The good mechanical performances and caries inhibition of resin composites (RCs) are of great importance in dental restoration. Generally, the addition of SiO2 can improve the mechanical properties of RCs, while the introduction of fluoride (F) ions is capable of preventing caries. In this work, we first report the use of CaF2/SiO2 core–shell nanoparticles (CaF2/SiO2 NPs) as novel fillers for developing RCs with excellent mechanical properties and sustained F release. The results show that the superior performances of RCs can be obtained by filling 50 wt.% CaF2/50%SiO2 NPs, where the flexural strength, flexural modulus, compressive strength, and hardness were, respectively, increased by 111.5%, 41.4%, 61.7% and 66.8%, compared with the RCs filled with CaF2 nanoparticles. In addition, the initial F-release rate of RCs containing 50 wt.% CaF2/50%SiO2 NPs was 2.5 ± 0.4 μg/(h cm2), while the sustained release rate and the F release ratio were 0.96 ± 0.15 μg/h·cm2 and 5.22‰ after 1632 h (68 days), respectively. It was much more stable and sustained compared with the counterpart filled with CaF2 NPs. Therefore, it could be envisioned that CaF2/SiO2 NPs have a great potential as inorganic fillers in dental RCs.

The development of complex functional materials poses a multi-objective optimization problem in a large multi-dimensional parameter space. Solving it requires reproducible, user-independent laboratory work and intelligent preselection of experiments. However, experimental materials science is a field where manual routines are still predominant, although other domains like pharmacy or chemistry have long used robotics and automation. As the number of publications on Materials Acceleration Platforms (MAPs) increases steadily, we review selected systems and fit them into the stages of a general material development process to examine the evolution of MAPs. Subsequently, we present our approach to laboratory automation in materials science. We introduce AMANDA (Autonomous Materials and Device Application Platform - www.amanda-platform.com), a generic platform for distributed materials research comprising a self-developed software backbone and several MAPs. One of them, LineOne (L1), is specifically designed to produce and characterize solution-processed thin-film devices like organic solar cells (OSC). It is designed to perform precise closed-loop screenings of up to 272 device variations per day yet allows further upscaling. Each individual solar cell is fully characterized, and all process steps are comprehensively documented. We want to demonstrate the capabilities of AMANDA L1 with OSCs based on PM6:Y6 with 13.7% efficiency when processed in air. Further, we discuss challenges and opportunities of highly automated research platforms and elaborate on the future integration of additional techniques, methods and algorithms in order to advance to fully autonomous self-optimizing systems—a paradigm shift in functional materials development leading to the laboratory of the future.

Costly and time-consuming recovery of photocatalysts from treated water is one of the main challenges for the photocatalysis process. In this regard, an Ag-functionalized Bi2W(Mo)O6 photocatalyst was successfully synthesized via a cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-assisted hydrothermal method, immobilized on a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane and subsequently used for photocatalytic water treatment. The flower-like Ag-decorated Bi2W(Mo)O6 photocatalyst revealed a significant enhancement (62%) in the photocatalytic degradation efficiency compared to the unmodified pure Bi2WO6 (19%) due to the synergic contribution of the flower-like morphology with higher surface area, decrease in band gap by Mo doping and Ag-induced surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effects. In order to immobilize the photocatalyst, the Ag-decorated Bi2W(Mo)O6 nanoparticles were distributed uniformly on the surface of the PVDF membrane. The results illustrate that the as-prepared Ag-loaded Bi2W(Mo)O6/PVDF composite membrane effectively degrades the organic molecules (51%) without any additional process for the photocatalyst separation, confirming its potential as a beneficial environmental-friendly material for water treatment applications.

Methylene blue (MB) has been a severe threat to the ecological environment and organismal health, and synthesizing effective adsorbents for MB adsorption becomes an urgent demand for environmental protection. Magnesium silicate (MgSi) has proven to be an efficient adsorbent for MB removal. A hollow bubble-wrap-like reduced graphene oxide/magnesium silicate ([email protected]) composite with high efficiency for MB removal was synthesized by template and hydrothermal method. Microsphere polystyrene was used as the template for fabricating bubble-wrap-like graphene oxide, while magnesium silicate is in situ growth on the surface of reduced graphene oxide. After removing the PS template, the hollow bubble-wrap-like [email protected] adsorbent was made, which was assigned to a large surface area (570 cm2/g). Such a high surface area provides abundant adsorption sites for MB, which resulted in the maximum adsorption capacity of 595.2 mg/g. Meanwhile, the adsorption of MB on the adsorbent follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isothermal model. The desorption results reflected that [email protected] remains 86% adsorption capacities for 5 recycles, which confirms [email protected] is recyclable.

The characteristics of structural changes, Fe magnetic moment and electronic structure of TM (TM = Co, Ni, Rh, Pd, Ir and Pt)-doped AFe2As2 (A = Ba, Sr) were studied by first-principles calculations. After the introduction of the dopants, almost all the Fe–Fe distances become longer. The nesting between the electron pockets and the hole pockets is formed. The Fermi level has a tendency to move from the hole band to the electron band. With the decrease in Fe magnetic moment, the width of Fe 3d and As 4p hybridized bands is increased, which is considered to be the decrease in electronic localized character and the increase in itinerary. The observed common features in our calculations provide information on the generation of superconductivity in iron-based superconductors AFe2As2 (A = Ba, Sr).

Researches on carbon materials have shown significant progress recently, which reveal that carbon can form many structures. Along with low-dimensional structures, three-dimensional carbon allotropes have been studied actively. Up to now, at least 822 three-dimensional carbon allotropes have been proposed and some have been synthesized. Despite their immense diversity of structures, the piezoelectric properties of these carbon allotropes have barely been studied. In the present work, we used first-principles calculations to study their piezoelectric response and elastic properties. We find that most of their calculated piezoelectric stress components are between 0.01 and 0.15 C/m2, and some of them exhibit strong piezoelectric coupling. The largest component is 1.03 C/m2, sixfold as that of Quartz (0.171 C/m2). Accordingly, the largest piezoelectric strain component reaches 3.9 pC/N. These results show that three-dimensional carbon allotropes can be used in active sensors, actuators, and other useful devices.

Aluminum matrix composites (AMCs) have been extensively studied primarily due to higher strength-to-weight ratio, lower cost, and higher wear resistance properties. However, increasing demand for economical and energy-efficient materials in the automotive, aerospace and other applications is tailoring research area in the agro-based composite materials. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review work is to study the influence of agro-based reinforcements on the tribological and mechanical properties of AMC’s processed by various techniques. It was observed that the processing conditions can be designed to obtain uniform structures and better properties AMCs. The agro-waste reinforcement materials, such as rice husk ash, bamboo stem ash, coconut and shell ash can result in a reduction in the density of AMC’s without compromising mechanical properties. Moreover, the efficient utilization of the agro-waste leads to a decrease in manufacturing cost and prevents environmental pollution, hence, can be considered as a sustainable material. The state-of-the-art revealed that the agro-based reinforcements do not form brittle composites, as in the case of ceramic reinforced composites. Hence, the study concludes that the agro-based AMCs have great potential to act as a replacement for costly and environmentally hazardous ceramic reinforced-AMCs which can especially be used in various automotive applications that demand higher strength-to-weight ratio, lower cost, and higher wear resistance.

Traditional “top-down” methods for graphene preparation, like micromechanical cleavage and ultrasound methods, usually cannot preserve both efficiency and quality simultaneously. Herein, we provide an environmental-friendly graphene exfoliating method with high efficiency and high quality that combines the microfluidization process (liquid phase) and supercritical carbon dioxide process (gas phase), namely the dual-phase exfoliating (DPE) method. The combination of effective tangential force (shearing force) and normal force (push and pull), which are originally from microfluidization and supercritical carbon dioxide process, respectively, maximizes the exfoliating efficiency. The DPE method offers a high yield of up to 70.25% for graphene preparation (941.04 g per day theoretically), while the graphene sheets could remain single or a few layers (> 80%) and around micron size. By molecular dynamic simulations, it is theoretically proved that carbon dioxide can intercalate between graphite layers and expand the interlayer spacing under supercritical conditions. This DPE method, by combining the advantages of different phase processes, provides an ideal process design perspective for large-scale preparation of other 2D materials.

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for water splitting has a sluggish kinetics, thus significantly hindering the reaction efficiency. So far, it is still challenging to develop a cost-efficient and highly active catalyst for OER processes. To address such issues, we design and synthesize NiP2/FeP heterostructural nanoflowers interwoven by carbon nanotubes (NiP2/[email protected]) by a hydrothermal reaction followed by phosphating. The NiP2/[email protected] catalyst delivers excellent OER performance: it displays an ultralow Tafel slope of 44.0 mV dec−1 and a relatively low overpotential of 261 mV at 10 mA cm−2, better than RuO2 commercial catalyst; it also shows excellent stability without observable decay after 20-h cycling. The outstanding OER property is mainly attributed to its special 3D stereochemical structure of CNT-interwoven NiP2/FeP heterostructural nanoflowers, which is highly conductive and guarantees considerable active sites. Such nanostructure greatly facilitates the charge transfer, which significantly improves its electrocatalytic activity. This work offers a simple method to synthesize non-precious transition metal-based phosphide electrocatalysts with a unique hierarchical nanostructure for water splitting.