Clinical translation of permeation enhancers

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 01 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00954-yPermeation enhancers are transforming strategies for overcoming biological barriers in therapeutic delivery. This Perspective critically evaluates their mechanisms, clinical evidence, translational challenges and regulatory considerations and outlines emerging opportunities to enable broader therapeutic application across diverse delivery routes.

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4th Frontiers in Electron and Scanning Probe Microscopy for the Physical and Life Sciences

Advances in electron microscopy instrumentation and methods continue to drive progress in the physical and life sciences. The 4th edition of this conference will bring together researchers from physic...

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How single-atom catalysts reframe stability as adaptability

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 25 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00960-0Single-atom catalysts were initially developed to maximize metal utilization, but they have evolved into a powerful platform for interrogating the fundamental principles of catalysis. Recent studies reveal that their active sites continuously adapt through interactions with supports, defects and reactants. These findings challenge the conventional view of catalyst stability as structural persistence, redefining it as controlled adaptability and opening the way to catalysts that sense, switch and evolve with their reaction environment.

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Thermo-responsive materials for rechargeable batteries

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 24 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00952-0Safety presents a central challenge in developing high-energy rechargeable batteries. Thermally responsive polymers provide an effective strategy for active safety regulation: upon heating, they undergo intrinsic structural transformations that suppress ion and electron transport, interrupt electrochemical reactions and mitigate thermal runaway, enabling safer and more reliable battery technology for next-generation energy storage.

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A hierarchical fibre to trap and sense microplastics

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 20 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00956-wAn article in Advanced Materials presents a tunicate nanocellulose and MXene fibre that can capture and detect trace levels of microplastics, inspired by the pollen-collecting structures on the legs of bees.

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Engineered coacervates as emerging liquid biomaterials

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 20 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00950-2Although liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a fundamental biological principle, the potential of LLPS-driven engineered coacervates remains largely untapped. This Review reframes coacervates as powerful liquid biomaterials, detailing how their unique properties can be harnessed for diverse biomedical applications.

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Engineering disorder for luminous glasses

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 13 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00955-xAn article in Angewandte Chemie reports a deep eutectic solvent strategy that suppresses crystallization in hybrid metal halide glasses while preserving the local structural order required for efficient and tunable luminescence.

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The importance of fit-for-purpose structure characterization in autonomous laboratories

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 13 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00953-zAdvances in robotic experimentation and data-driven decision-making have enabled efficient, autonomous synthesis of bespoke materials structures; yet the role of structure characterization remains underexamined. The information content of structural measurements fundamentally limits what autonomous laboratories can learn, motivating adaptive, structure-aware characterization strategies to achieve materials discovery grounded in atomic-scale understanding.

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Engineered interfaces in electronic materials for energy-efficient computing

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 03 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00949-9As electronic devices downscale, the energy efficiency of computing is increasingly limited by interfacial transport processes. This Perspective outlines how engineered electronic-material interfaces control switching, charge and heat transport, and reliability and discusses interface design for logic, memory, interconnects and thermal management, whereas identifying predictive modelling needs for interface design.

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Closed-loop battery recycling through cathode resynthesis

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 27 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00947-xClosed-loop battery recycling depends on converting variable black mass into cathode precursors that can match commercial materials. This Review links leachate chemistry, precursor impurity, stoichiometry and morphology to resynthesized cathode performance, and outlines design principles for hydrometallurgical cathode resynthesis.

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Nanoscale additive manufacturing of metals, alloys, and metal oxides

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 22 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00945-zThe properties of nanoscale metallic systems can be amplified through nanostructuring to achieve unique performance in mechanics, robotics, catalysis and photonics. This Review highlights the key nanoscale additive manufacturing techniques used to produce such metallic systems and their distinct next-generation applications.

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Engineering bamboo as a multiscale platform for carbon-negative materials

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 20 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00943-1Bamboo is a fast-growing lignocellulosic resource that combines high biomass productivity with the ability to sequester atmospheric carbon in long-lived materials. This Review frames bamboo as a multiscale platform for carbon-conscious materials design, linking hierarchical structure, bond-selective chemistry, processing, durability and life-cycle accounting to identify when bamboo-derived products can store carbon, displace emissions and deliver credible climate benefits sustainably at scale.

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Replace the vitreous permanently

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 14 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00948-wVitreous substitutes remain a fundamental unmet need in regenerative medicine: current tamponade agents, gases and silicone oil, address immediate surgical challenges but neglect the long-term functional role of the tissue they replace. A paradigm shift towards durable, biomimetic hydrogel substitutes is not a distant ambition, but a clinical necessity.

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Rethinking energy density limits in dielectric materials

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 14 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00946-yDielectrics with high energy storage density are essential for device miniaturization and system integration. As advances in materials fabrication technologies push the breakdown strength of dielectric materials ever closer to their theoretical limits, greater emphasis should be placed on polarization enhancement for further improving the energy storage performance.

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From screening to generative design in nucleic acid delivery

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 08 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00944-0The discovery of delivery materials is shifting from empirical screening to predictive, artificial intelligence-guided design. Harder problems, including the simultaneous optimization of competing properties and delivery beyond the liver, are now pushing the field further, from screening materials to generating them against predefined property targets.

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Understanding and engineering electrocatalyst durability

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 08 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00937-zElectrocatalyst durability is a central challenge limiting the large-scale deployment of electrochemical energy technologies, despite major advances in nanocatalyst design and activity. This Review examines the thermodynamic and kinetic principles governing catalyst stability and highlights emerging strategies to understand and engineer stable, high-performance electrocatalysts for practical energy applications.

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Irregular metamaterial networks

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 03 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00936-0Metamaterials derived from irregular networks promise remarkable properties but require a new type of network science. This Perspective establishes a foundation built on networks endowed with geometry and physics for describing, analysing, predicting and ultimately designing metamaterials with controlled irregularity and tailored functionalities.

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MXene-based bioabsorbable bandage speeds up diabetic wound repair

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 29 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00941-3An article in Science Advances reports a fully bioabsorbable, glucose-powered electronic bandage that uses MXene-based electrodes to harvest biochemical energy and restore wound edge fields in diabetic tissues.

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Transparent and flexible MXene antennas take shape

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 26 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00940-4An article in Science Advances reports a MXene grid architecture that delivers a conformal, transparent and efficient antenna platform suitable for both wearable devices and flexible metasurfaces.

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MXene electrodes enable real-time visualization of plant electrical signals

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 26 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00942-2An article in Nature Electronics introduces a low-drift, high-density electrode array based on a dry MXene–pressure-sensitive adhesive composite that enables real-time visualization of environment-stimulated electrical waves in plants.

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Two-dimensional materials need a shared experimental memory

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 24 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00938-yThere is no lack of possibilities for two-dimensional materials science; however, there is a lack of organized memory. Connecting what materials have been synthesized, how they were made and how they relate to computational predictions could shape future discoveries.

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Demand-side innovation is the priority for decarbonizing materials

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 12 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00934-2Global industrial emissions from bulk materials continue to rise despite climate policies. This Perspective uses an illustrative resource-constrained model of a national transition to net zero to show that supply-side climate mitigation strategies based on technological substitutions cannot deliver at the required scale; thus, policy priorities should shift towards electric recycling and participatory demand-side innovation.

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Designing advanced thermoelectrics

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 11 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00931-5Progress towards high-performance thermoelectrics that convert waste heat into electricity remains constrained by the coupling of electrical and thermal transport. This Review synthesizes design principles exploiting the electronic structure and lattice dynamics, and it highlights physics-informed descriptors for AI-assisted discovery and design.

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Trustworthy benchmarks for halide perovskite transistors

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00935-1Halide perovskite transistors are advancing rapidly, yet reported mobility values remain highly sensitive to material properties, device physics and measurement protocols. Establishing reliable, reproducible and application-specific mobility metrics is essential for translating laboratory performance into credible device technologies.

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From linear fixes to circular design: how polymer science has changed over the past decade

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00933-3Over the past decade, polymer science has shifted from precision synthesis to circular economy design. Breakthroughs in recycling, depolymerization and data-driven methods will be instrumental in designing polymers for sustainability within planetary constraints.

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Nanofluidic ionic memory for next-generation computing

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 03 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00919-1In the brain, memory involves release of neurotransmitters and transport of ions through nanoconfined channels. This Perspective discusses how nanofluidic memristors emulate this confined ion transport, highlighting the materials, design strategies and challenges involved in developing brain-inspired computing technologies.

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Towards selective recycling technologies for complex plastic waste

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00927-1Technologies for the selective recycling of heterogeneous and contaminated plastic waste streams are required to achieve a circular plastics economy. This Review surveys solvent-based recycling and depolymerization strategies towards the selective recycling of key types of plastic waste.

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Molecular design for high-performance organic photosensitizers

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 29 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00930-6Organic photosensitizers enable diverse light-driven processes in biomedicine, energy, environment and synthetic photochemistry. This Review outlines molecular design strategies and photosensitization pathway modulation across type II, type I and oxygen-independent mechanisms and discusses machine-learning approaches for predictive and data-driven photosensitizer discovery.

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Proteins for a sustainable future

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 26 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00925-3At present, food manufacturing waste is repurposed mainly as low-value animal feed and soil additives. Roy Goswami et al. describe how closed-loop recycling of protein-rich wastes could provide bioplastics, packaging composites and materials for water purification, CO2 capture and renewable energy that support environmental stewardship.

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