Special needs patients often require specific dental treatments and modified restorative materials that reduce clinical discomfort. Starting from glass ionomer cements (GICs), some different fillers were added to improve their mechanical and clinical performances. The effect of nanohydroxyapatite, antibiotic, and mucosal defensive agent on the mechanical and thermal properties of GICs was investigated. Compressive tests, calorimetric analysis, and morphological investigation were conducted. The middle percentages of fillers increased the elastic modulus while the highest decreases are recorded for highest percentages. Filler and environment also influence the compressive strengths and toughness. The introduction of fillers led to a reduction of the enthalpy with a maximum decrease with the middle percentage. The morphological characterization showed a good dispersion of the fillers. The filler percentages should be selected with a compromise between the elastic modulus, the compressive strength, and the curing time. Obtaining new materials with good clinical and mechanical properties can represent an innovative aspect of this work with positive implication in clinical practice, mainly in uncollaborative patients in which the use of traditional protocols is problematic.

The rapid increase and dependency on mobile electronic devices and burgeoning importance of sensor network systems and Internet of Things (IoT) to sustain an aging society indicates the strong need to develop battery-less and mobile power sources. Materials for energy harvesting from environmental sources, including mechanical vibrations, magnetic field, heat, and light have become highly relevant for implementation of the IoT vision that requires self-powered wireless sensor networks for sustainable deployment. The articles in this issue cover piezoelectric materials, magnetoelectrics, and thermoelectrics and provide a summary of state-of-the-art energy-harvesting approaches, various material design strategies being targeted by the community, and fundamental challenges in finding an optimum solution and future roadmap. Flexibility of energy harvesters is also emphasized, given the huge potential for wearables. Photovoltaics are briefly covered with respect to wearables and textiles.

Conjugated polymers have emerged as potential candidates for thermal-energy harvesting. Their flexible and lightweight nature, as well as scalable processing, make them geometrically versatile for a large variety of applications, including powering wearable electronics that are not available for traditional inorganic materials. However, the long-range structural disorder greatly hinders their electrical conduction, and this far outweighs the induced low thermal conductivity; therefore, the thermoelectric performance needs to be significantly improved to fulfill the requirements of efficient devices. Composites and hybrid thermoelectric materials have been developed to capitalize on the individual strengths of conducting polymers and other components, including carbon nanotubes, graphene, and inorganic nanomaterials. In this article, we present recent advances in conjugated polymers, the associated hybrid thermoelectric composites, and the latest breakthroughs in the development of inorganic–organic hybrid superlattices.

By inserting a carbon chain, the geometric structure and electronic properties of carbon nanotube (CNT) would undergo a significant change. Numerous studies have conducted to experimentally find the insertion effect of carbon chains on CNTs. This paper in a theoretical way studied the geometry of carbon chains inserted CNTs and analyzed the mechanism for conductivity change after insertion of carbon chains. Results indicate that carbon chains in the innermost channel of the tube are effective methods for transforming the electrical properties of the CNT, leading to the redistribution of electron and thereby causing the conductivity change in obtained configurations.