Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is an important high-performance thermoplastic. Its excellent strength, stiffness, toughness, fatigue resistance, biocompatibility, chemical stability and radiolucency have made PEEK attractive in dental and orthopedic applications. However, PEEK has an inherently hydrophobic and chemically inert surface, which has restricted its widespread use in clinical applications, especially in bonding with dental resin composites. Cutting edge research on novel methods to improve PEEK applications in dentistry, including oral implant, prosthodontics and orthodontics, is reviewed in this article. In addition, this article also discusses innovative surface modifications of PEEK, which are a focus area of active investigations. Furthermore, this article also discusses the necessary future studies and clinical trials for the use of PEEK in the human oral environment to investigate its feasibility and long-term performance.

The excellent performance and wide applications of phenyl polysiloxanes are largely due to their phenyl units and monomer sequences. However, the relationship between molecular structure and material properties has not been explicitly elucidated. In this work, the sequence distribution and microstructure of random copolymers were quantitatively investigated by means of a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation combined with experimental verification. The results of ²⁹Si NMR showed that the large number of phenyl units not only shortened the length of the dimethyl units, but also significantly increased the proportion of consecutive phenyl units. The simulation results indicated the attraction between adjacent phenyl groups that were effectively strengthened intra- and inter- molecular interactions, which determined the equilibrium population of conformations and the dynamics of conformational transitions. Furthermore, the evolution of bond angle distribution, torsion distribution, and mean-squared displacements (MSD) shed light on the conformational characteristics that induce the unique thermodynamics properties and photophysical behavior of high-phenyl polysiloxanes. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamical mechanical analysis (DMA), spectrofluorimetry, and laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) were performed to verify the conclusions drawn from the simulation. Overall, the complementary use of MD simulations and experiments provided a deep molecular insight into structure–property relationships, which will provide theoretical guidance for the rational design and preparation of high-performance siloxanes.

Chalcone single crystals 1–2 with red emission and photodimerization-triggered hopping behavior are designed via fine-tuning the substituent, and their distinctively different emission behavior is attributed to the molecular packing effect as demonstrated by single crystal structure analysis and theoretical calculations.

A series of hydroxy-substituted cyclic chalcone derivatives 1–3 are synthesized and bulk single crystals with bright multicolor emission are cultivated. The hydroxyl substitution endows these compounds with intrinsic enol–keto tautomerism character.