Material Design Concept Research Articles

力を可視化できるキラル液晶エラストマーの動的挙動制御

Strain sensors are a key for the development of next-generation soft robots. For such applications, the electronic sensing using flexible electronic materials are continuing to be at the forefront of the sensing technology. Recently, optical-sensing technology have attracted much attention because of high spatiotemporal resolution, high sensitivity and noninvasively. Especially, chiral-nematic liquid-crystalline elastomers have much attention to be applied to optical strain sensors because of the change of selective reflection wavelength in response to the strain. Here, we introduce our recent research on optical strain sensors using chiral-nematic liquid-crystalline elastomers. There is remarkable maturity in the development of numerous stimuli-responsive liquid-crystalline elastomers. However, the control of the recovery process after the removal of the stimuli has remained difficult. Interestingly, our simple materials design concept of “layering the elastomers with other materials” allows us to arbitrary control the recovery process in both macroscopic deformation and microscopic molecular orientation. Based on the concept, we have succeeded to fabricate a mechano-optical sensor with high sensitivity and high spatiotemporal resolution. This concept would open a pathway to control the recovery process in various stimuli-responsive liquid-crystalline elastomers.

Negative Thermal Quenching of Photoluminescence from Liquid-Crystalline Molecules in Condensed Phases

The luminescence of materials in condensed phases is affected by not only their molecular structures but also their aggregated structures. In this study, we designed new liquid-crystalline luminescent materials based on biphenylacetylene with a bulky trimethylsilyl terminal group and a flexible alkoxy chain. The luminescence properties of the prepared materials were evaluated, with a particular focus on the effects of phase transitions, which cause changes in the aggregated structures. The length of the flexible chain had no effect on the luminescence in solution. However, in crystals, the luminescence spectral shape depended on the chain length because varying the chain length altered the crystal structure. Interestingly, negative thermal quenching of the luminescence from these materials was observed in condensed phases, with the isotropic phase obtained at high temperatures exhibiting a considerable increase in luminescence intensity. This thermal enhancement of the luminescence suggests that the less- or nonemissive aggregates formed in crystals are dissociated in the isotropic phase. These findings can contribute toward the development of new material design concepts for useful luminescent materials at high temperatures.

Fundamentals of metal oxide/oxyfluoride electrodes for Li-/Na-ion batteries

Lithium-ion batteries provide the development of a clean and sustainable society based on renewable energy resources. To further enhance energy density and reduce the cost of batteries, innovations on electrode materials and high-performance nickel-/cobalt-free materials are necessary. In this review, lithium-excess manganese-based electrode materials with layered/rock salt oxides/oxyfluorides are emphasized because of their potential ability to be utilized as advanced and low-cost lithium-ion batteries in the near future. For these emerging electrode materials, higher energy density is realized, compared with traditional layered materials based on nickel/cobalt ions, relying on anionic and/or cationic redox as multi-electron reactions. Although, currently, anionic redox suffers from degradation of reversibility on continuous cycles, significant progress on theoretical understanding and material design concepts has been made in the past several years. Recently, as alternatives to traditional layered materials, many disordered rock salt oxides, including metastable and nanosized oxyfluorides, have been also found as a new class of high-capacity electrode materials with anionic/cationic redox. In the later part, these new trends for the material design are also extended to the development of electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries. By reviewing the fundamental and recent research progress in metal oxide/oxyfluoride electrodes, a valuable guide for materials scientists in the field of batteries is provided to accelerate the industrial development of high-performance nickel-/cobalt-free electrode materials.

Facile Material Design Concept for Co-Free Lithium Excess Nickel-Manganese Oxide as High-Capacity Positive Electrode Material

High-capacity Li1+x(Ni0.3Mn0.7)1-xO2, (0 < x < 1/3) samples were synthesized by the coprecipitation–calcination method. Both electrochemical cycle and high-rate performances were drastically improved by selecting an N2 atmosphere as final calcination. Scanning transmission electron microscopy—energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis showed that the sample calcined in an N2 atmosphere had a more homogeneous transition metal distribution into primary particles than that calcined in air. The solid-state 7Li nuclear magnetic resonance data showed that electrochemically inactive domains were only diminished for the sample calcined in an N2 atmosphere after electrochemical activation. X-ray Rietveld analysis revealed that the suitable transition metal distribution and content of the samples were different from those of typical layered rock-salt materials. Only that calcined in an N2 atmosphere had no spinel formation during charging and no oxide ion insertion reaction during discharging. No positive Co substitution effect was observed under the optimized preparation conditions. At the 100th cycle, the discharge capacity was 216 mAh g−1, which corresponds to 87% of the initial capacity (251 mAh g−1) at optimizing synthetic condition.

Plasmon‐Induced Pyro‐Phototronic Effect Enhancement in Self‐Powered UV–Vis Detection with a ZnO/CuO p–n Junction Device

AbstractIt is important to detect light of low power density sensitively and fast for the application of optical communication, environmental monitoring, astronomy, and national securities. However, ZnO‐based photodetectors exhibit long decay time owing to the persistent photoconductivity (PPC) and are hard to detect light with low power density efficiently. Here, a practical strategy is utilized to improve the performance of ZnO‐based photodetectors by coupling the pyroelectric effect of ZnO with localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of Au nanoparticles subtly. Hence, a self‐powered photodetector is demonstrated, which is integrated with ZnO/CuO core–shell nanorods and Au nanoparticles to detect UV to vis light. This self‐powered photodetector achieves fast and sensitive detection of UV when power density is 68 nW cm−2. The performance is significantly improved than the photodetectors without Au nanoparticles. The optimal responsivity and detectivity under the same power density of UV at 325 nm are 1.4 × 10−4 A W−1 and 3.3 × 1011 Jones. Response/recovery time is remarkably shortened to ≈10 ms. The results indicate that the material configurations and design concept make the device applicable for self‐powered, high‐performance photodetectors, and provide further promoted understanding of LSPR enhanced performance of photodetectors.

Current Design Strategies for Rechargeable Magnesium-Based Batteries.

As a next-generation electrochemical energy storage technology, rechargeable magnesium (Mg)-based batteries have attracted wide attention because they possess a high volumetric energy density, low safety concern, and abundant sources in the earth's crust. While a few reviews have summarized and discussed the advances in both cathode and anode materials, a comprehensive and profound review focusing on the material design strategies that are both representative of and peculiar to the performance improvement of rechargeable Mg-based batteries is rare. In this mini-review, all nine of the material design strategies and approaches to improve Mg-ion storage properties of cathode materials have been comprehensively examined from both internal and external aspects. Material design concepts are especially highlighted, focusing on designing "soft" anion-based materials, intercalating solvated or complex ions, expanding the interlayer of layered cathode materials, doping heteroatoms into crystal lattice, size tailoring, designing metastable-phase materials, and developing organic materials. To achieve a better anode, strategies based on the artificial interlayer design, efficient electrolyte screening, and alternative anodes exploration are also accumulated and analyzed. The strategy advances toward Mg-S and Mg-Se batteries are summarized. The advantages and disadvantages of all-collected material design strategies and approaches are critically discussed from practical application perspectives. This mini-review is expected to provide a clear research clue on how to rationally improve the reliability and feasibility of rechargeable Mg-based batteries and give some insights for the future research of Mg-based batteries as well as other multivalent-ion battery chemistries.

Inserting insulating barriers into conductive particle channels: A new paradigm for fabricating polymer composites with high dielectric permittivity and low dielectric loss

A longstanding challenge in fabricating high dielectric polymer composite is how to rationalize structure design to improve dielectric permittivity while minimizing dielectric loss. Typically, adding conductive particles in to the composite often leads to an increase in the dielectric loss caused by leakage current due to ‘insulator-conductor’ transition at the percolation threshold. This work presents a strategy for simultaneously assembling conductive and insulating particles to form chainlike structures, based on dipole-dipole interactions induced by electric fields. Specifically, insulating barium titanate (BaTiO3) particles can be subtly embeded in the conductive graphite channels to serve as barriers. The formation of such morphology plays an important role for balancing the high dielectric permittivity and relatively low dielectric loss for conductive fillers/polymer composite systems. With only 2.5 wt% graphite, the dielectric permittivity can be enhanced significantly upon electric field induced assembly, while the dielectric loss also inevitably increases to 396. By incorporating additional 5 wt% BaTiO3 (barriers), we are able to reduce the dielectric loss to as low as 0.19 while the dielectric permittivity still remains relatively high (73.5). This work provides a critical material design concept for high-performance flexible dielectric materials based on creating barriers through the assistance of electric fields in ternary composites, which prevents the generation of leakage current between conductive fillers interfaces.

Asymmetric sandwich-like elements for bianisotropic acoustic metasurfaces

Conventional gradient metasurface suffers from low efficiency because of impedance mismatching, especially in large-angle manipulation. Here we propose an asymmetric sandwich-like material element to design bianisotropic metasurface for full-angle high-efficiency anomalous refractive manipulation. The proposed asymmetric element is composed of two different auxiliary layers attached to the core layer which can be viewed as a conventional gradient index metasurface, and we demonstrate analytically that these sandwich-like structures can exhibit a bianisotropic response and meet the normal impedance matching condition at both sides of the metasurface. Besides, this material design concept can be realized via the space-coiling structures. The availability of the element is first demonstrated by a nearly total refraction at an extreme refracted angle (up to 80°). Subsequently, these elements are used for the transition connection of different waveguides and dramatically improve the transmission performance. Our method brings new possibilities for the design and application of bianisotropic metasurfaces.

Recent Advances in Molecular Design of Organic Thermoelectric Materials

Recent Advances in Molecular Design of Organic Thermoelectric Materials

Recent progress and strategies toward high performance zinc-organic batteries

Energy sustainable development has stimulated the pursuit of an eco-friendly energy storage system. Carbon peak and neutrality targets oriented energy storage development will guide the way of further studies on batteries system. However, conventional batteries system (lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries) based on ungreen transition metal oxide, flammable electrolytes or hazardous metals cannot keep pace with the development of society sooner or later. Thus, vast explorations on the advanced rechargeable battery systems were conducted. Compared with other battery systems, zinc ion battery systems with inherent safety, low cost were widely investigated. Especially, the zinc organic batteries based on the eco-efficiency organic cathodes were promising alternative advanced batteries for future energy storage systems. Therefore, various organics and different electrochemistry mechanisms were explored in the zinc batteries system. Herein, a timely review on elaborate analysis about functional groups, fundamentals, progress accompanied by the discussion on the four core issues: voltage, capacity, rate performance, cycle life was presented. Specifically, aiming at these issues, three levels of solution strategies: materials design concepts, morphology structure optimization and electrolyte environment were summarized and proposed for the development and innovation of zinc organic batteries.

Mechano‐Optical Sensors Fabricated with Multilayered Liquid Crystal Elastomers Exhibiting Tunable Deformation Recovery

AbstractAdvances in tuning the mechanoresponsive behavior of liquid crystal elastomers have facilitated the development of next‐generation applications such as reconfigurable photonic/electronic materials, energy‐harvesting devices, and flexible sensors. However, the molecular‐level control of mechanical responses remains difficult, with limited tunability achieved for recovery processes after stimulus removal. Herein, a design concept is proposed for facilely tuning the recovery of both the macroscopic deformation and molecular orientation change of liquid crystal elastomers using layered materials that exhibit the desired mechanoresponsive behavior. Changing the layering materials (a polydimethylsiloxane film with elastic response to a polymethylpenten film with plastic response) alters the relaxation time from &lt;1 s to &gt;6 months. To demonstrate this concept, highly sensitive, stretchable mechano‐optical sensors with fast and ultraslow recovery times are developed that enable an applied strain to be quantitatively detected in real time or memorized with high spatial resolution, even with a conventional camera. This material design concept for arbitrarily controlling the recovery response can provide a platform for stimuli‐responsive applications.

Mechanical properties of CrN-based superlattices: Impact of magnetism

Superlattices represent an important design concept for materials with exceptional properties. In this work, we report on the influence of different interface orientations and magnetic configurations of CrN in B1 CrN/(TiN,AlN) superlattices on their mechanical and the structural properties studied with the help of density functional theory. The oscillations of interplanar spacings, formerly linked to the cleavage strength in similar material systems, were found to be in no correlation with the magnetic moments of individual CrN planes. An explicit consideration of the interfaces is important for an accurate estimation of elastic constants. In this context, the continuum mechanics-based Grimsditsch and Nizzoli method ignoring interface properties yields even qualitatively wrong results. Similarly, our calculations show that the ferromagnetic state of CrN as an approximation of (computationally much more demanding) paramagnetic magnetic state does not provide correct predictions of the material behaviour. In other words, explicit treatment of the magnetic moments as well as the interfaces is necessary for qualitatively correct modelling of CrN-based superlattices. Finally, the theoretically predicted elastic constants and fracture toughness values were corroborated by CrN/TiN micro-cantilever experiments.

Surface Charge Regulated Asymmetric Ion Transport in Nanoconfined Space.

The asymmetric ion transport in the nanoconfined space, similar to that of natural ion channels, has attracted broad interest in sensor, energy conversion, and other related fields. Among these systems, the surface charge plays an important role in regulating ion transport behaviors. Herein, this surface charge-regulated asymmetric ion transport behavior is systematically explored in the nanoconfined space and the influence on the performance of nanofluidic energy conversion system. The ion transport behaviors in the nanoconfined space are classified into pure diffusion, electrical double layer, and the polarization controlled state. The asymmetric solution environment or surface charge distribution induces asymmetric ion transport behavior which is largely controlled by the low concentration side. The ion-selectivity and the energy conversion performance can be effectively enhanced by improving the local apparent surface charge (more active sites and higher charge strength) or introducing a selective layer with dense surface charge on the low concentration side. These material design concepts for asymmetric ion transport are further supported by both simulation and experiment. The results provide a significant comprehension for ion behaviors in nanoconfined space and the development of high-performance energy storage and conversion systems.

Tribological Performance of Gradient Ag-Multilayer Graphene/TC4 Alloy Self-Lubricating Composites Prepared By Laser Additive Manufacturing

Based on a functionally graded material (FGM) design concept, the laminated-graded Ag-multilayer graphene/TC4 alloy self-lubricating composites (GTMAC) were prepared to overcome the poor friction and wear behaviors of TC4 alloy and expand engineering applications where friction is involved. Tribological experiments on GTMAC were carried out under different temperatures and loads in contrast with TC4 alloy (TC4) and homogeneous Ag-multilayer graphene/TC4 alloy self-lubricating composites (TMAC). The results show that GTMAC presents better friction and wear behaviors compared with TC4 and TMAC over a broad range of temperatures and loads. This is because of the synergistic effect of Ag and multilayer graphene, which are crushed and spread out in the sliding process, resulting in the formation of a lubricating film on the worn surface. Additionally, the equivalent stress distributions on the friction surfaces of TMAC and GTMAC are investigated using a finite-element method. The simulation results indicate that the GTMAC sample model with a smaller equivalent stress can avoid the occurrence of cracks and peeling of the surface material, so the the lubricating film is formed easily and remains for a longer working time.

(Invited) In silico Material Design and Realization of Highly-Efficient Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Conversion of triplet excitons into light is very important to realize highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). One solution is the use of transition-metal-based phosphorescent materials.1,2 Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF)3 is another solution. Recently, we have developed various type of excellent TADF emitters using a simple high-throughput screening method. In this talk, I will present the method and the results we have obtained.4-8 The OLED performances are excellent, but further improvements are necessary to overcome efficiency roll-off problem etc. I will also show our recently proposed material design concept,9 named tilted Face-to-Face alignment with Optimal distance (tFFO), to further accelerate reverse intersystem crossing (RISC). Using this design concept, we developed a new material, TpAT-tFFO (Figure), which provided very fast RISC with a rate constant (k RISC) over 107 s-1.The results of multiscale charge transport simulations10-13 and dynamic nuclear polarization enhanced solid-state NMR14 will be also presented, if time permits.We express sincere thanks to my group members, Prof. Adachi, and his group members. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP20H05840 (Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas, “Dynamic Exciton”), JP17H01231, and JP17J09631, and FIRST Program. Computation time was provided by the Super Computer System, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University. NMR measurements were supported by the international Joint Usage/Research Centre (iJURC) at the Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Japan. M. A. Baldo et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 4 (1999).H. Sasabe and J. Kido, Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2013, 7653 (2013).H. Uoyama et al. Nature, 492, 234 (2012).H. Kaji et al. Nat. Commun., 6, 8476 (2015).K. Suzuki et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 54, 15231 (2015).T. Miwa et al. Sci. Rep., 7, 284 (2017).Y. Wada et al. Appl. Phys. Lett., 107, 183303 (2015).Y. Wada et al. Adv. Mater. 30, 1705641 (2018).Y. Wada, H. Nakagawa, S. Matsumoto, Y. Wakisaka, and H. Kaji, ChemRxiv, https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.9745289.v1 (2019); Nat. Photon. 14, 643 (2020).F. Suzuki et al. J. Mater. Chem. C 3, 5549 (2015).H. Uratani et al. Sci. Rep. 6, 39128 (2016).F. Suzuki et al. Sci. Rep. 8, 5203 (2018).S. Kubo et al. Sci. Rep. 8, 13462 (2018).K. Suzuki et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 56, 14842 (2017). Figure 1

Tuning Microbial Activity via Programmatic Alteration of Cell/Substrate Interfaces.

A wide portfolio of advanced programmable materials and structures has been developed for biological applications in the last two decades. Particularly, due to their unique properties, semiconducting materials have been utilized in areas of biocomputing, implantable electronics, and healthcare. As a new concept of such programmable material design, biointerfaces based on inorganic semiconducting materials as substrates introduce unconventional paths for bioinformatics and biosensing. In particular, understanding how the properties of a substrate can alter microbial biofilm behavior enables researchers to better characterize and thus create programmable biointerfaces with necessary characteristics on demand. Herein, the current status of advanced microorganism-inorganic biointerfaces is summarized along with types of responses that can be observed in such hybrid systems. This work identifies promising inorganic material types along with target microorganisms that will be critical for future research on programmable biointerfacial structures.

Plastic Pollution: A Material Problem?

The field of polymer science recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. The excellent material properties of a wide range of plastics (generally used as a synonym for polymers) have opened many new opportunities in lightweight packaging, agricultural fields for improved crop production, cosmetics, detergents, and more advanced applications, among many others. During the journey of polymer science, various topics have attracted particular attention because they have promised technological advancements or new challenges relevant to the needs of the time. Each has led to intense research, development, and scientific discussion. Since the early 1970s, awareness has increasingly been drawn to the pollution arising from plastic disposal and the related material solutions. The topic has become urgent in the past few years, becoming the focus of widespread interest and debate beyond polymer science boundaries. An important question is, can we hold the material properties of polymers responsible for the plastic pollution issue? In this Perspective, we consider the role and benefits of polymers in everyday life and the increased imbalance between their use and efficient end-of-life options, which leads to critical issues such as plastic pollution. We touch on these issues, propose possible solutions, and offer a perspective on the recycling (mechanical, (bio)chemical, and organic), environmental biodegradation of polymers, and promising material design concepts. Our discussion highlights that plastic pollution is not solely a material problem but an issue that the whole of society must bear the responsibility to solve together.

Fe3O4-Based Anodes with High Conductivity and Fast Ion Diffusivity Designed for High-Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries

A nitrogen and sulfur comodified graphene-coated sea urchin-like Fe₃O₄@C composite (Fe₃O₄@C@NS-rGO) is prepared by a hydrothermal method combined with a subsequent pyrolysis process. Using Fe₃O₄@C@NS-rGO as an anode in a lithium-ion battery, its reversible capacity reaches 532.5 mAh/g at 100 mA/g after 100 cycles. The lithium-ion full battery configurated by Fe₃O₄@C@NS-rGO and LiCoO₂ (Fe₃O₄@C@NS-rGOLiCoO₂) shows a working voltage of 3.25 V and an energy density of 232.1 Wh/kg (vs cathode). For the Fe₃O₄@C@NS-rGO composite, the sea urchin-like hollow structure makes it easier for the electrolyte to infiltrate, the holes can provide space for the volume change, and the one-dimensional rodlike structure around the sea urchin can shorten the transmission path of lithium ions and electrons. Moreover, the introduction of carbon and NS-rGO can increase the electron conductivity and also provide a double buffering effect on the volume change, especially heteroatom functionalization can also provide plentiful active sites for ion adsorption within the electrode, thereby giving excellent lithium-ion storage properties related to the reversible capacity, rate capability, and cycling performance. Such a concept of material design will open up a new strategy for preparing similar advanced anode materials toward high-energy storage systems.

Effect of Molecular Structures on the Charge-Discharge Performance for Organic Redox Flow Battery

Large-scale storage batteries include lithium-ion batteries, sodium-sulfur batteries, lead-acid batteries, and redox flow batteries (RFBs),1-3 and these storage batteries have been used for distributed power systems in various places depending on the size and application. Above all, although RFBs4,5 have technical issues, including energy density lower than that of other storage batteries, and their vanadium content makes them expensive, they have long life and high design flexibility. In addition, they operate at normal temperature and pose no danger of thermal runaway or explosion. Therefore, the advantages of RFBs have been attracting attention as one way to achieve power leveling for renewable energy.More recently, research on alternative technology, such as organic, Ti-Mn,6 or hybrid RFBs,7-9 has become active, and in terms of performance, some alternative RFBs, especially organic RFBs, have become comparable to high-cost vanadium RFBs. One of the greatest features of organic RFBs is that it is possible to increase the energy density by controlling the solubility and redox potential based on molecular design, and pioneering and unique research has been reported so far.10-14 The electron transfer reaction rate of the active material in an organic RFB is larger than that in a vanadium RFB, and the reactivity with the carbon electrode is relatively good. For this reason, continued development of RFBs is expected to provide a new power storage technology that can flexibly cope with being combined with other secondary batteries and hydrogen production technologies. Currently, we are focusing on viologen units and have newly synthesized an assemblage of viologen molecules with relatively high symmetry and a regular structure. We are adopting that concept for active material design and aim at improving RFB performance by increasing both the solubility of the designed viologen assembly and the redox response of the individual introduced viologen molecules. Here, we report the application of this idea to aqueous RFBs using newly synthesized viologen molecular units for an anolyte with a relatively high symmetry and regular structure.[1] B. Zakeri, and S. Syri, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 42, 569 (2015).[2] F. Shi, Reactor and Process Design in Sutainable Energy Technology, Elsevier (2016).[3] B. Dunn, H. Kamath, and J. -M. Tarascon, Science, 334, 928 (2011).[4] J. Noack, N. Roznyatovskaya, T. Herr, P. Fischer, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 54, 9776 (2015).[5] G. L. Soloveichik, Chem. Rev., 115, 11533 (2015).[6] Y. R. Dong, H. Kaku, K. Hanafusa, , K. Moriuchi, T. Shigematsu, ECS Trans., 69, 59 (2015).[7] Y. Xu, Y. Wen, J. Cheng, G. Cao, Y. Yang, Electrochem. Commun., 11, 1422 (2009).[8] X. Wei, W. Xu, M. Vijayakumar, L. Cosimbescu, T. Liu, V. Sprenkle, W. Wang, T. Adv. Mater., 26, 7649 (2014).[9] B. Huskinson, M. P. Marshak, C. Suh, S. Er, M. R. Gerhardt, C. J. Galvin, X. Chen, A. Aspuru-Guzik, R. G. Gordon, M. J. Aziz, Nature, 505, 195 (2014).[10] B. Yang, L. Hoober-Burkhardt, F. Wang, G. K. S. Prakash, S. R. Narayanan, J. Electrochem. Soc. 161, A1371 (2014).[11] J. Winsberg, C. Stolze, S. Muench, F. Liedl, Martin D. Hager, U. S. Schubert, ACS Energy Lett. 1, 976 (2016).[12] K. Lin, R. Gómez-Bombarelli, E. S. Beh, L. Tong, Q. Chen, A. Valle, A. Aspuru-Guzik, M. J. Aziz, R. G. Gordon, Nat. Energy, 1, 16102 (2016).[13] A. Hollas, X. Wei, V. Murugesan, Z. Nie, B. Li, D. Reed, J. Liu, V. Sprenkle, W. A Wang, Nat. Energy, 3, 508 (2018).[14] T. Janoschka, N. Martin, U. Martin, C. Friebe, S. Morgenstern, H. Hiller, M. D. Hager, U. S. Schubert, Nature 527, 78 (2015).

Simultaneous Regeneration of Bone and Nerves Through Materials and Architectural Design: Are We There Yet?

Bilateral communication between bone and nerves is crucial for optimal repair of large bone defects as well as repair of peripheral nerves within the skeleton. However, simultaneous regeneration of bone and nerves is an issue that has long been overlooked in prior literature. Incongruous or even contradictory requirements or regeneration environments for bone and nerves make simultaneous regeneration of multiple tissues challenging. The present review commences with introducing natural crosstalk between bone and nerves, highlighting the rationale for simultaneous regeneration of bone and nerves. These issues will pave the way for the development of inspirational materials design concepts that capitalize on the principles of osteoconduction, osteoinduction, neuroconduction, neuroinduction, and neuroattraction. Potential strategies based on selection of appropriate scaffolds, acellular biological factors and architectural design will be addressed.