize recent advances in bio-inspired adaptive nanoparticles for cancer applications. We first outline representative natural adaptive particles and their underlying adaptive mechanisms. We then discuss how these principles guide the design of structurally and functionally adaptive nanoparticles to overcome tumor-delivery barriers and regulate the tumor microenvironment. Finally, we highlight approaches for the mechanistic and quantitative validation of adaptive behavior and discuss the major challenges and future directions for developing next-generation adaptive nanomedicines with translational potential.
Manufacturing ultrathin lithium (Li)-metal anodes remains challenging because metallic Li is adhesive and creep-prone, making it difficult to process into mechanically stable freestanding foils. In the present work, we report...
Microbial induction becomes a sustainable pathway for the growth of engineering and functional materials under ambient conditions. The properties of microbially induced materials can be adjusted through structural regulation, with the introduction of a biomimetic structure being the preferred option. Herein, a bacteria-laden membrane is developed for structural regulation of biomimetic inorganic-organic multilayers on planar surfaces and in cylindrical pores. The urease-producing bacteria, Sporosarcina pasteurii, are encapsulated within a superimposed graphene oxide membrane to facilitate ureic hydrolysis. Subsequently, the diffusion of the bicarbonate constituents in a permeable microcompartment promotes the growth of biomimetic multilayers locally. While extracellular polymeric substances of bacteria contribute to the formation of multilayers with high strength and toughness, the bacteria themselves are responsible for this physicochemical process from a distance. The introduction of bacteria-laden membranes in a perforated polypropylene sheet fulfills the in situ formation of a biomimetic multilayer in each channel and complete sealing. Subsequently, the perforated polypropylene sheet integrated with biomimetic multilayers successfully impedes liquid permeation under hydraulic pressure. The present study demonstrates that bacteria-laden membranes guarantee the introduction of biomimetic multilayers with mechanical merits in porous microenvironments for complete sealing, which represents a primary objective of microbially induced materials.
Tin-based perovskite solar cells (Sn-PSCs) employing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) gas hole transport layer represent one of the most promising architectures. However, their performance is severely limited by the insulating and hygroscopic...
Ion-selective membranes for reverse electrodialysis typically rely on fixed charged groups to establish Donnan exclusion, yet their effective charge density is rapidly weakened by Debye screening under high-salinity conditions. Here we report hydrazone-linked covalent organic framework (COF) nanochannels with biomimetic dipolar pore-wall microenvironments for dynamic surface-charge regulation and coupled salinity-thermal energy conversion. Among hydroxyl-, methoxy- and non-functionalized COF membranes, the ortho-hydroxyl-functionalized COF-DhaBt/PAN establishes a cooperative hydroxyl-hydrazone dipolar network that preferentially restricts anion migration through ion-dipole interactions and hydrogen bonding, thereby generating an adaptive negative microenvironment for accelerated cation transport. Phosphate preadsorption further converts anion retention into a charge-amplification mechanism, increasing the power density from 41.7 to 116.6 W m-2 under a 0.5 M‖0.01 M NaCl gradient. When a 35 K temperature gradient is introduced, the phosphate-regulated membrane delivers a power density of 208.4 W m-2, accompanied by an increase in the ionic Seebeck coefficient from 0.72 to 0.82 mV K-1. This work establishes dipolar pore-wall programming as an effective strategy for overcoming charge-screening limitations and integrating salinity-gradient energy harvesting with low-grade heat utilization.
Electromagnetic waves (EMWs) underpin modern functional devices yet raise safety concerns across biological, military, and civilian domains. While polymers offer softness and light weight, their intrinsically weak interaction with EMWs...
Vertically stacked electronics require thermal interface adhesives that conduct heat through confined bondlines while retaining adhesion after placement. Yet, highly filled ceramic adhesives are still commonly designed as bulk composites, with performance pursued by increasing filler loading or filler conductivity. This view overlooks how heat transport and adhesion are determined within the formed bondline, where filler connectivity, shear-dependent processability, wetting, and trapped air collectively govern performance. Here, we introduce a rheology-guided bondline densification strategy for multiscale thermally conductive adhesives composed of spherical Al2O3, plate-like hBN, fine AlN, and heat-activated polycaprolactone (PCL). The Al2O3/hBN architecture was optimized to balance shear-thinning flow, shape retention, and cured-state integrity, while fine AlN reinforced the conductive network. PCL was used as a thermoplastic densification mediator that softens during heat-primed mixing and suppresses microvoids within the ceramic-rich network. This strategy reduced microvoid formation, drove the skeletal density toward the composition-dependent theoretical density, and increased the surface free energy of the cured adhesive. The adhesive showed scale-bridging adaptability, conformally filling microscale roughness while remaining processable into large-area sheets and stamped macroscopic forms. The optimized adhesive achieved a through-plane thermal conductivity of 3.57 W m-1 K-1, representing a 2280% enhancement over neat epoxy and a 35% increase over the Al2O3/hBN baseline, along with a lap shear strength of 3.704 MPa, corresponding to a 113% improvement over the 20/40 baseline. Mobile-device heat-dissipation and load-bearing demonstrations further confirmed its practical applicability. These results establish bondline densification as a design principle for dense, processable, conformable, and adhesive thermal interfaces.
Modern technological demands require metals to integrate structural and functional performance, yet conventional metallurgy remains constrained by intrinsic trade-offs among strength, electrical conductivity, and wear resistance. Neutron-star evolution offers a natural blueprint for overcoming this limitation: load-bearing nuclear matter forms continuous frameworks, while a permeating electron sea enables efficient charge transport, intrinsically decoupling mechanical support from transport functionality. Inspired by this principle, we designed a neutron-star-inspired metallic metamaterial that assigns load bearing to a tungsten framework and electrical transport to a silver network. Realized through sequential 3D printing and metal infiltration, the resulting Ag-W architecture delivers high strength (≈213 MPa), high electrical conductivity (>50% IACS), and ultra-low friction-reduced to ∼20% of conventional bulk metals, demonstrating an unusually favorable convergence of mechanical, electrical, and tribological performance that is difficult to achieve through composition-based alloying alone. Crucially, the performance gain goes beyond a simple composite effect, as evidenced by the ∼75% reduction in friction relative to non-neutron-star-like architected comparators. These results establish topology-guided metallic architectures as a promising complementary route for mitigating multi-property trade-offs.
Shape-reconfigurable optical materials are promising for camouflage, sensing, and anti-counterfeiting, yet most existing systems produce only a single optical output and suffer from optical instability during deformation. Herein, a bioinspired tri-state optical gel (TOG) is fabricated by photopolymerization, incorporating SiO2 photonic nanoparticles, SrAl2O4:Eu2+,Dy3+ phosphors and phase-change polymers. Phase-change components enable the gel to fix its geometry at low temperatures and to undergo programmable 2D-to-3D reshaping upon heating. Notably, the thermally tunable gel displays three distinct optical states under different illumination conditions: structural color under natural light, UV-triggered fluorescence and persistent phosphorescence. This work integrates programmable shape morphing and triple optical signals in a single gel, offering a facile route toward advanced dynamic optical composites.
The reversible intercalation of Na+ is an intrinsic limitation for simultaneous fast ion transport, structural resilience, and high electrochemical reversibility of sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). This highlights the unresolved barrier to enabling the practical deployment of high-performance SIBs with higher energy density. During the subsequent charging process, the reversible conversion of anodes is limited. This remains largely responsible for a decline in the performance of SIBs. Therefore, enhanced Na+ storage capacity of conventional conversion-type anodes, such as MoS2, is imperative while maintaining structural stability simultaneously. Higher initial reversible capacity and greater capacity retention over longer cycles require the rational design of anodes for high-energy density SIBs. This article highlights unsolved barriers to reversibility and, more critically, we identify laboratory-scale results that fail to translate into practical improvements. We rather focus on deep analysis of the inherent trade-offs at the kinetic and thermodynamic levels. This includes mitigation of interlayer confinement and enabling of all-slope-dominated Na+ storage with rapid reversibility by tuning sites and pores. Therefore, while describing reversible Na+ batteries, we address (1) critical flaws in current approaches and (2) factors responsible for failure to transform into translational improvements and provide (1) deep insight into the community needs, (2) a strong central argument defended with evidence, and (3) a unique perspective on reversibility. This article focuses on the electrochemical reversibility of the de/sodiation by conversion and alloying dual mechanisms for the anode-driven reversibility with irreversible intermediate residues. However, drawbacks of conversion electrodes with conventional intercalation chemistry include kinetic limitations and large volume expansion. We have identified factors that are responsible for the limited reversibility of SIBs, along with strong future perspectives.
This study proposes a dual-mode capacitor based processing-in-memory (PIM) architecture to address the memory bottleneck and power consumption issues arising from the rapid expansion of large language models (LLMs). In...
In contrast to polymer-to-polymer recycling of waste polyethylene terephthalate (wPET), chemical upcycling into added-value molecules beyond terephthalic acid is a promising strategy.Among possible transformations, electrophilic substitution offers a direct path,...
Jammed microgels form porous hydrogel architectures in which packing-derived interstitial voids provide transport-accessible pathways while retaining the processability of soft granular matter.
The development of high-performance lanthanide-based fluorescence-intensity-ratio (FIR) thermometers is limited by the lack of a continuously tunable, quantitatively guided crystal-field design principle. Most systems still rely on empirical host–dopant screening,...
Organic thermoelectric (TE) materials are attractive for sustainable energy harvesting owing to their mechanical flexibility, low cost, and intrinsically low thermal conductivity. Among them, PEDOT:PSS is one of the most...
Rocksalt structured group IV transition metal carbides and nitrides (δ-MeX) are well-known materials and are used for various applications. However, the corresponding group IV transition metal monoxides (δ-MeO) are either rarely researched, or, in the case of hafnium, their existence is unknown. In this investigation, electrical loading of yttria-stabilised hafnia was conducted in an inert atmosphere (argon) to achieve electrochemical reduction. Resistive heating of the sample was maintained as the furnace cooled down such that on removing the current, the sample was rapidly quenched, avoiding reoxidation or diffusion-limited phase transformations. XRD, SEM, EDS, and Raman spectroscopy showed that defective rocksalt structure δ-(Y)HfO with a lattice constant of 0.4527 nm was formed and retained at room temperature for the first time. Yttria was rejected from the hafnia-based phase during reduction, leaving a relatively low concentration of yttrium in solid solution. The new compound has a metallic-gold-brown colour and conducts electricity at room temperature (∼0.67 Ω cm). Furthermore, the compound fills the gap in the non-radioactive group IV transition metal carbide, nitride, monoxide rocksalt structure series.
Solar-powered interfacial evaporation represents a sustainable, low-carbon paradigm for addressing global freshwater scarcity. While photothermal porous materials are widely used, their isotropic, statistically averaged architectures inherent to conventional fabrication generally constrain hierarchical multiscale integration, spatially varying properties, and user-defined scalability. Herein, architected 3D photothermal matrices are developed via coaxial multi-material printing. By engineering distinct core-shell ink formulations, this coaxial strategy enables precise encapsulation of a mechanically robust core within a hierarchically porous shell, generating Janus-like filaments with tunable compositional and structural heterogeneity. Synergistic engineering of ink chemistry, lattice geometry, multiscale hierarchical porosity, vertical aspect ratios and zwitterion-mediated salt resistance yields spatially resolved functionalities within the 3D core-shell matrices across multiple length scales. In seawater, a 6 cm-tall matrix achieves an outstanding evaporation rate of 3.04 kg m-2 h-1 (1 sun without airflow) and 11.79 kg m-2 h-1 (1 sun and 1 m s-1 airflow) under laboratory conditions, and a peak rate of 16.40 kg m-2 h-1 under real sky conditions-ranking among the top-performing solar evaporation systems. Gratifyingly, a 69% reduction in raw material consumption, a unit cost as low as $1.3, and a payback period of 155 days underscore the economic viability of these matrices. Our work demonstrates the flexible and precise fabrication of patterned photothermal materials integrating tailored surface geometries, spatial anisotropy, topological design, and hierarchical void architectures, enabling high-performance, customizable, and economically viable solar desalination.
The formation of Li dendrites in lithium metal batteries (LMBs) poses major safety risks and degrades performance through continuous active lithium consumption. Understanding their growth and evolution is therefore critical for improving battery efficiency and long-term stability. Here, we investigate Li dendrite dynamics using operando electrochemical liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy (ec-LC-TEM), enabling direct nanoscale observation during electrochemical cycling. Our results demonstrate that dendrite growth is not governed solely by diffusion-controlled root- or tip-growth mechanisms but evolves toward a stress-assisted local Li deposition regime driven by mechanical interactions between neighboring Li dendrite structures. Li dendrites in the form of whiskers formed via root growth undergo stress-induced deviations, leading to contact, coalescence, and loop formation. These loop-like structures possess two active ends that serve as opposing Li deposition sites, generating growth in opposite directions and producing localized compressive stress. This stress promotes SEI cracking, the formation of new electrochemically active sites, and defect generation, enabling internal Li transport and mass redistribution. Together, these coupled electrochemical-mechanical processes accelerate dendrite growth, drive folding, and govern the transition toward multi-site structural evolution. These findings provide a revised mechanistic framework for Li dendrite growth and offer new opportunities for suppressing dendrites in LMBs.
Developing thermally and mechanically robust insulation capable of maintaining performance under repeated vacuum cycling remains a critical challenge for aircraft, aerospace and cryogenic systems, where both thermal efficiency and structural integrity are required. This study focuses on overcoming the trade-off between low thermal conductivity and mechanical stability in polymer-based insulating materials that are prone to structural degradation under pressure fluctuations. Herein, we present a Kelvin lattice-reinforced foam that preserves intrinsic insulation properties of closed-cell polyurethane (PU). The lattice framework suppresses structural collapse during vacuum cycling, while the PU foam region preserves low thermal conductivity. As a result, the hybrid structure exhibits a peak stress enhancement of up to 25 times compared to pristine PU foam. Furthermore, after 50 vacuum cycles, the hybrid structure retains thermal conductivity to within 10%, and peak-to-plateau ratio by less than 20% from their initial values, demonstrating excellent retention of both thermal and mechanical properties. These results establish the PU-Kelvin hybrid as a viable insulation architecture for environments subject to repeated pressure fluctuations, including aircraft cabins, aerospace structures, and cryogenic applications.
Correction for 'Enhanced performance in transparent conducting materials at the interface of a wide band gap semiconductor and a correlated metal' by Jessica L. Stoner et al., Mater. Horiz., 2025, 12, 5820-5828, https://doi.org/10.1039/d5mh00283d.
