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Polymer composite materials require softening to reduce their glass transition temperature and improve processability. To this end, plasticizers, which are small organic molecules, are added to the polymer matrix. The miscibility of these…
Composite materials are used across engineering applications for their superior mechanical performance, a result of efficient load transfer between the structure and matrix phases. However, the inherently two-dimensional structure of…
Curved thin sheets are ubiquitously found in nature and manmade structures. Within the framework of classical thin plate theory, the stiffness of thin sheets is independent of its bending state. This assumption, however, goes against…
New emerging disciplines such as Nanoionics and Iontronics are dealing with the exploitation of mesoscopic size effects in materials, which become visible (if not predominant) when downsizing the system to the nanoscale. Driven by the…
Compact and robust waveguide chips are crucial for new integrated terahertz applications, such as high-speed interconnections between processors and broadband short-range wireless communications. Progress on topological photonic crystals…
We study theoretically the transverse spin associated with the eigenmodes of a thin metal film embedded in a dielectric. We show that the transverse spin has a direct dependence on the nature and strength of the coupling leading to two…
Polarization is one of the basic properties of electromagnetic waves conveying valuable information in signal transmission and sensitive measurements. Conventional methods for advanced polarization control impose demanding requirements on…
We investigate the collective behavior of suspended thermoresponsive microgels, that expel solvent and subsequently decrease in size upon heating. Using a binary mixture of differently thermoresponsive microgels, we demonstrate how…
The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of elastic properties of polystyrene-based nanocomposites filled with different types of inclusions: small spherical particles (SiO2 and Al2O3), alumosilicates (montmorillonite, halloysite natural…
Whereas thermoelectric performance is normally limited by the figure of merit ZT, transverse thermoelectrics can achieve arbitrarily large temperature differences in a single leg even with inferior ZT by being geometrically tapered. We…
Thermal conductivity of aligned polymer molecules can be exceptionally high along the alignment direction due to energy transport through strong covalent bonds. At the same time, it is highly sensitive to molecular conformation, varying by…
The ability to exfoliate layered materials down to the single layer limit has opened the opportunity to understand how a gradual reduction in dimensionality affects the properties of bulk materials. Here we use this top-down approach to…
Tip-enhanced nano-spectroscopy and -imaging, such as tip-enhanced photoluminescence (TEPL), tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), and others, have become indispensable from materials science to single molecule studies. However, the…
Mechanical metamaterials are structures designed to exhibit an exotic response, such as topological soft modes at a surface. Here we explore single-material 3D prints of these topological structures by translating a ball-and-spring model…
The ability to control porosity in oxide thin films is one of the key factors that determine their properties. Despite the abundance of dry processes for the synthesis of oxide porous layers, the high porosity range is typically achieved by…
Flax fibre reinforced composites are becoming popular in the automotive and civil industries due to their environmentally friendly nature in terms of production and recycling and for their good specific strength. Textile structures undergo…
The conflict between stiffness and toughness is a fundamental problem in engineering materials design. However, the systematic discovery of microstructured composites with optimal stiffness-toughness trade-offs has never been demonstrated,…
Tunable terahertz plasmons are essential for reconfigurable photonics, which have been demonstrated in graphene through gating, though with relatively weak responses. Here, we demonstrate strong terahertz plasmons in graphite thin films via…
SiC particle-reinforced Al matrix composites exhibit high strength, high wear resistance, and excellent high-temperature performance, but can also have low plasticity and fracture toughness, which limits their use in structural…
Terahertz (THz) radiation is a powerful tool with widespread applications ranging from imaging, sensing, and broadband communications to spectroscopy and nonlinear control of materials. Future progress in THz technology depends on the…