This article reviews studies in which X-ray tomography has been used to characterize the cellular microstructure or the deformation mechanisms of highly porous materials. The technique is suitable for imaging these materials with much detail. Such images can also be used to quantify the micro-structure (wall thickness and cell size distribution and tortuosity of the porous network). Finally, the methods available to produce finite element meshes from the three-dimensional images are presented and discussed in light of one example.

This review discusses recent advances in materials engineering to control thermal conductivity. We begin by presenting theories of heat conduction for general material classes, focusing on common approximations and trends. Next, we discuss characterization techniques for measuring thermal conductivity and the underlying transport properties. Advanced materials at the frontiers of thermal transport, such as rattlers, complex unit cells, nanowires, and nanocomposites, are treated in depth using experimental data and theoretical predictions. The review closes by highlighting several promising areas for further development.

Biofouling is a complex, dynamic problem that globally impacts both the economy and environment. Interdisciplinary research in marine biology, polymer science, and engineering has led to the implementation of bio-inspired strategies for the development of the next generation of antifouling marine coatings. Natural fouling defense mechanisms have been mimicked through chemical, physical, and/or stimuli-responsive strategies. This review outlines the detrimental effects associated with biofouling, describes the theoretical basis for antifouling coating design, and highlights prominent advances in bio-inspired antifouling technologies.

Self-cleaning surfaces have drawn a lot of interest for both fundamental research and practical applications. This review focuses on the recent progress in mechanism, preparation, and application of self-cleaning surfaces. To date, self-cleaning has been demonstrated by the following four conceptual approaches: (a) TiO2-based superhydrophilic self-cleaning, (b) lotus effect self-cleaning (superhydrophobicity with a small sliding angle), (c) gecko setae–inspired self-cleaning, and (d) underwater organisms–inspired antifouling self-cleaning. Although a number of self-cleaning products have been commercialized, the remaining challenges and future outlook of self-cleaning surfaces are also briefly addressed. Through evolution, nature, which has long been a source of inspiration for scientists and engineers, has arrived at what is optimal. We hope this review will stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration among material science, chemistry, biology, physics, nanoscience, engineering, etc., which is essential for the rational design and reproducible construction of bio-inspired multifunctional self-cleaning surfaces in practical applications.

Large elastic nonlinearities can lead to elastic hysteresis behavior, which defines ferroelasticity in analogy to its sister ferroics: ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity. Ferroelasticity is the most common nonlinear effect in natural materials and plays a major role in the mineralogical behavior of the Earth`s crust and mantle. It produces interfacial twin walls that act as sinks and sources for defects and that show localized effects such as superconducting twin boundaries and ferroelectricity, even when such effects do not exist in the bulk. The movement of twin walls under elastic forcing is creep-like, with some superimposed jerks due to pinning and unpinning by defects and jamming by other twin boundaries. This review applies Landau theory and discusses some aspects of the emerging field of domain boundary engineering.

The influence of increasing strain rate on the mechanical behavior and deformation substructures in metals and alloys that deform predominately by slip is very similar to that seen following quasi-static deformation at increasingly lower temperatures or due to a decrease in stacking-fault energy (γsf). Deformation at higher rates (a) produces more uniform dislocation distributions for the same amount of strain, (b) hinders the formation of discrete dislocation cells, (c) decreases cell size, and (d) increases misorientation, with more dislocations trapped within cell interiors. The suppression of thermally activated dislocation processes in this regime can lead to stresses high enough to activate and grow deformation twins even in high-stacking-fault-energy, face-centered-cubic metals. In this review, examples of the high-strain-rate mechanical behavior and the deformation substructure evolution observed in a range of materials following high and shock-loading strain rates are presented and compared with those seen following quasi-static-loading deformation paths.

In the past 20 years, there has been a surge in research on the magnetocaloric response of materials, due mainly to the possibility of applying this effect for magnetic refrigeration close to room temperature. This review is devoted to the main families of materials suitable for this application and to the procedures proposed to predict their response. Apart from the possible technological applications, we also discuss the use of magnetocaloric characterization to gain fundamental insight into the nature of the underlying phase transition.

This review describes recent developments in stimuli-responsive biointerfaces based on surface-tethered organic molecules, polymer chains, and polymer networks. The existing systems are classified according to the length scale of transformations occurring in the stimuli-responsive material and interactions of the material with the biological environment. In particular, two types of biointerfaces are considered: those whose interactions with proteins and cells can be switched reversibly or one time due to stimuli-triggered changes in molecular conformations or chemical bonds in functional molecules, and those that undergo reversible stimuli-triggered reconstruction at mesoscale due to stimuli-responsive phase behavior. Specific examples of stimuli-responsive surfaces from the recent literature are supplemented with discussion of potential biomedical applications.

Superconductors offer major advantages for the electric power grid, including high current and power capacity, high efficiency arising from the lossless current flow, and a unique current-limiting functionality arising from a superconductor-to-resistive transition. These advantages can be brought to bear on equipment such as underground power cables, fault current limiters, rotating machinery, transformers, and energy storage. The first round of significant commercial-scale superconductor power-equipment demonstrations, carried out during the past decade, relied on a first-generation high-temperature superconductor (HTS) wire. However, during the past few years, with the recent commercial availability of high-performance second-generation HTS wires, power-equipment demonstrations have increasingly been carried out with these new wires, which bring important advantages. The foundation is being laid for commercial expansion of this important technology into the power grid.

We provide a succinct account of surface-bound gradient structures created from soft materials or those facilitating the study of soft materials behavior. We commence by classifying the chief attributes of gradient structures and offer a few examples of fabrication methods employed to generate such structures. We then illustrate the versatility of gradient assemblies in functioning as recording media for monitoring a physico-chemical process, facilitating fast screening of physico-chemical phenomena, and playing an important part in the design and fabrication of surface-anchored molecular and macromolecular engines for the directed transport of soft materials.