Volume 15 Issue 7, July 2016

Condensed-matter physics is one of the most active research topics in China. Qi-Kun Xue considers the reasons underpinning its success.

The China Spallation Neutron Source is expected to produce its first beam in 2017. Hesheng Chen and Xun-Li Wang provide an overview of this user facility and what it means for science in China and elsewhere.

Xun Shi and Lidong Chen summarize recent progress in the field of thermoelectric materials in China, and discuss steps towards the realization of commercially viable devices.

Computational materials science has grown in China in recent times. Hai-Qing Lin gives an overview of China's efforts towards a Materials Genome Initiative and the challenges faced.

Ho-kwang Mao discusses the history of high-pressure research in China, and recent developments to ensure further success.

Electron microscopy has seen a massive boom in China. Ze Zhang and Xiaodong Han discuss what this could mean for materials research and development.

Graphene is extensively researched in China. Xiaoyue Xiao, Yichun Li and Zhaoping Liu illustrate how the China Innovation Alliance of the Graphene Industry aims to harness this for commercial opportunities.

Metallurgy has been crucial to the development of China and its economy. Ke Lu, director of the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, talks to Nature Materials about the outlook for metallurgy and materials science in China.

For 25 years of condensed matter science, physicists have searched for a material that realizes a macroscopic quantum state of matter: the quantum spin liquid. Recent experiments show that a necessary interaction may be found in a family of hexagonal ruthenium-based materials.

Giant Rydberg excitons reveal signatures of quantum chaotic behaviour in the presence of time-reversal symmetry breaking enforced by the background solid-state lattice, and they provide a new mesoscopic platform for fundamental studies of quantum chaos.

Greater rigidity of conjugated polymer backbones increases their light-harvesting ability, making them better performers in solar-cell applications.

A thin, porous polymer membrane fabricated using kinked monomers shows high solvent permeance while selectively blocking larger molecules.

Geometric frustration governs shape selection in fibrous materials.

A magnetic exchange field confined within graphene and higher than 14 T, an enhancement of the spin generation, and a ferromagnetic ground state are found in the graphene/EuS heterostructure—a model of a 2D-material/magnetic-insulator system.

The transition from superlubricity to stick–slip behaviour of a chain of atoms on a periodic surface has now been directly studied experimentally, related to the Aubry transition.

The design of large-pore proton conductors with well-defined high-order structures is challenging. Proton conduction in a crystalline covalent organic framework 2–4 orders of magnitude higher than microporous polymers is now demonstrated.

Geometric frustration selects the equilibrium morphology of cohesive bundles of chiral filaments by controlling the relative costs of filament bending and the straining of the cohesive bonds.

Inelastic neutron scattering characterization shows that α-RuCl₃ is close to an experimental realization of a Kitaev quantum spin liquid on a honeycomb lattice. The collective excitations provide evidence for deconfined Majorana fermions.

Applying an external magnetic field to cuprous oxide causes the energy spacings in the exciton spectrum to transition from a Poissonian distribution to one governed by the Gaussian unitary ensemble statistics, revealing a signature of quantum chaos.

The photocurrent generated in organic photodetectors and solar cells can be enhanced by increasing light absorption in the active layer. It is now shown that an extended persistence length can increase the oscillator strength of conjugated polymers.

Controlling proton-coupled electron transfer reactions—an important process for fuel cells—can be challenging. Lipid-modified electrodes are now used to modulate proton transport to a Cu-based catalyst that facilitates oxygen reduction reactions.

Here it is shown how ultrathin and microporous polymer membranes, fabricated using sterically contorted monomers, can achieve enhanced performance for solvent-based separations.

The phase distribution of multiply twinned palladium nanocrystals causes spatially inhomogeneous hydrogen loading, which was imaged in situ.

The self-assembly of lead sulfide nanocrystals into a body-centred cubic lattice can be tracked in real time by using in situ grazing-incidence X-ray scattering.

Arrays of bioresorbable, highly doped silicon electrodes with multiplexing capabilities are used as electrocorticography sensors to perform in vivo, reliable acute and chronic recordings for up to one month before dissolving in the body.

Cell migration can be directed by the gradient of nanoscale features in the underlying extracellular matrix, with the migration direction depending on the material properties of both the cell and the matrix.