What makes an innovative materials study? Conceptual novelty is intrinsically difficult to quantify. There are common pitfalls that lead to rejection without review, leading to an editorial shorthand of archetype rejections. Here, we describe the most common reasons for rejection at Matter.

Dr. Tristan Clemons completed his PhD in materials chemistry while simultaneously representing Australia as a goalkeeper on the men’s field hockey team. Despite these achievements, he often suffered from crippling self-doubt. Tristan talks about the importance of mentors in overcoming his imposter syndrome.

Many variations of metal-organic supramolecules (MOSs) can be assembled from constituent metallic ions and organic molecules. Turning to the sea, ocean-sourced alginate and carrageenan (both derived from seaweeds) can inspire the development of a new wave of renewable and environmentally benign biopolymer-based MOSs.

In this issue of Matter, Tian et al. demonstrate the formation of two-dimensional metal-phosphorus networks, with the building blocks synthesized “on spot” as magic-sized clusters that are further glued together by the gold atoms handily extracted from the substrate steps.

For organic photovoltaics to become highly efficient and commercially viable, it is important to understand how molecular structures influence devices performance. A detailed structure-performance analysis is presented on molecular-scale based on corrected-models molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory calculations.

In this issue, the strength of a well-known biological material, hair, is assessed across a number of mammalian species, from humans to elephants. The multiscale keratin-based structure of hair is of interest, representing a possible archetype for biomimetic high-strength threads.

The development of smart functions and advanced processing leads to a paradigm shift in polymer applications. One example is polymer-based soft robots that sense changes in environment and (re)act by undergoing shape deformations. The Priimägi group added an additional level of intelligence by introducing a training step that leads to a conditioned response, similar to the classic Pavlov’s dog experiment.

Light-induced halide segregation is an intrinsic instability of mixed-halide perovskites, which complicates their successful use in tandem solar cells. Methods to suppress this phenomenon remain elusive because of its ambiguous origin. Beal et al. demonstrate that photostability is not an exclusive property of perovskite crystal structure and instead highlight the need for a microscopic understanding of the phenomenon.

Coexisting with fish known by their fiercely predaceous behaviors has driven the Arapaimas gigas to develop one of the toughest protective layers known in nature, their elasmoid scales. In this work, Yang et al. demonstrated what mechanisms lead to such remarkable toughness.

The challenges for a solid-state battery to satisfy high-rate charging, stability, and cyclability are tremendous. Dixit et al. report a critical coexistence of strong adhesion and hard Young’s modulus at the electrolyte/electrode interface by nm-scale mapping of force-distance curves using atomic force microscopy and demonstrate the importance of the interface mechanical property.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can catalyze toxic chemical decontamination, but new MOF materials and synthesis strategies are needed to improve performance, particularly in field-usable MOF-textile formats. This article reports for the first time the exceptional photocatalytic reactivity of Al-PMOF (Al-porphyrin-based MOF), composed of an earth-abundant metal-containing Al(OH)O4 cluster bridged by H2TCPP (5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin) chromophores, against the toxic sulfur mustard simulant 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (CEES) under visible-light irradiation. Furthermore, Al-PMOF is strongly immobilized into polymeric fibers via well-controlled Al2O3 solid film conversion using dimethylformamide/water cosolvent. The approach enables a secure integration of conformal Al-PMOF films onto polymer fibers at a relatively low synthesis temperature (120°C). In addition, on a per-unit mass of MOF basis, the surface-bound Al-PMOF films enable extremely rapid CEES detoxification turnover frequency, up to 170 molCEESmolchromophore−1min−1, more than 10-fold faster than the best MOF powders and 2-fold better than MOF films reported to date.

The fictional “Minions” from film are single-focused workers, useful for accomplishing a specific task en masse. Here, minion-like bacteria is presented as a useful intermediary craftsman for functionalizing biomaterials, enabling a generic process for integrating desired chemical additives and/or nanoparticles.

In STEM fields, personal identity is often considered secondary to the pursuit of objective scientific truth. While the ideal scientist is presumably unbiased, the academic workplace is not ideal. Is LGBT+ identity important in STEM or just a personal matter?

The year 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. Many scholars regard Leonardo as the exemplar of a “universal genius.” Here, Nicola Pugno reflects on some materials and mechanics-related influence of the original Renaissance man.

High-temperature ceramic materials with high strength and toughness have been a challenge for the materials science community. In this issue of Matter, Bauer et al. used two-photon polymerization with a preceramic resin to create SiOC lattices that are free of flaws and approach their theoretical strength and are also ductile. The properties were shown to be size independent for features ranging from the nano- to the microscale.

Alloying Pt with transition metals is widely recognized as a promising approach to synthesize high-performance and low-cost electrocatalysts, but binary Pt alloys such as PtNi usually have poor stability in spite of high ORR catalytic activities. Although the introduction of a third element to form a ternary alloy (e.g., PtNiCu) has been demonstrated to enhance stability and/or activity, its mechanism remains unclear. Researchers now clearly reveal the catalytic mechanism via a combined approach of innovative synthesis, advanced characterization, and theoretical simulation.

Natural beauty is hard to be exhibited by the pale colors of man-made pigments. In this issue of Matter, Zhao and co-workers used graphene oxide-encapsulated silica nanoparticles to assemble polydopamine-adhered microsphere and provide brighter structural color with angle independence and optimal stability.

In this issue, Rajeeva and co-workers have reported a new strategy using low-power laser heating to trigger precursor supersaturation in the solution phase to synthesize surfactant-free immiscible alloys while simultaneously patterning the nanoalloys onto the substrate in a programmable manner.

Thinning materials down to atomic thickness can endow them with unusual physiochemical properties and make for intriguing applications. Although a number of two-dimensional graphene analogs have been developed, preparing atomically thin metallic materials remains a significant, practical challenge. Recently in Nature, Luo et al. successfully synthesized a freestanding 4-atomic-thick PdMo bimetallene and demonstrated a record electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction activity in alkaline electrolyte. We conclude that this bimetallene will provide an ideal model to investigate the active-site catalytic-activity relationship and to optimize electrocatalytic performance at the atomic level. Future synthesis of noble-metal-free metallene (e.g., Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Mo) is anticipated.

Controlling the fragmentation of atomically thin and brittle materials is of critical importance for both fundamental interest and technical purposes in fracture mechanics. However, the fragmentation of graphene is often random and uncontrollable because of the presence of grain boundaries and numerous defects. Here, by harnessing the strong localized strain during the necking process of thermoplastic polymers, we introduce a simple yet controllable method to tear apart a monolayer polycrystalline graphene (MPG) sheet into ordered graphene ribbons. More importantly, we show that the presence of active edges helps the graphene ribbons in exhibiting a field-effect characteristic pH response and improves the introduction of dopants. Furthermore, we demonstrate an optically transparent (∼98%), ultrathin (∼70 ± 15 nm), and skin-conformal pressure sensor for real-time tactile sensing. We believe that our results lead to further understanding of the fracture mechanics of graphene and offer unique advantages for practical applications, such as flexible electronics, chemical sensing, and biosensing.

A recent meeting focused on accelerated materials design and discovery examined user requirements for a general, collaborative, integrative, and on-demand materials research platform.

For those of us who have attempted to barbecue (BBQ), wood matters. Smoking delicious meats is effectively a chemical process that involves control over combustion of organic materials. Here, we get joint insight from a local pitmaster and a materials scientist.

Using artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and tissue engineering as examples, I argue that the time between the first demonstration of a novel concept and its widespread adoption is often underestimated and that it is important to give more realistic estimations of maturation time.

Liquid metals were merely sci-fi fantasy a few decades ago, playing a prominent role in the Terminator film franchise. Current research is leading to an array of emerging functional liquids. Here, we discuss the exciting possibilities of such fluid materials.

Adipocyte-cancer cell crosstalk plays a key role in tumorigenesis and metastasis. In this issue of Matter, Gu and colleagues applied adipocytes as a drug depot for effective chemotherapy and tumor microenvironment modulation.

Many material systems and phenomena elude nano- and atomic-scale characterization through electron microscopy due to the impact of the high energy beam that is employed. Cryogenic microscopy methods pioneered in structural biology offer a way to overcome this limitation by enabling the formation of images with an extremely low dose of electrons using automated data acquisition and advanced detectors. These methods are just beginning to be applied to non-biological materials, and their utility is demonstrated in a pair of recent papers by Cui and colleagues.

Many biological materials display resilience rivaling engineered systems, but few have mechanisms that integrate failure with function. A new work by Espinosa et al. probes the peculiar behavior of the sea urchin’s teeth, which demonstrate utility beyond strength and toughness.

Conventional mesoporous materials-based transducers generally possess symmetrical geometries and are unable to easily distinguish two or more components in mixtures and reject the interferences. In this issue, Zhao et al. develop Janus mesostructures to realize a simultaneous multivariable gases sensor using solvent evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) with subsequent surface modifications.

In this issue of Matter, Zhang et al. developed an electrochemically assisted interfacial growth (EIG) method for fabricating metal-organic framework (MOF) composite membranes. Different from previous works on electrochemically assisted growth of MOF, this work combines a counter-diffusion strategy with electrochemical reaction and realizes a uniform in situ growth of MOF selective layer on a poly(ether sulfone) (PES) polymer substrate. The deposition position of MOF crystals can be easily controlled by adjusting the current density, and the growth of MOF membranes can be well controlled.

Rare materials, by definition, are difficult to “discover.” Electrides—ionic compounds in which electrons act as the anion—are no exception. Finding inorganic electrides among thousands of materials is aided by computational screening, demonstrated herein by Zhu et al.