Multiple Application for Novel and Advanced Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Multifunctional materials and composites are designed to achieve higher functionality compared to that of each of their components separately, since the best attributes of the individual materials can be grouped together to create brand-new materials that have a broader spectrum of desired properties. However, novel and advanced materials may be overly complex, and their interrelations with other components will demand highly specific process conditions. Nevertheless, these materials have great potential in engineering applications and can help to reduce the dimension, weight, and energy consumption of components while enhancing their safety and versatility, thus improving their performance. Such multiple-function materials can be found in nature today—e.g., biological materials, which are able to perform sensing and aid in recovery, movement, energy conversion, and so on, all in one simple organism. Furthermore, due to the enormous potential for engineering applications, significant work has been devoted to investigating the properties of different microstructural change materials with the particular aim to design excellent characteristic materials. However, to achieve these technological advances, a detailed understanding of the fundamental properties and functionality of those materials is still required. Therefore, scientists are now attempting to produce these materials and recreate high-performing systems in labs by designing artificial multifunctional materials which combine metallurgical sciences and engineering know-how. This Special Issue will mainly focus on the electro/thermomechanical and physicochemical behavior of advanced engineering materials, including but not restricted to metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and carbon-based composites, custom-made membranes, smart multifunctional coatings, and 3D fiber networks, amongst others. This Special Issue also focuses on the material science aspects and applications of high-entropy alloy (HEA), bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), and intermetallic alloy. Research groups are thus encouraged to create next-generation materials by designing and developing a wider range of functional and structural applications, thus tackling the present and future challenges in energy conversion, environmental sustainability, and healthcare promotion. This short introduction to this Special Issue only scratches the surface of all the concepts developed to date, on which we welcome papers.

Prof. Dr. Tao-Hsing Chen
Prof. Dr. Shih-Chen Shi
Topic Editors