Lei Wang

Elastic ceramics Aerogels hold promise as lightweight replacements for thermal insulation. However, poor mechanical stability has hampered progress in moving toward commercialization. Xu et al. designed a mechanical metamaterial that pinches in a small amount when you compress it (see the Perspective by Chhowalla and Jariwala). This is characteristic of materials with a negative Poisson's ratio and dramatically improves mechanical stability. The trick was using three-dimensional graphene structures to template the ceramic aerogels, thus producing a superinsulating material endowed with excellent mechanical properties. Science , this issue p. 723 ; see also p. 694

<italic>In situ</italic> XRD resolves the structural evolution of the Na–Cu/Ni/Mn–O system during the Na intercalation/deintercalation processes. The introduction of Cu²⁺ into the transition metal lattice is an strategy to prevent P2–O2 phase transitions.

A conjugated-polymer-based “mix-and-detect” optical sensor for mercury ions is fabricated by using a water-soluble poly[3-(3′-N,N,N-triethylamino-1′-propyloxy)-4-methyl-2,5-thiophene hydrochloride] (PMNT) and a label-free, mercury-specific oligonucleotide (MSO) probe. PMNT binds to the Hg2+-free MSO and the Hg2+–MSO complex in different ways, and exhibits distinguishable and specific optical responses to the target-induced conformation change. Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://www.wiley-vch.de/contents/jc_2089/2007/c2578_s.pdf or from the author. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

In this review, we report the recent research progress in the area of design and synthesis of tin sulfide and selenide (SnS, SnS₂, SnSe, and SnSe₂) based anode materials for Li-ion batteries and Na-ion batteries.