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Understanding the influence of spider dragline silk sequence on its properties is important for controlling their strength and toughness properties. Here, a deep-learning framework is proposed that describes the behavior of spider dragline silks, linking sequence and mechanics.
The presence of flat bands near the Fermi energy may lead to an increase in electron correlations and result in unconventional states. Here, non-Fermi liquid behavior and anomalous superconductivity, with a nonmonotonic two-dome-like doping dependence, are observed in Sc2Ir4-xSix and attributed to spin-orbit-coupling driven flat bands.
Thermally conductive nanomaterials are promising for applications in thermal management. Here, morphological control of the van der Waals contact between carbon nanotubes, by adjustment of contact positions, overlapping length, and crossing angles, allows the authors to elucidate the interfacial thermal transport and optimize heat flow at the nanoscale.
Hot-cracking during laser additive manufacturing of high-strength aluminum alloys is a common issue. Here, crack resistance is improved by approximately 50% by using a pulsed laser with ramp-down power modulation during in-situ x-ray imaging.
Solar-powered desalination is attractive for cost-effective drinking water in rural communities. Now, nanoporous zinc films created by dealloying are shown to be efficient photothermal materials.
It is difficult to control electron doping in organic semiconductors because they often require dopants that are air-sensitive. Here, an ion-exchange doping method is introduced with improved ambient stability and crystallinity of the doped polymeric semiconductors compared to conventional methods.
Hole transporting layers between carbon electrodes and perovskite improves the performance of perovskite solar cells. Here, four interlayer materials are assessed and compared for their performance in roll-to-roll printed perovskite solar cells.
3D skyrmion strings are topological spin textures promising for spintronics applications, but their manipulation and dynamics are challenging to understand. Here, high-resolution 3D phase imaging reveals the melting dynamics of metastable skyrmions, accompanied by the emergence of (anti)hedgehogs, in (Fe,Ni,Pd)3P and FeGe helimagnets.
Poor stability against the lithium metal anode and high interfacial resistance at the cathode/solid electrolyte interface in all-solid-state batteries is an issue. Here, metal halide-doped Li7P2S8I–type solid electrolytes are demonstrated to improve electrochemical performance and stability.
Wearable optical sensors offer advantages for monitoring human sweat compared to traditional electrochemistry-based approaches. Here, the working principles, advantages, and limitations of various types of optical-based devices for health monitoring of human sweat are discussed.
High-entropy alloys exhibit attractive property combinations. This review paper discusses the use of the materials genome strategy for identifying promising high-entropy alloys, including high-throughout synthesis, characterization, and data-driven machine learning.
Thermomechanical stability is a limiting factor when scaling-up perovskite solar cells. This Perspective discusses several aspects of device design that control thermomechanical degradation, including adhesion of layers and encapsulation, and the importance of accelerated degradation testing.
Rare-earth engineering is an effective way to introduce and tune magnetism in topological materials. Here, titanium-based kagome metals RETi3Bi4 (RE = Yb, Pr, and Nd) are synthesized and characterized, whereby changing the rare earth atoms in zig-zag chains the magnetism can be tuned from nonmagnetic YbTi3Bi4 to short-range ordered PrTi3Bi4 and finally to ferromagnetic NdTi3Bi4.
Wearable sensors have been widely studied, but research has tended to focus on their use in adults. This Review explores skin-interfacing smart health systems that are designed with infants and neonates in mind.
Silicon spin qubits are promising for the realisation of scalable quantum computing platforms but their coherence times in natural silicon are limited by the non-zero nuclear spin of the 29Si isotope. Here, enriched 28 Si down to 2.3 ppm residual 29Si is obtained by focused ion beam implantation.
Nonlinear memory devices such as memristors, memcapacitors, and meminductors, are the building blocks of energy-efficient neuromorphic computing. Here, the authors propose a superconducting circuit design acting as a microwave quantum memcapacitor, which could be implemented in neuromorphic quantum computing architectures.
The tetragonal tungsten bronzes are promising for high-temperature energy storage applications but the mechanisms for their broad dielectric responses are unclear. Here, a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of Sr2NaNb5O15 explains its two large dielectric anomalies in terms of structural transitions.
Ammonia production from dinitrogen is challenging due to the harsh reaction conditions required and significant energy consumption. Here, this Review discusses how plasmonic materials can offer an energetically and ecologically desirable solution to dinitrogen reduction.
Ternary alloys of rare-earths and transition metals exhibit complex ferrimagnetic behavior as a function of alloy compositions. Here, X-ray magnetic circular dichroism of the Gd6(Mn1−xFex)23 series is used to explain the composition dependence of sublattice Curie temperatures in terms of element-specific magnetic moment evolution.