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Broken symmetries at the nanoscale can greatly modify the emergent nanophotonic responses enabled by phonon polaritons. This Review discusses how lowering the degree of symmetry in natural and artificial materials gives rise to a wide spectrum of low-loss, directional, confined light–matter quasiparticles.
Incorporating fluorine into battery components can improve the energy density, safety and cycling stability of rechargeable batteries. This Review explores the broad use of fluorinated compounds in battery design, examines the relationship between their chemical structure and battery performance and discusses the challenges and opportunities of fluorinated batteries within the present regulatory framework.
Biochar is proposed as a promising solution for sustainable development, but proper risk management and careful evaluation are essential when considering its use. It is crucial to acknowledge the limitations of biochar and recognize that it is not a magic bullet for green technologies.
Higher education and research institutions are critical to the well-being and success of societies, meaning their financial support is strongly in the public interest. At the same time, value-for-money principles demand that such investment delivers. Unfortunately, these principles are currently violated by one of the biggest sources of public funding inefficiency: sexism.
3D printing can be used to automate the manufacturing of building elements for large-scale structures such as skyscrapers, aircraft, rockets and space bases without human intervention. However, challenges in materials, processes, printers and software control must first be overcome for large-scale 3D printing to be adopted for widespread applications.
Carbon nanotubes are used in a growing number of applications, but recent European Union actions propose to ban them. This Perspective highlights gaps in knowledge regarding potential safety and environmental risks throughout the life cycle of carbon nanotubes and provides a framework to inform policy decisions.
An article in Nature Communications presents a general method to create intermixed 2D/3D heterostructures to improve the stability of all-perovskite tandem solar cells.
An article in Nano Letters presents a strategy for the growth of single-crystal bismuthene by sandwiching it between hexagonal boron nitride and copper.
Vapour-phase deposition holds promise for synthesizing two-dimensional layered chalcogenides that are intriguing for fundamental research and emerging technological applications. This Review summarizes the advancements and future opportunities for translating this synthesis approach from laboratory to manufacturing scale.
Methylammonium-free wide-bandgap metal halide perovskites are attractive for tandem photovoltaics but routinely perform worse than their methylammonium-containing counterparts. This Review discusses the factors contributing to their constrained performance, progress made in these tandem devices and promising strategies for their continued development.
An article in Angewandte Chemie International Edition resurfaces metal halide perovskite nanocrystals with a reactive, liquid ligand to produce efficient and stable red perovskite light-emitting diodes.
An article in Nature Materials shows that a ‘quantum dot molecule’ — two fused and electronically coupled quantum dots — can easily switch between two distinct emission colours when induced by an electric field.
An article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society decorates type-I CdS-ZnS core–shell quantum dots with metallic domains to activate them as hydrogen evolution photocatalysts.
An article in Science uses photogenerated nitrene radicals to non-specifically bond together colloidal inorganic nanocrystals as they are 3D printed into robust functional structures.
An article in Nature Communications uses an artificial-intelligence-guided robot to accelerate the discovery and fabrication of chiroptically active films.
Electrons in strongly interacting materials can flow collectively, exhibiting hydrodynamic phenomena such as viscous flow. This Review highlights recent experimental advances, including high-quality materials growth, that have enabled these observations and surveys the spatially resolved theoretical frameworks necessary to interpret and predict these phenomena.
