Category: Chemistry

A Jilin University team has reported a novel strategy using pressure engineering to identify the organic–inorganic interaction sites in non-hydrogen-bonded hybrid metal perovskites. This approach offers valuable guidance for designing materials with targeted optical properties and provides new insights into the photophysical mechanisms in hybrid perovskites.

“Previous research has primarily focused on the impact of hydrogen bonding interactions in hybrid perovskites on the material’s photophysical properties,” said Guanjun Xiao, a professor of the State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials at Jilin University, who led the research. “The lack of exploration into interaction mechanisms in non-hydrogen-bonded hybrid perovskites has impeded materials precise design with targeted properties.”

As high-pressure engineering provides a potent means to address the debates under environmental conditions, Xiao and his team sought to investigate the specific sites in non-hydrogen-bonded hybrid perovskite, (DBU)PbBr₃, by invoking high pressure. Their research revealed that the spatial arrangement of the nearest Br-N atomic pairs is the major factor on the organic–inorganic interactions.

The study was published in the journal Research.

In this study, the team successfully synthesized microrod (DBU)PbBr₃ using the hot injection method and subsequently conducted a systematic investigation of their high-pressure optical and structural properties. The researchers initially discovered that the material’s emission exhibited an enhancement and blue shift under pressure, with a calculated photoluminescence quantum yield of 86.6% under 5.0 GPa. Furthermore, photoluminescence lifetime measurements confirmed that non-radiative recombination was suppressed under pressure.

Researchers also observed an abnormally enhanced Raman mode in the pressure range where emission enhancement occurs. “This suggests a potential connection between the two phenomena,” Xiao said. They further analyzed the origin of the Raman mode and identified it as corresponding to organic–inorganic interactions, possibly related to N-Br interaction.

The team further analyzed the structural evolution under pressure and conducted first principles calculations, confirming the primary factors influencing interaction strength was the spatial arrangement of N and Br atoms, including their distance and dihedral angle. The isostructural phase transition occurring at 5.5 GPa marked a turning point in the evolutionary trend, Xiao noted. The change in the primary compression direction initially increased the organic–inorganic interaction strength, which then decreased, aligning with the evolution of optical properties.

“These findings fill the gap in the mechanism of organic–inorganic interaction in non-hydrogen-bonded hybrid halides, providing worthwhile guidelines for materials design with targeted optical performance,” Xiao said.

More information: Ming Cong et al, Identifying Organic–Inorganic Interaction Sites Toward Emission Enhancement in Non-Hydrogen-Bonded Hybrid Perovskite via Pressure Engineering, Research (2024). DOI: 10.34133/research.0476

Journal information: Research 

Recently, a research group led by Prof. Wang Zhenyang and Zhang Shudong from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed a new type of ceramic fiber aerogel, SiC@SiO₂, featuring highly anisotropic thermal conductivity and extreme thermal stability through directional bio-inspired design.

The work was published in Advanced Science.

In nature, many biological structures—such as wood’s vascular systems or the layered architecture of silkworm cocoons—demonstrate directional heat management thanks to their well-organized internal structures.

Inspired by these natural designs, the team applied a bio-inspired fabrication strategy to create aerogels with similarly ordered architecture. They used electrospinning and freeze-drying techniques to fabricate a highly ordered structure.

First, thermally stable SiC nanofibers with excellent chemical stability were synthesized as basic units, followed by the construction of an amorphous SiO₂ shell on their surfaces. This SiO₂ coating acts as a phonon barrier, enabling both intra-layered alignment and inter-layered stacking to form a highly oriented SiC@SiO₂ ceramic fiber aerogel.

The anisotropic aerogel demonstrates remarkable properties: Ultralow cross-plane thermal conductivity is as low as 0.018 W/m·K, and an anisotropy coefficient is as high as 5.08, which is significantly better than that of similar materials.

In addition to thermal performance, the aerogel shows excellent mechanical resilience, with radial elastic deformation over 60% and axial specific modulus reaching 5.72 kN·m/kg.

Most impressively, it maintains structural and functional stability across an ultra-wide temperature range from -196°C to 1300°C, making it a promising candidate for applications in aerospace, energy systems, and other extreme environments where advanced thermal insulation is critical.

This work offers a new pathway for developing ultralight, high-performance insulation materials for demanding applications, according to the team.

More information: Zheng Zhang et al, Highly Oriented SiC@SiO₂ Ceramic Fiber Aerogels with Good Anisotropy of the Thermal Conductivity and High‐Temperature Resistance, Advanced Science (2025). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202416740

Journal information: Advanced Science 

Provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences 

by Liu Cui and Zhao Weiwei, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Many people will soon load up Easter baskets with chocolate candy for children and adults to enjoy. On its own, dark chocolate has health benefits, such as antioxidants that neutralize damaging free radicals. And a report in ACS Food Science & Technology suggests that packing the sweet treat with pre- and probiotics could make it more healthful. Flavoring agents, however, can affect many properties, including moisture level and protein content of the chocolate product.

Probiotics, found in fermented foods such as yogurt and kimchi, are living microbes that improve the gut microbiome, shifting the balance toward beneficial bacteria and yeasts. They can also ease digestive issues and reduce inflammation. These active cultures need food and protection to survive harsh gut conditions, so prebiotics—substances like dietary fibers and oligosaccharides—are sometimes added to probiotic-containing products to create synbiotic foods.

Because chocolate is a treat that many people enjoy, researchers have used it to test various combinations of pre- and probiotics. Some methods for including prebiotics are laborious, so Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh explored prebiotics that would not require extensive processing—corn and honey—in chocolate fortified with probiotics.

The team developed five chocolates for their study. One contained only basic chocolate ingredients, including cocoa butter, cocoa powder and milk powder. Four different synbiotic test samples also contained prebiotics (corn and honey), one probiotic (either Lactobacillus acidophilus La-14 or Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG) and one flavor additive (either cinnamon or orange).

When the researchers examined several properties of the chocolate samples, they found that fat levels, which influence texture and mouthfeel, were consistent among all five samples. However, there were differences:

• Flavorings impacted some characteristics of the synbiotic chocolates. For example, orange flavorings decreased pH, increased moisture and enhanced protein levels compared to all the other samples.
• The four synbiotic samples had higher antioxidant levels than the control.
• Synbiotic samples had less “snap” compared to the control, suggesting that the additional ingredients disrupted the structure of the chocolate.

The total microbial counts of the synbiotic chocolate samples decreased during storage, but the probiotic microbes still exhibited viability after 125 days. This time period is longer than other researchers have reported when using different bacteria and prebiotics in chocolates. Finally, when Gaur and Singh exposed the synbiotic chocolates to simulated gastrointestinal conditions, the probiotics in the samples maintained substantial viability for more than 5 hours.

The researchers also snuck a taste of the confections. “Personally, we enjoyed the orange-flavored chocolates the most, where the vibrant citrus notes complemented the rich cocoa, and it had a slightly softer texture that made each bite feel more luxurious,” says Gaur.

“In the future, we are excited to explore additional health benefits of these chocolates while thoroughly investigating their sensory and nutritional profiles, with the goal of creating an even more wholesome and enjoyable treat.”

More information: Shubhi Singh et al, Novel Formulations of Cinnamon- and Orange-Flavored Synbiotic Corn Chocolates with Enhanced Functional Properties and Probiotic Survival Rates, ACS Food Science & Technology (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741

Provided by American Chemical Society 

UCLA doctoral student Yilin Wong noticed that some tiny dots had appeared on one of her samples, which had been accidentally left out overnight. The layered sample consisted of a germanium wafer topped with evaporated metal films in contact with a drop of water. On a whim, she looked at the dots under a microscope and couldn’t believe her eyes. Beautiful spiral patterns had been etched into the germanium surface by a chemical reaction.

Wong’s curiosity led her on a journey to discover what no one had seen before: Hundreds of near-identical spiral patterns can spontaneously form on a centimeter square germanium chip. Moreover, small changes in experiment parameters, such as the thickness of the metal film, generated different patterns, including Archimedean spirals, logarithmic spirals, lotus flower shapes, radially symmetric patterns and more.

The discovery, published in Physical Review Materials, occurred fortuitously when Wong made a small mistake while attempting to bind DNA to the metal film.

“I was trying to develop a measurement technique to categorize biomolecules on a surface through breaking and reforming of the chemical bonds,” Wong said. “Fixing DNA molecules on a solid substrate is pretty common. I guess nobody who made the same mistake I did happened to look under the microscope.”

To learn more about how the patterns formed, Wong and co-author Giovanni Zocchi, a UCLA physics professor, investigated a system that involved evaporating a 10-nanometer thick layer of chromium on the surface of a germanium wafer, followed by a 4-nanometer layer of gold. Next, the researchers placed a drop of mild etching solution onto the surface and dried it overnight, then washed and re-incubated the chip with the same etching solution in a wet chamber to prevent evaporation.

“The system basically forms an electrolytic capacitor,” Zocchi said.

Over the course of 24–48 hours, a chemical reaction catalyzed by the metal film etched remarkable patterns on the germanium surface. Investigation of the process revealed that the chromium and gold films were under stress and had delaminated from the germanium as the catalytic reaction proceeded. The resulting stress created wrinkles in the metal film that—under further catalysis—etched the amazing patterns the researchers had seen.

“The thickness of the metal layer, the initial state of mechanical stress of the sample, and the composition of the etching solution all play a role in determining the type of pattern that develops,” Zocchi said.

One of the most exciting findings in this study is that the patterns are not purely chemical, but are influenced by residual stress in the metal film. The research suggests that the metal’s preexisting tension or compression determines the shapes that emerge. Thus, two processes, one chemical and one mechanical, worked together to yield the patterns.

This type of coupling, formed between catalysis-driven deformations of an interface and the underlying chemical reactions, is unusual in laboratory experiments but common in nature. Enzymes catalyze growth in nature, which deforms cells and tissue. It’s this mechanical instability that makes tissue grow into particular shapes, some of which resemble the ones seen in Wong’s experiments.

“In the biological world, this kind of coupling is actually ubiquitous,” Zocchi said. “We just don’t think of it in laboratory experiments because most laboratory experiments about pattern formation are done in liquids. That’s what makes this discovery so exciting. It gives us a non-living laboratory system in which to study this kind of coupling and its incredible pattern-forming ability.”

The study of pattern formation in chemical reactions began in 1951 when the Soviet chemist Boris Belousov accidentally discovered a chemical system that could spontaneously oscillate in time, which inaugurated the new fields of chemical pattern formation and nonequilibrium thermodynamics.

At the same time and independently, the British mathematician Alan Turing discovered that chemical systems, later termed “reaction-diffusion systems,” could spontaneously form patterns in space, such as stripes or polka dots. The reaction-diffusion dynamics observed in Wong’s experiments mirrored the theoretical ones posited by Turing.

Although the field of complex systems in physics and pattern formation enjoyed a time in the spotlight during the 1980s and 90s, to this day, the experimental systems used to study chemical pattern formation in the laboratory are essentially variants of ones introduced in the 1950s. The Wong-Zocchi system represents a major advance in the experimental study of chemical pattern formation.

More information: Yilin Wong et al, Metal-assisted chemical etching patterns at a Ge/Cr/Au interface modulated by the Euler instability, Physical Review Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.9.035201

Provided by University of California, Los Angeles 

With artificial photosynthesis, mankind could utilize solar energy to bind carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen. Chemists from Würzburg and Seoul have taken this one step further: They have synthesized a stack of dyes that comes very close to the photosynthetic apparatus of plants. It absorbs light energy, uses it to separate charge carriers and transfers them quickly and efficiently in the stack.

Photosynthesis is a marvelous process: plants use it to produce sugar molecules and oxygen from the simple starting materials carbon dioxide and water. They draw the energy they need for this complex process from sunlight.

If humans could imitate photosynthesis, it would have many advantages. The free energy from the sun could be used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to build carbohydrates and other useful substances. It would also be possible to produce hydrogen, as photosynthesis splits water into its components oxygen and hydrogen.

Photosynthesis: A complex process with many participants

So it’s no wonder that many researchers are working on artificial photosynthesis. This is not easy, because photosynthesis is an extremely complex process: it takes place in the cells of plants in many individual steps and involves numerous dyes, proteins and other molecules. However, science is constantly making new advances.

One of the leading researchers in the field of artificial photosynthesis is chemist Professor Frank Würthner from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany. His team has now succeeded in imitating one of the first steps of natural photosynthesis with a sophisticated arrangement of artificial dyes and analyzing it more precisely.

The results were obtained in collaboration with Professor Dongho Kim’s group at Yonsei University in Seoul (Korea). They have been published in Nature Chemistry.

The researchers have succeeded in synthesizing a stack of dyes that is very similar to the photosynthetic apparatus in plant cells—it absorbs light energy at one end, uses it to separate charge carriers and transfers them step by step to the other end via the transport of electrons. The structure consists of four stacked dye molecules from the perylene bisimide class.

“We can specifically trigger the charge transport in this structure with light and have analyzed it in detail. It is efficient and fast. This is an important step towards the development of artificial photosynthesis,” says JMU Ph.D. student Leander Ernst, who synthesized the stacked structure.

Next, the JMU research team wants to expand the nanosystem of stacked dye molecules from four to more components—with the aim of ultimately creating a kind of supramolecular wire that absorbs light energy and transports it quickly and efficiently over longer distances. This would be a further step towards novel photofunctional materials that can be used for artificial photosynthesis.

More information: Photoinduced stepwise charge hopping in π-stacked perylene bisimide donor-bridge-acceptor arrays., Nature Chemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41557-025-01770-7

Journal information: Nature Chemistry 

Provided by University of Würzburg 

A new Yale study aims to settle a longstanding question about photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into fuel, with oxygen as a byproduct.

For 40 years, scientists have debated about a mechanism relating to Mn₄Ca, a manganese “cofactor” within photosynthesis that acts like a high-performance solar battery. In that time, two schools of thought have emerged: those who think Mn₄Ca’s storage mechanism works via a low-valence paradigm (LVP) and those who think it occurs via a high-valence paradigm (HVP). (Valence refers to an atom’s capacity to combine with other atoms.)

The distinction is important, researchers say, because it may affect how engineers try to mimic photosynthesis in solar technologies.

Jimin Wang, a research scientist in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry in FAS, lands definitively on the LVP side. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Wang conducted a Cryo-EM (cryogenic electron microscopy) analysis of proteins that contain Mn₄Ca—an approach that Wang said gives a more accurate picture than other analytic techniques.

“Resolving the longstanding LVP/HVP controversy could help chemists and engineers to design biology-inspired solar capture devices with greatly improved efficiency,” Wang said.

More information: Jimin Wang, Cryo-EM meets crystallography: A model-independent view of the heteronuclear Mn₄Ca cluster structure of photosystem II, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2423012122

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

Provided by Yale University 

Nature is full of masters of disguise. From the chameleon to arctic hare, natural camouflage is a common yet powerful way to survive in the wild. But one animal might surprise you with its camouflage capabilities: the squid.

Capable of changing color within the blink of an eye, squid, along with their cephalopod relatives octopi and cuttlefish, have used their natural camouflage to survive since the age of the dinosaurs. However, scientists still know very little about how it all works.

Leila Deravi aims to change that.

An associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Northeastern University, Deravi’s recently published paper in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C sheds new light on how squid use organs that essentially function as organic solar cells to help power their camouflage abilities. Deravi says it’s a breakthrough in how humans understand these “super-charged animals,” one that could impact how we humans interact with the world.

Deravi has long been fascinated by cephalopods, particularly squid. Her Biomaterials Design Group at Northeastern is focused on investigating how these animals camouflage, with the aim of using those natural mechanisms to create new biomaterials.

More recently, her lab has been looking at one specific part of squid biology— chromatophores—which is where the latest discovery was made.

Chromatophores are pigmented organs that sit all over the squid’s skin. They have muscle fibers on the outside that are filled with neurons, allowing the animal to neuromuscularly open and control these pigment sacks based on what’s in their environment.

Together with iridophores, which act as a kind of photo filter, adding greens and blues to the chromatophores’ reds, yellows and browns, they give squid the ability to change color within hundreds of milliseconds, distributing the color all over their body.

“To have something sense the colors around it and distribute [them] within hundreds of milliseconds is really insane,” Deravi says. “It’s not something that’s easy to do, especially in a living system that’s under water.”

It has been commonly understood that chromatophores are a kind of colorant that operate similar to pixels in a TV display, but Deravi found that they are much more. Her latest research reveals that chromatophores are light sensors that help power squid and their natural camouflage.

“It can see whatever light is on the outside and convert that light into energy and then harvest that energy to help distribute camouflage,” Deravi says.

To test this idea, Deravi and her team built a squid-powered solar cell. They used conductive glass, semiconductors, electrolytes and the chromatophores’ pigmented nanoparticles taken from dissected squid to create a circuit. By focusing solar simulated light on the glass, they activated the circuit and measured how much energy it was putting out.

“We found that the more granules you put into there, the higher the photocurrent response is,” Deravi says. “It’s a direct indication that the pieces of the chromatophore are actually converting the light from the sun’s simulated light to the voltage, which can complete the circuit and then be harvested, potentially, for a power supply in the animal.”

The discovery marks the first time anyone has made a connection between the chromatophores in a cephalopod and their ability to generate current.

Uncovering the secrets behind how cephalopods camouflage has a number of applications for humans. Deravi’s lab has already used its findings to design wearable UV sensors that can help prevent skin cancer and produce more environmentally and human-friendly sunscreen, as Deravi has done with her startup, Seaspire.

What’s particularly remarkable, she says, is how efficient this biological system is. Squid are able to change color and distribute that change over their entire body while under water, using very little energy.

Understanding more about how squid use their organic solar cells could help a burgeoning field like wearable electronics where size, weight and power distribution are constant concerns. The squid might be the key to developing a truly “living digital skin,” she says.

“If you think about fully wearable stuff, you just have to think about how to make it the most energetically favorable in order to be fully interactive with the surroundings,” Deravi says. “We’re trying to tap into what the blueprint is that the animal uses to do this and how that correlates to adapting to the environment as well.”

More information: Taehwan Kim et al, Cephalopod chromatophores contain photosensitizing nanostructures that may facilitate light sensing and signaling in the skin, Journal of Materials Chemistry C (2025). DOI: 10.1039/D4TC04333B

Provided by Northeastern University 

What if plastics could self-destruct when their time as a useful product ends? Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are exploring this concept in one of their latest projects.

“Many researchers are trying to discover better ways to break down and recycle plastics. It’s a very busy area of research right now,” Sandia organic materials scientist Brad Jones said. “We at Sandia were thinking about how we could contribute to this area.”

When Jones, Oleg Davydovich, Samuel Leguizamon, Koushik Ghosh and former Sandia postdoctoral researcher Matthew Warner combined their expertise, they developed a concept they hope will be groundbreaking.

The problem with plastic

Plastic does not naturally biodegrade. The Environmental Protection Agency cites research indicating that once in the environment, plastics can take between 100 and 1,000 years to decompose. Over time, these plastics often fragment into smaller pieces, entering oceans, land, wildlife and humans.

Society is also highly dependent on plastic products with short lifespans, such as plastic packaging, which is among the most difficult to recycle. Current recycling methods involve reforming plastic into new objects by shredding and melting, but the plastic’s chemical structure remains unchanged. The challenge is finding a way to force plastic to break down through chemical alterations more quickly and efficiently.

Jones said that much of the current research focuses on creating different mixtures and compounds that break down plastic from the outside in. A common method involves placing plastics in a reactor and exposing them to a compound that facilitates breakdown.

Sandia’s team thought up a different approach.

“What if we could use those same compounds and somehow build them into a plastic product?” Jones said. “Rather than having to stick them in a reactor and treat them afterward, maybe we could somehow activate the compounds when ready and break down the plastic from the inside out.”

The science behind the idea

The idea seems logical, but how can it be achieved? With support from Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program and technology maturation funds, the team got to work turning their idea into reality.

“We are doing something called microencapsulation,” Jones explained. “We are building plastics that contain the compounds that will eventually break them down. Through our process, we can keep the plastic’s original composition intact by building a barrier between the compound and the plastic itself, until we are ready to activate it.”

Jones said all plastic products are formulated with additives. These additives change the color, make a plastic more stable, or change the material properties or flow characteristics.

“Our vision for this technology is to formulate a plastic with an additive that will eventually break it down,” he said.

To prevent unintentional breakdown, the microencapsulation would be designed to release its contents only when the plastic is exposed to a very specific trigger, such as heat, a certain wavelength of light or a combination. This is where the team’s expertise in chemistry comes into play.

Putting the concept to the test

With the idea in hand, the team had to test their concept.

They began with a form of plastic, polybutadiene rubber, which is the most widely used synthetic rubber in the world and most commonly used in car tires. The team has significant experience with Grubbs catalysts, known for effectively breaking down polybutadiene rubber.

Despite its effectiveness, the Grubbs catalyst never gained traction for dealing with the rubber waste problem.

“We suspect it’s because you need fairly large amounts of the expensive catalyst and a significant amount of solvent to infuse the catalyst into rubber,” Jones explained. “That’s why we thought it would be a good model to prove the benefits of our idea by microencapsulating the catalyst and formulating it into the rubber. This reduces the amount of catalyst needed, eliminates the solvent and allows the user to trigger the breakdown on demand.”

Through testing, the team’s concept has proven successful. Tests demonstrated the ability to break down rubber at different temperatures, and the ability to easily recycle the material into new rubber. That isn’t possible with traditional processes.

What’s next
The team said the next step is to further develop this idea, including reaching out to plastic manufacturers as potential partners.

While there is still a lot of work ahead, the team is encouraged by their findings thus far.

“What I love about this project is that it’s a way to apply a lot of different chemistries to a problem,” Leguizamon said. “This is something that isn’t already done. It’s a relatively simple idea that addresses a lot of significant challenges.”

Davydovich, who has been interested in polymer science throughout his entire career, sees a way to use the science to significantly help the world.

“Making degradable polymers is work we can apply to real-world plastics,” he said. “We can solve problems that are more tangible to the everyday person.”

Jones often gets questions from family and friends about his work at Sandia. While he can’t always share details, he is proud to discuss this project: “This is the first thing I mention when they ask, because it’s something we can be personally proud of. The plastic waste crisis is something the average person is aware of and understands. It’s a huge existential crisis and we are trying to find a solution.”

Provided by Sandia National Laboratories

A Chinese research team has developed a single-step femtosecond laser 4D printing technology that enables rapid and precise micro-scale deformation of smart hydrogels. This innovation, inspired by the hierarchical structure of butterfly wings, holds significant promise for applications in flexible electronics and minimally invasive medicine.

The findings were published online in ACS Materials Letters on February 17.

Led by Prof. Liu Lianqing from the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Li Wenjung from the City University of Hong Kong, the researchers drew inspiration from the wing structure of Papilio maackii, a butterfly species known for its remarkable balance of lightness and toughness.

They discovered that the honeycomb-like pores and reinforced textures of butterfly wings work synergistically to dissipate mechanical stress during flight. Mimicking this natural design, the researchers employed femtosecond laser technology to sculpt pH-responsive hydrogel structures with a pre-programmed mechanical gradient.

By adjusting laser scanning modes, they encoded alternating soft and rigid regions into the material, effectively embedding a “deformation code.” Experimental results and finite element analysis demonstrated that when exposed to an acidic environment, the hydrogel automatically folds within one second, shrinking to just 25% of its original volume.

The key breakthrough lies in its single-step fabrication. Unlike traditional methods that require layering multiple materials to achieve deformability, this approach directly encodes mechanical heterogeneity during printing. As a result, the hydrogel exhibits dual functionality—sensing environmental changes and actuating structural responses.

In medical demonstrations, smart hydrogel dressings were shown to autonomously enwrap biomembranes with micron-level precision in response to pH shifts. For sensing applications, the material’s fluorescence intensity fluctuated by up to 110% during acid-base transitions, highlighting its potential as an adaptive sensor.

This streamlined 4D printing approach marks a significant advance in micro/nanoscale manufacturing, unlocking novel applications for responsive hydrogel systems—from adaptive medical devices to eco-friendly flexible electronics.

More information: Jianchen Zheng et al, 4D Printed Butterfly-Inspired Hydrogel Structures: Simple Strategies for Multiform Morphing, ACS Materials Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acsmaterialslett.4c02589