Cages meet gels: Smart materials with dual porosity

Materials comprising gels and metal-organic cages offer promising solutions to current scientific challenges. Their structures rely on non-covalent interactions hence can be dynamic change properties in response a variety of external stimuli exert functions, thus providing smart materials for diverse applications. Coupling these two types yields three-dimensional network with distinct sets pore sizes shapes, which may useful applications dependent the transport molecules at different rates, such as catalysis chemical separation. Given nature range transformations they have been shown undergo, containing stimulus-responsive developed, whereby structural transformation cage within gel matrix could followed by mechanical material. This concept might applied industrial processes develop catalytic cascades. In this perspective, we also discuss challenges field, highlighting areas exploration interface chemistry. Soft found uses many areas, medicine, robotics, battery research. 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