John B. Goodenough, the "father of lithium batteries," as the corresponding author, published two articles on JACS in one day talking about all-solid electrolytes.

The nanometerization of metal surfaces was initiated by Ke Lu, a famous Chinese nanoscientist. The surface grain nanometer greatly improves the mechanical strength and hardness of the metal, but at the same time it also increases the surface grain boundary density. Due to the high surface energy of nanocrystals, the high-density nanocrystal boundaries lead to the thermodynamic instability of nanocrystals, which are prone to coarsening at high temperatures or even room temperature, thereby losing the nanometer effect and reducing the mechanical properties.

Turing structure often appears in the reaction-diffusion process that is thermodynamically unbalanced. When the diffusion rate is unbalanced, the fast-moving inhibitor controls the movement of the slow-moving activator, resulting in a Turing structure. The steady-state system formed by the Turing structure is very sensitive to tiny heterogeneous disturbances.

The renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind were intermittent, thus the electrochemical energy storage devices like batteries are necessary. The development of lithium-ion, lead–acid, redox-flow, sodium–sulfur and liquid-metal batteries shows promise for grid-scale energy storage. However, they have various issues of low energy density, poor rechargeability, high cost at the battery pack level and high operating temperature, which limited their application.

It is found that the macromolecular ferritin crystals with hydrogel polymers can expand to 180% of their original size in an isotropic manner, and exceed 500% of their original volume, while maintaining periodic ordering and multiplanar Wulff morphology. Even if the neighboring ferritin molecules are separated by 50 angstroms during lattice expansion, the specific molecular contact between them can be re-formed during lattice contraction, which achieves the atomic level periodic and highest resolution recovery of ferritin structure reported so far.

Prof. Wang Hongjie's research group prepared an ultra-light, compressible and high-temperature resistant ceramic aerogel by using the method of chemical vapor deposition and in-situ growth and self-assembly of silicon carbide ceramic nanowires.

Professor Yu of University of Science & Technology China has developed a new synthetic strategy of phenolic resin (PFR) and SiO2 copolymerization and nano scale phase separation with chitosan as the three-dimensional template and PFR/SiO2 composite aerogel with dual network structure has been successfully developed.

It is reported that Haiying Special Materials is one of the platforms for the Third Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology to implement integration of defense and civilian technologies and promote the development of civil industrialization, and is committed to the innovation and industrialization of new aerospace materials.

The high elasticity exhibited by polymer elastomers is a unique mechanical property, which has an irreplaceable position in various fields of daily life and national economy. The high deformation of polymer elastomers is mainly derived from the huge difference in the mean square end distance of linear polymer segments in the curled and straightened state, which is a kind of entropy elasticity. However, in inorganic materials, due to strong internal covalent bonds, ionic bonds, metal bonds and other strong forces, the elastic deformation of inorganic materials is much smaller. Therefore, how to prepare highly stretchable pure inorganic elastomer has been a difficult problem for a long time.

On February 5, ITC announced that it had made 337 final ruling on aerogel insulation composite and its manufacturing technology (Inv. No.337-TA-1003): it ruled that two Chinese companies, Nanuo Technology and Guangdong Ailisheng, were infringing intellectual property rights and decided to terminate the investigation.

Irina Smirnova and Pavel Gurikov of Hamburg University of Technology in Germany published a paper entitled "Aerogel production: current status, research direction, and future opportunities. From the perspective of large-scale commercial applications, the article reviews the aerogel products' current situation, existing research areas and future development directions, and tries to analyze the potential applications of aerogels, so as to provide reference for the determination of academic research direction.

The development of new materials presents the characteristics of integration of structure and function, integration of materials and devices, nanometer, composite, and green. Its role is to play in high Mach number aircraft, micro-nano electromechanical systems, new medicines, advanced cosmetics and new energy batteries It's so vivid. New materials play an important role in the technological progress of the industry. For example, high-performance special steels and high-temperature alloys are the best choices for high-speed rail wheels and aircraft engines, ultra-high-strength aluminum alloys are the key structural materials for large aircraft frames, and high-strength, high-toughness and corrosion-resistant titanium alloys are used for the Jiaolong shell and marine engineering. Indispensable material.

New materials refer to newly emerged materials with excellent performance and special functions, as well as materials with traditional material composition and improved technology that have significantly improved performance or new functions. The new materials industry, which incorporates the advanced achievements of many contemporary disciplines, is the basic industry supporting the development of the national economy and the material basis for the development of other high-tech industries.

With the strong support for the development of new energy vehicles, the number of electric vehicles is increasing rapidly, and the pace of industrialization is accelerating. At present, electric vehicles mainly use lithium-ion batteries as power batteries. After years of development, the safety of lithium-ion power batteries has been significantly improved, but under extreme conditions, lithium batteries still have the risk of combustion and explosion. The application of aerogel materials will further strengthen the fire protection requirements of power batteries and ensure the safety of people's lives and property.

Through piezoelectric, triboelectric, thermoelectric, photoelectric and other effects, materials and devices with micro-nano structures are selected and designed, and the underutilized mechanical and physical energy in the environment is collected and stored to power electronic devices. This green, Sustainable nano generators have become one of the frontier research directions in recent years.

According to the latest issue of "Science and Materials" magazine, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a new process for the production of ultrafine fibers called gel electrospinning. The resulting nano-scale fibers have exceptional strength and toughness, it may become a new choice for protective armor and nanocomposites.

The National Standardization Management Committee announced that the nano porous aerogel composite insulation product was officially released. The standard was implemented in September 1, 2018, and the standard number is GB/T 34336-2017. This is China's first national standard for aerogel materials.

Aerogel blanket is a kind of flexible thermal insulation blanket which is made of nano silica aerogel as the main material and is compounded with glass fiber wool or pre-oxidized fiber blanket by special process.It is the solid insulation material with the lowest thermal conductivity in the temperature area of about 400℃ (the thermal conductivity in the high temperature area of 400-1000℃ is much higher than the micro/nano thermal insulation series).

2017 National Aerogel Material Innovation and Application Symposium was held in Beijing. The event is sponsored by China Green Building Materials Industry Alliance, aiming to promote the application and development of aerogel industry, interpret industrial policies, display industry panorama, and investigate the pain points in the industry.

Aerogel is the lightest solid material known in the world. Because of its extremely low thermal conductivity, durability, high temperature resistance, explosion-proof and other characteristics, it has broad application prospects in aerospace, national defense and military industry, green buildings, new energy, environmental treatment, solar heat utilization and other fields.