Seamless and minimally invasive integration of 3D electronic circuitry within host materials could enable the development of materials systems that are self-monitoring and allow for communication with external environments. Here, we report a general strategy for preparing ordered 3D interconnected and addressable macroporous nanoelectronic networks from ordered 2D nanowire nanoelectronic precur...

"Surrounding matters" is a phrase that has become more significant in recent times when discussing polymeric materials. Although regular polymers do respond to external stimuli like softening of material at higher temperatures, that response is gradual and linear in nature. Smart polymers (SPs) or stimuli-responsive polymers (SRPs) behave differently to those external stimuli, as their behavior...

We discuss materials science examples of quantum phenomena embedded in a macroscopic, classical world. We present simple derivations showing the effects of the external world on gammaray emission (the Mössbauer effect), X-ray absorbtion (the overlap catastrophe), and on tunneling (macroscopic quantum tunneling and the Kondo effect). We draw some experimental lessons about the role of the extern...

Visually identifying and estimating properties of materials is critical for many tasks, from reaching for a steaming kettle to walking on a wet marble staircase. From a computational point of view, liquids represent a particularly interesting class of materials because of their highly mutable shapes and physical complexity. The ways liquids move and change shape is affected both by external for...

background: considering that complications and outcome of each method of pediatric inguinal hernia repair are one of the determinants for pediatric surgeons for selection of the appropriate surgical technique, we compared the early and late complications of two inguinal repair techniques, with and without opening the external oblique muscle fascia. materials and methods: in this double-blind cl...

Removal of phosphorous in constructed wetlands is limited by the capacity of the media to adsorb, bind or precipitate the incoming P. To enhance P removal and the life span of constructed wetlands the approach might be to use natural sands rich in calcium or iron, to use an alternative 'artificial' medium with high P-binding capacity, or to establish external P-binding filters after the wetland...

Ordered π-columnar structures found in covalent organic frameworks (COFs) render them attractive as smart materials. However, external-stimuli-responsive COFs have not been explored. Here we report the design and synthesis of a photoresponsive COF with anthracene units as the photoresponsive π-building blocks. The COF is switchable upon photoirradiation to yield a concavo-convex polygon skeleto...

Ferrogels and magnetic elastomers feature mechanical properties that can be reversibly tuned from outside through magnetic fields. Here we concentrate on the question of how their dynamic response can be adjusted. The influence of three factors on the dynamic behavior is demonstrated using appropriate minimal models: first, the orientational memory imprinted into one class of the materials duri...

Nanoporous frameworks are polymeric materials built from rigid molecules, which give rise to their nanoporous structures with applications in gas sorption and storage, catalysis and others. Conceptually new applications could emerge, should these beneficial properties be manipulated by external stimuli in a reversible manner. One approach to render nanoporous frameworks responsive to external s...

Optically active materials could be generated by simple solidification of achiral materials without an external chiral source. When achiral cis-3,4-diphenylsuccinimides were solidified in the presence of a catalytic amount of DBU by evaporating the solvent with stirring, optically active trans-3,4-diphenylsuccinimides were obtained quantitatively with high enantiomeric excesses.