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.
As smart electronic devices become smaller and more powerful, they can generate a lot of heat, leading to slower processing times and sudden shutdowns. Now, as reported in ACS Applied Nano Materials, researchers have used ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 6, 2023
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170
Nanoscientists have developed a wearable textile that can convert body movement into useable electricity and even store that energy. The fabric potentially has a wide range of applications from medical monitoring to assisting ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 5, 2023
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245
Carnegie Mellon University Professor Rahul Panat, and his team, were developing a new type of 3D printed Brain-Computer Interface (or BCI) device where custom micropillars capture the communication signals from neurons when ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 5, 2023
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128
Carbon-based stimuli-responsive nanomaterials are gaining much attention due to their versatility, including disease diagnosis and treatment. They work under endogenous (pH, temperature, enzyme, and redox) or exogenous (temperature, ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 5, 2023
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125
Some foods and medicines, such as many COVID-19 vaccines, must be kept cold. As a step toward a robust, stable technique that could indicate when these products exceed safe limits, researchers in ACS Nano report a class of ...
Nanomaterials
May 31, 2023
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73
When designing optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells, photocatalysts, and photodetectors, scientists usually prioritize materials that are stable and possess tunable properties. This allows them precise control over ...
Nanomaterials
May 24, 2023
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114
A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team has developed a first-of-its-kind, breakthrough method that makes it easier to create high-quality metal oxide thin films out of "stubborn" metals that have historically been ...
Nanophysics
May 22, 2023
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190
In nature, the skin of cephalopods (animals with tentacles attached to the head) exhibits unparalleled camouflage ability. Their skin contains pigment groups that can sense changes in environmental light conditions, and they ...
Nanophysics
May 18, 2023
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134
Synthetic hydrogels show great promise in tissue repair, drug delivery, medical implants and many other applications. Hydrogels functionalized with electrically conductive components can be used in bioelectronic devices for ...
Bio & Medicine
May 3, 2023
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161
Molecular aggregates are clusters of small molecules held together by relatively weak forces believed to be originating from electronic interactions between the molecules. Owing to their exceptional photophysical properties, ...
Nanophysics
Apr 26, 2023
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92
