Creating multifunctionality with hierarchical heterostructures

Materials with multifunctionalities are essential for saving energy and conserving natural resources, but intrinsic multiple trade-offs among material properties often limit the development of next-generation multifunctional materials. This Perspective highlights the concept of hierarchical heterostructure with the potential to create unprecedented multifunctional properties. This strategy enables an exceptional combination of multiple conflicting properties beyond the reach of conventional approaches through activating multiple physical mechanisms. This paper aims to draw the attention of materials community to the emerging heterostructured materials and to motivate active investigations on this topic for creating transformative materials with multifunctionalities.