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Volume 9 Issue 4, April 2024

Crystallization of soft materials often follows pathways not envisioned in classical theories of crystallization, instead passing through disordered, amorphous, or dense liquid precursors. The recent emergence of techniques to probe these pathways with minimal damage has led to a growing knowledge about these pathways. The image illustrates crystallization via a dense liquid precursor as the free energy of the system decreases, as well as the in-situ observation of this process. See Du J.S. et al

Cover image: Cortland Johnson. Cover design: David Johnston

Volume 9 Issue 4

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Comment

  • Nanoparticles (NPs) administered in the human body will undergo rapid surface modification upon contact with biological fluids driven by their interfacial interaction with a diverse range of biomolecules. Such spontaneous self-assembly and adsorption of proteins and other biomolecules onto the NP surface constitute what is commonly known as the protein or biomolecule corona. This surface biotransformation of the NPs modulates their biological interactions and impact on physiological systems and can influence their overall pharmacological profile. Here, we comment on how the initially considered ‘nuisance’ of the in vivo corona formation can now be considered a nanoparticle engineering tool for biomedical use, such as in endogenous tissue targeting, personalized biomarker discovery and immunomodulation.

    • Marilena Hadjidemetriou
    • Morteza Mahmoudi
    • Kostas Kostarelos
    Comment

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Books & Arts

  • Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future, the latest book by Ed Conway, explores the materials that underline our modern civilization, discussing their supply and manufacturing, but also history and innovators.

    • Giulia Pacchioni
    Books & Arts
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Research Highlights

  • An article in Nature Materials reports the use of a co-doping strategy to produce a Cu2Se-based superionic material that has a figure of merit of 3 at 1,050 K, an efficiency of over 13% when integrated into a thermoelectric module and good operational stability.

    • Giulia Pacchioni
    Research Highlight
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Reviews

  • For more than two decades, the crystallization of various (bio)molecules and materials have been found to be non-classical and to generate unique crystal structures and morphologies. This Review discusses the non-classical crystallization pathways discovered in soft and organic materials and identifies challenges and opportunities in understanding, designing and synthesizing such structures.

    • Jingshan S. Du
    • Yuna Bae
    • James J. De Yoreo
    Review Article

  • The organic electrochemical transistor (OECT), with its organic mixed ionic–electronic conductor (OMIEC) channel, serves as an amplifying transducer of biological signals. This Review highlights OMIEC design milestones and illustrates how incorporating specific properties into OMIECs can extend OECT applications beyond biosensing.

    • Yazhou Wang
    • Shofarul Wustoni
    • Sahika Inal
    Review Article
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Perspectives

  • High-entropy materials (HEMs) are characterized by their high configurational entropy, providing unique property-tuning capabilities for a variety of applications. This Perspective discusses the potential of HEMs for applications in energy storage, energy conversion and electronics.

    • Simon Schweidler
    • Miriam Botros
    • Ben Breitung
    Perspective

  • Taking inspiration from the success of organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs), vapour deposition holds promises for bringing perovskite LEDs closer to commercialization. This Perspective article highlights the main bottlenecks and challenges towards high-efficiency vapour-deposited perovskite LEDs, as well as the prospects on the route towards commercial displays.

    • Jiajun Luo
    • Jinghui Li
    • Jiang Tang
    Perspective
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