Liquid-based materials

With the rapid development of science and technology, the synergistic integration of new materials and technologies has become the support and guarantee of many emerging industries. Due to the higher requirements for the intelligent and durability of materials, single component or single-phase materials have been far from meeting the needs of practical applications. For example, solid materials can provide stable mechanical structures, but it is difficult to achieve a large-scale rapid dynamic response. Liquid materials have the property of rapid dynamic response, but they also have strong fluidity and are very difficult to be used as structural materials. In this Perspective, we present a framework and a path forward for developing and designing ‘liquid-based materials’ from compounded solid and liquid by comprehensively using new concepts, new theories, and new technologies, which will bring many dynamic properties, specific structures, and functions to materials, further expand the design ideas and application scope of advanced materials, promote the cross-disciplinary development of materials science, physics, chemistry, engineering, biomedicine, and other disciplines, and help advances in the development of new materials. The challenges and prospects for developing liquid-based materials in the future are also discussed.