Routes for high-performance thermoelectric materials

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.03.039

2018-04-07

Thermoelectric materials can be used in direct conversion of heat to electricity and vice versa. The past decade has witnessed the rapid growth of thermoelectric research, targeting high thermoelectric performance either via reduction in the lattice thermal c...

Piezoelectric properties in two-dimensional materials: Simulations and experiments

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.01.031

2018-04-04

The piezoelectric effect, discovered in 1880 by Jacques and Pierre Curie, effectively allows to transduce signals from the mechanical domain to the electrical domain and vice versa. For this reason, piezoelectric devices are already ubiquitous, including, for...

Manipulation of matter by electric and magnetic fields: Toward novel synthesis and processing routes of inorganic materials

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.03.026

2018-04-03

The use of external electric and magnetic fields for the synthesis and processing of inorganic materials such as metals and ceramics has seen renewed interest in recent years. Electromagnetic energy can be utilized in different ways to improve or accelerate p...

Multi-electron reaction materials for sodium-based batteries

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.03.004

2018-04-02

Sodium-based rechargeable batteries are very promising energy storage and conversion systems owing to their wide availability and the low cost of Na resources, which is beneficial to large-scale electric energy storage applications in future. In the context o...

Naphthalenediimide (NDI) polymers for all-polymer photovoltaics

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.02.003

2018-03-30

Naphthalenediimide (NDI) polymers are an important class of electron-accepting (acceptor or n-type) semiconductors for organic photovoltaic (OPV) or organic solar cell (OSC) applications. Blending them with compatible electron-donating (donor or p-type) polym...

Computational design and property predictions for two-dimensional nanostructures

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.03.003

2018-03-27

Recent success in isolating and growing various two-dimensional (2D) materials with intriguing properties has pushed forward the search for new 2D nanostructures with novel properties. Current experimental trial-and-error methods face the fundamental challeng...

Three-dimensional printing of multilayered tissue engineering scaffolds

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.02.006

2018-03-20

The field of tissue engineering has produced new therapies for the repair of damaged tissues and organs, utilizing biomimetic scaffolds that mirror the mechanical and biological properties of host tissue. The emergence of three-dimensional printing (3DP) tech...

Energy transduction ferroic materials

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.01.032

2018-02-23

Ferroic materials and multiferroics, characterized by their ferroic orders, provide an efficient route for the coupling control of magnetic, mechanical, and electrical subsystems in energy transduction, which aims at converting one form of energy into another...

Ultrathin two-dimensional materials for photo- and electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.01.034

2018-02-21

Sustainable hydrogen production via photocatalytic, electrocatalytic, and synergetic photoelectrocatalytic processes has been regarded as an effective strategy to address both energy and environmental crises. Due to their unique structures and properties, eme...

Materials for supercapacitors: When Li-ion battery power is not enough

10.1016/j.mattod.2018.01.035

2018-02-19

Supercapacitors, also known as electrochemical capacitors, have witnessed a fast evolution in the recent years, but challenges remain. This review covers the fundamentals and state-of-the-art developments of supercapacitors. Conventional and novel electrode m...