Electrostatic interactions govern charge generation, separation, transport, accumulation, and interfacial transfer in virtually all functional materials, yet they have traditionally been interpreted through discipline-specific concepts such as band bending, polarization, built-in electric fields, space-charge regions, electrical double layers, and defect electrostatics. Although these phenomena originate from the same fundamental physics, their fragmented treatment has limited the development of universal design principles. This review establishes electrostatic energy landscape engineering as a unified framework that describes the spatial and temporal organization of electrostatic potential, electric field, and electrostatic energy across multiple length and time scales. We argue how interfaces, defects, polarization, dielectric heterogeneity, and external stimuli cooperatively construct electrostatic landscapes that regulate charge dynamics through a unified structure-electrostatics-charge dynamics-function relationship. Building on this foundation, quantitative electrostatic descriptors and descriptor-driven design principles are introduced to transform electrostatic landscapes from interpretative concepts into predictive engineering variables. The universality of this framework is demonstrated across nanoelectronics, heterogeneous catalysis, photoelectrochemical energy conversion, electrochemical energy storage, and multifunctional materials, revealing common electrostatic design principles despite fundamentally different chemistries and operating mechanisms. Finally, emerging opportunities for predictive electrostatic landscape engineering are discussed through the integration of operando characterization, multiscale modelling, and data-driven materials discovery. By positioning electrostatic energy landscapes as a universal descriptor linking structure with functionality, this review provides a coherent physical foundation and a predictive design paradigm for the next-generation of functional materials.
Catalytic kinetics is conventionally described by adsorption free energies, scaling relations and volcano descriptors, with electron spin largely averaged out of reaction models. This framework becomes insufficient for open-shell catalytic reactions involving triplet oxygen, radical intermediates, high-valent metal–oxo species and multielectron transfer, where spin conservation, exchange coupling and multiplicity matching can determine reaction accessibility. Single-crystal spin catalytic kinetics establishes spin as an independent kinetic variable linking crystallographic order, magnetic structure, interfacial electronic states and reaction-pathway selection. Atomically ordered lattices and well-defined facets suppress spin scattering, preserve directional spin transport and enable anisotropic exchange coupling at catalytic interfaces. Spin polarization and exchange splitting can regulate transition-state coupling, reduce spin-flipping penalties and redistribute reaction probability between spin-allowed and spin-forbidden pathways, thereby reshaping apparent activation barriers beyond adsorption energetics. Crystallographic orientation, magnetic order, spin–orbit coupling and interfacial relaxation jointly determine spin diffusion length, spin lifetime and spin-selective charge transfer, providing a direct route to connect microscopic spin coherence with measurable catalytic rates. Operando magneto-electrochemistry, spin-resolved spectroscopy, magnetic transport and multiscale modeling are required to quantify spin-dependent rate constants and incorporate spin into kinetic equations. By introducing spin as a designable coordinate orthogonal to adsorption energy, single-crystal spin catalysis offers a route to overcome scaling-relation constraints and build catalytic systems governed by coherent spin-controlled reaction pathways.
The growing demand of electronic devices and their expeditious development in the past decade have generated a scientific challenge in terms of tackling e-waste. The growing e-waste shifts the focus of the scientific community towards the development of biodegradable devices which can disintegrate and eventually mineralise in the natural environment. There are numerous research papers published in the field of biodegradable devices, but so far there is no clear and comprehensive information on biodegradable electronic materials and devices. Moreover, the titles of many research publications are misleading and create confusion for non-experts or early-stage researchers by using the term “biodegradable” even when a device is composed of one or more non-biodegradable components. This review paper aims at providing a well-structured and accurate view on biodegradable electronic materials and devices. A brief discussion on biodegradable insulating polymers and their degradation mechanism is discussed alongside biodegradable metals and conducting polymers. Various biodegradable devices including mechanical energy harvesters (triboelectric and piezoelectric nanogenerators), energy storage (supercapacitors and batteries), sensors (colorimetric, electrochemical and physical), actuators and printed circuit boards are discussed in detail. The review also discusses artificial intelligence (AI) as a transformative tool to accelerate research in the field of biodegradable electronic materials and devices. Finally, the key challenges and future perspectives are discussed with some reflections on the use of term “biodegradable” and “biodegradable-based” devices.
Adhesion is a fundamental strategy employed by many animals to attach to surrounding surfaces and support their body weight. To achieve robust attachment, animal extremities (e.g., feet) usually exhibit spatially graded mechanical properties, particularly gradients in elastic modulus. Such gradients provide an effective means to simultaneously enhance adhesion strength, surface adaptability, and long-term durability — capabilities that are difficult to realize with homogeneous structures. In this review article, we focus on graded adhesives and elucidate the underlying mechanisms by which modulus gradients regulate interfacial mechanics to improve adhesion strength, surface adaptability, and adhesion durability. We provide an overview of current experimental evidence, contact mechanics modeling, and numerical simulations that reveal the role of mechanical gradients in adhesion enhancement. We further discuss strategies for fabricating graded structures, including multilayer assembly, inclusion engineering, porosity control, modulation of crosslink-density, and ion-distribution tailoring. Moreover, we highlight emerging applications of graded adhesives in nondestructive transfer printing, robotic gripping, human–machine interfaces, and biomedical devices. Overall, this review article provides design principles and practical guidelines that bridge the fundamental mechanisms of gradient-enhanced adhesion with their technological implementation. We anticipate that future advances in graded adhesives will have broad impact across manufacturing, robotics, and biomedicine.
