Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
For the first time, we investigate the synergistic effect of one-dimensional nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) and two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO) to facilitate low-cost, mechanically strong hybrid microfibers. Both experimental and molecular dynamics simulations were carried out. Such GO-NFC hybrid microfibers show an elastic modulus of 34.1 GPa, an ultimate tensile strength of 442.4 MPa and a toughness of 4.9 MJ m−3, which outperform among the best GO fibers in literature. This study promotes a new design strategy to create high-performance microfibers for a range of applications.
A novel release mechanism of microcapsules is demonstrated, where the rate of core release can be solely controlled by magnetic field-induced deformation of microcapsules. Composite microcapsules are prepared with magnetic particles embedded in the polymer wall. It shows that the release rate is highly dependent on the strengths of the magnetic field and deformation frequency of the microcapsules.
A topotactic reaction strategy has been reported to achieve the oriented attachment of colloidal metal chalcogenide quantum dots into micrometer-sized nanosheets and nanobelts (up to 6-7 μm) on both mechanically rigid and flexible substrates. The non-stoichiometric compositions, crystallization, Ag doping and good contact with substrate were controlled well. The observation of weak anti-localization phenomena and Hall effect sensitivity, the improved I-V and photoresponse property and the stable I-V property of these nanosheet films on flexible substrates under bending force testify their potential electronic device application.
In this paper, we demonstrate a highly active and stable Pt nanoparticle/Mo2C nanotube catalyst for methanol electro-oxidation. Well-dispersed Pt nanoparticles were deposited on Mo2C nanotubes using a controllable atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. This catalyst showed much higher catalytic activity for methanol oxidation and superior CO tolerance, when compared with those of the conventional Pt/C and PtRu/C catalysts. These results provide a promising strategy for the design of highly active next-generation catalysts.
Graphene is an emerging material for nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) due to its intriguing electronic properties and promising mechanical character. However, intrinsic graphene has long been considered devoid of piezoelectric effect which restricts its electromechanical coupling ability. We report on a giant two-dimensional (2D) piezoelectric effect on an intrinsic graphene-based NEMS platform, which results from dynamical adjustment of band structure-induced polarization instead of occurrence of electric dipoles at the molecular level. These findings not only open an avenue for dynamical strain-engineered 2D electronics, but also pave the way for low-cost sensing and energy harvesting applications.
We demonstrated for the first time highly flexible N-doped SiC nanoneedle field emitters with low turn-on fields and excellent emission stabilities. The characterizations of their field emission properties under repeated bending cycles and different bending states confirmed that such emitters are mechanically and electrically robust. These findings underscore the importance of concurrent morphology and composition controls in nanomaterial synthesis and establish SiC nanoneedles as the most promising candidate for flexible FE applications.
Strongly coupled and uniform Cu2O@CeO2 core@shell cubes with highly active interface are successfully fabricated via a ‘clean synthetic process’. The final hybrid nanostructure formation is highly dependent on the species of Cu precursors as well as the synthetic temperatures. Finally the as-obtained 155 nm cubes exhibit the highest catalytic activity in the catalytic CO oxidation and the peroxidase-like activity test.
Polyhedral Au nanocrystals enclosed by a variety of index facets are prepared: cubic Au NCs enclosed by {100} facets; truncated octahedral Au NCs enclosed by {100} and {110} facets; and trisoctahedral Au NCs enclosed by 24 high-index {441} facets. It is found that high index facets exhibit much higher catalytic activity toward oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions in Li–O2 batteries.
PolyA can selectively bind to AuNPs with similar affinity to thiolated DNA and better control of the surface density of DNA, which results in the formation of monovalent DNA-gold nanoparticle conjugates . mDNA–AuNPs with in a click chemistry-like manner.
