Articles in 2022

Enzymes are effective at chemically converting low-value biomass to technological materials. Here, an ancestral lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase enzyme is used to synthesize chitin nanocrystals, which are used as a matrix for cell growth and to create conducting graphene oxide bioinks.

Textiles that block the transmission of viral particles help to reduce virus spread. Here, peptides on the surface a bioengineered textile capture SARS-CoV-2 viral particles, reducing onward infection by 500-fold.

Scattered elastic waves provide non-invasive diagnostics and dynamic characterization of metamaterials, but extracting information from small-size samples is challenging. Here, convolutional neural networks are used to interpret diffracted waves, revealing how sample-edge scattering provides the most significant information on macroscopic metamaterial properties.

Understanding the effects of fast neutrons on high-temperature superconductors is important for their application in fusion reactors. Here, a combined experimental and theoretical study reveals that ion irradiation disrupts superconductivity by introducing defects within the copper-oxygen planes.

Quadruple perovskites are characterized by competing long-range spin interactions that result in complex magnetic structures. Here, the authors synthesize and characterize the magnetic behaviour of CaCo₃Ti₄O₁₂, suggesting that the observed magnetic structures arise from different ways to avoid frustration in underlying kagome lattices.

Mass spectrometry titration is useful for studying the chemistry of electrodes and electrolytes in batteries, giving insight into their failure mechanisms. Here, a protocol is established for reproducibly quantifying inactive lithium in anode-free lithium-metal batteries via mass spectrometry titration.

Probing the growth and evolution of phase-coexistence in complex materials is key to understanding electronic phase transitions. Here, a combination of THz time-domain spectroscopy and DC transport provides a way to probe coexistence of metallic and insulating clusters in a disorder-controlled metal-insulator transition.

Optical nanoantennas based on organic plasmonics are promising for their higher degree of tunability over metallic nanostructures. Here, nanodisks of polythiophene-based semiconducting polymers provide nanooptical antennas with resonances that are tunable over a 1000 nm wavelength range and can be switched off or on by doping modulation.

Recent advances in scanning probe-based tomographic imaging have greatly improved spatial resolution, but systematic and random errors are a serious impediment to reliable data extraction. Here, a combined optimization and alignment algorithm provides a scalable approach to error-correcting reconstruction of large datasets.

Multi-material 3D printing techniques are now enabling the rational design of metamaterials with both complex geometries and multiple materials compositions. Here, deep-learning methods are used to identify, among planar network structures, the rare designs that yield very unusual and desirable combinations of materials properties.

Optimizing the microstructure of YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x coated conductors across the magnetic field–temperature phase diagram is important for strengthening vortex pinning and thereby enhancing the critical current. Here, a systematic microstructural investigation identifies the most relevant vortex pinning contributions in a broad range of temperatures and magnetic fields.

The 3D stiffness of a self-folded metamaterial structure is limited by the low stiffness required by the folding process. Here, the stiffness limits of self-folding bilayers are theoretically established by a nonlinear model and experimentally validated on polymer-metal composites, providing the optimal combinations of geometrical and mechanical properties of folded constructs.

Light and flexible thermoelectric generators operating at room temperature are highly desirable for wearable microelectronics. Here, flexible thermoelectric composites comprising semiconducting Bi₂Te₃ particles and conductive polymers exhibit a high output power within a small temperature window around room temperature.

Fractionally doped perovskites oxides are interesting for their energy production and storage applications. Here, the authors develop an easy-to-use machine learning model for materials discovery from limited data, identifying and synthesizing 7 new compositions relevant for solar thermochemical hydrogen production.

Developing scalable strategies of miniaturization and integration is key for achieving high-density integrated circuit devices. Here, the authors propose a silicon-based one-transistor device with a 40% reduction in circuit footprint, which combines the functionalities of logic gates, memory, and artificial synapses for mass production.

Nanoscale light manipulation and characterization are essential in nano-optics, but conventional microscopy or indirect imaging methods are often limited by low resolution or invasive nature. Here, a non-destructive light-field imaging with ~20 nm resolution is realized by p-n junction photodetection in graphene controlled by gate voltage.

Stable performance is a key requirement for solar cell devices. Here, spectroscopy combined with depth profiling reveals I₂ and PbI₂ are distributed evenly in a perovskite solar cell under an electric field, while the electric field itself promotes chemical heterogeneity and device degradation.

Understanding grain morphology and kinetics of solid-phase crystallization is important for controlling the functional properties of polycrystalline materials. Here, in situ coherent X-ray diffraction imaging and transmission electron microscopy elucidate quantitatively the kinetics of a single-grain growth in Zr-doped In₂O₃ films.

Visualizing the composition of grain networks is key for understanding the structure evolution and functional properties of composite materials. Here, X-ray fluorescence tomography, coupled with an absorption correction algorithm, reveals mechanistic insights in the phase transformations and transport properties of a mixed ionic-electronic conductor.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of materials that block airborne virus transmission. Here, a nanostructured membrane is shown to filter coronavirus-sized particles, while the membrane surface incorporates enzymes that denature the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein within 30 s.