Functional materials are physical systems engineered so that their intrinsic properties—such as electrical conductivity, magnetization, optical response, ionic mobility, or mechanical deformation—can be deliberately modulated by external stimuli (e.g., electric or magnetic fields, light, temperature, stress, or chemical environment) to perform specific tasks. They encompass classes such as ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, magnetoresistive and thermoelectric materials, shape-memory alloys, solid electrolytes, and stimuli-responsive polymers. In research and device design, functional materials serve as active components enabling sensing, actuation, energy conversion, information storage, and signal processing, with performance governed by their structure–property relationships across atomic, mesoscale, and macroscopic length scales.
Griffith University researchers have developed innovative, eco-friendly quantum materials that can drive the transformation of methanol into ethylene glycol.
Nanomaterials
Jun 17, 2024
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With the rapid development of electronic information technology, electromagnetic wave absorption materials play a crucial role in military applications such as electromagnetic protection and stealth devices, as well as in ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 12, 2024
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Researchers at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with research groups from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China ...
Nanophysics
Jun 6, 2024
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Hydrogen storage, heat conduction, gas storage, CO2 and water sequestration—metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have extraordinary properties due to their unique structure in the form of microporous crystals, which have a very ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 6, 2024
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Electron transfer (ET) is a process in which an electron is transferred from one atom or molecule to another. ET is fundamental to electrochemical reactions with applications in many fields. Nanoscale ET, which involves the ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 4, 2024
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Skoltech scientists have proposed a fast, scalable, wasteless chemical treatment technique for endowing carbon nanotube films with all the right properties to improve the performance of solar panels, touchscreens, and more.
Nanomaterials
May 31, 2024
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In our communication-centered society, Moore's law sets a high expectation for the increasing rate of the packing density of Si-based transistors. This drives the search for thickness-scalable high dielectric constant (high ...
Nanophysics
May 30, 2024
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Researchers have designed a novel oxide material, Ca3Co3O8, through atomic precision manipulation of correlated oxides. It demonstrated a remarkable combination of properties—ferromagnetism, polar distortion and metallicity, ...
Condensed Matter
May 29, 2024
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Lighting a gas grill, getting an ultrasound, using an ultrasonic toothbrush—these actions involve the use of materials that can translate an electric voltage into a change in shape and vice versa.
Condensed Matter
May 23, 2024
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An international research team including Los Alamos National Laboratory and Tel Aviv University has developed a unique, mechanical metamaterial that, like a computer following instructions, can remember the order of actions ...
Condensed Matter
May 22, 2024
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