Flexible ferroelectrics: High-quality ferroelectric materials, which polarize in response to an electric field, are usually oxides that crack when bent. Dong et al. found that high-quality membranes of barium titanate are surprisingly flexible and super-elastic. These films accommodate large strains through dynamic evolution of nanodomains during deformation. This discovery is important for developing more robust flexible devices. Science , this issue p. 475

S-T-R-E-T-C-H Me: Most metals show elastic strain limits well below 1%, beyond which permanent plastic deformation occurs. Metal nanowires can be elastically stretched to much higher strains, on the order of 4 to 7%. However, when placed inside a metal matrix to form a composite, these nanowires can no longer be stretched to the same extent, even when the nanowires are well distributed and show good bonding with the matrix. Hao et al. (p. 1191 ; see the Perspective by Zhou ) used a shape memory alloy as the matrix material to produce a much better (more elastic) composite.

The piezoelectric properties of lead zirconate titanate [Pb(Zr,Ti)O ₃ or PZT] ceramics could be enhanced by fabricating textured ceramics that would align the crystal grains along specific orientations. We present a seed-passivated texturing process to fabricate textured PZT ceramics by using newly developed Ba(Zr,Ti)O ₃ microplatelet templates. This process not only ensures the template-induced grain growth in titanium-rich PZT layers but also facilitates desired composition through interlayer diffusion of zirconium and titanium. We successfully prepared textured PZT ceramics with outstanding properties, including Curie temperatures of 360°C, piezoelectric coefficients d ₃₃ of 760 picocoulombs per newton and g ₃₃ of 100 millivolt meters per newton, and electromechanical couplings k ₃₃ of 0.85. This study addresses the challenge of fabricating textured rhombohedral PZT ceramics by suppressing the otherwise severe chemical reaction between PZT powder and titanate templates.