Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 05 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00951-1Metasurfaces are optically resonant, open nanophotonic platforms that concentrate and control light at the nanoscale. This Review shows how they provide a common photonic framework across plasmonic, excitonic and phononic material excitations to engineer light–matter coupling, polaritonic states and emergent optical functionalities.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 02 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00963-xMagnetic soft materials combine magnetic responsiveness with mechanical compliance, enabling wireless actuation, sensing and navigation in complex biological environments. This Review links materials and mechanisms to device function and clinical translation across wearable, ingestible, implantable and interventional systems.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 01 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00969-5The recent report of an oxide-dispersion-strengthened Ta alloy retaining appreciable tensile strength above 2,000 °C raises a provocative question: do we still need refractory high-entropy alloys? This Comment argues that their value lies in enabling multiple tolerance mechanisms for extreme environments and proposes shifting the design focus from maximizing compositional complexity to deploying the right complexity, in the right form, for the right mechanism.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 29 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00970-yAn article in Nature Materials presents a polymer–lipid nanoparticle that simultaneously functions as an mRNA carrier and a T cell activator, enabling in vivo generation of functional chimeric antigen receptor T cells.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 29 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00968-6Advances in artificial intelligence have fundamentally changed how lipid nanoparticles are designed, enabling a transition from high-throughput screening to autonomous, data-driven discovery. As the field matures, however, a critical blind spot emerges: the immunological dimension of lipid nanoparticle function has yet to be integrated into artificial intelligence-driven pipelines.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 29 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00962-ySpectrally engineered textile materials enable low-energy personal thermoregulation, offering a promising strategy to improve thermal comfort and human health under diverse environmental conditions. This Review discusses the links between environmental conditions, spectral properties and multiscale structures, and outlines design principles, representative materials and future opportunities for personal thermoregulation.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 24 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00958-8Electrolyte design remains a central challenge in battery research. This Review explains how electrolytes’ molecular environments alter ion energetics, electrode potentials, interphase evolution, transport behaviour and thermal safety, establishing rational electrolyte design principles for future batteries beyond conventional empirical formulation screening.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 21 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00959-7Phase-change materials can store a large amount of latent heat within nearly isothermal phase transitions, making them ideal for thermal management. To enable system-level integration, this Review presents a multiscale design framework for optimizing the thermal properties of phase-change materials from the molecular and material levels to the module and device levels.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 21 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00961-zMono-material products, which are made up of one polymer type derived from a single monomer or comonomer combination, may help to solve the sustainability problems associated with multimaterial plastic products. This Review discusses advances in engineering processes towards mono-materials and the remaining technical challenges surrounding mono-materialization.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 17 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00967-7An article in Communications Materials reports a high-pressure and high-temperature processing strategy that permanently switches the carrier polarity of Bi2Te3 while also enhancing its thermoelectric and mechanical properties.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 17 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00957-9Smart batteries require materials that can regulate degradation, sense hidden internal states and support decision-oriented management. This Review discusses responsive materials, battery-integrated sensing architectures and data-assisted interpretation strategies for developing cell-compatible, manufacturable and sustainable smart batteries.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 16 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00966-8An article in Nature Communications shows that suppressing antisite defects in single-crystal Bi2Te3 through Se alloying simultaneously enhances mechanical flexibility and thermoelectric performance.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 16 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00964-wAn article in Science Advances shows that confined copper ion dynamics in TiCu5Se3 induce strong anharmonic lattice vibrations and wave-like thermal transport, achieving high thermoelectric efficiency.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 15 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00965-9An article in npj Computational Materials presents a thermoelectric inverse design framework that combines generative artificial intelligence with hierarchical first principles screening to identify previously unknown thermoelectric candidates with promising predicted performance.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 22 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00926-2Advances in material science have greatly extended the capabilities of 3D bioprinting. This Review discusses material design principles for in vivo biomanufacturing technologies and describes challenges and opportunities for the clinical translation of applications in tissue regeneration, wound repair, therapy and bioelectronics.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 21 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00932-4Nanomedicine has advanced through increasingly sophisticated particle design, yet generalizable rules for productive delivery remain scarce. This gap persists in part because the receiving cell is still treated as assay background rather than as an active design variable. Bringing cell state into the design space can help to translate context-dependent performance into more actionable and predictive rules for nanomedicine development.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 12 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00929-zAn article in Physical Review Letters describes how the momentum dependence of the superconducting pairing potential can be probed using the quantum twisting microscope.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 11 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00928-0A paper in Nature demonstrates a fully integrated, closed-loop system that links machine learning-guided molecular design with robotic device fabrication, enabling both the discovery of new passivation molecules and the reproducible manufacture of high-efficiency perovskite solar cells.

Nature Reviews Materials, Published online: 07 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41578-026-00923-5As alternatives to bismuth telluride, Te-free thermoelectric materials are emerging as promising candidates for low-temperature power generation. This Review discusses the design principles and future prospects of Te-free thermoelectric materials and devices across scales, from materials and interfaces to devices and system-level integration.