Hybrid materials of flexible crystals

Crystalline materials have shaken their traditionally inflexible reputation and show the ability in response to external stimuli by macroscopic dynamic effects such as mechanical deformations or motions. Recently, the hybrid strategy has been proposed in Zhang's group to design and prepare multifunctional flexible crystalline materials by integrating flexible crystals with functional materials (responsive polymers and/or other components with special functions), which expands the range of available stimuli and opens up a broad prospect for the practical application of flexible crystals in the fields of flexible optoelectronics, bionics, and intelligence.