Volume 16 Issue 8, August 2017

Heat travelling down a thermal gradient has been found to undergo a significant deflection by a magnetic field in a multiferroic insulator.

Sound waves drive the organization of particle scatterers into stable structures, exhibiting phononic band gaps that heal from disturbances and adapt to changes in the drive.

Introducing high-density ordered nanoprecipitates into martensitic steel increases strength at modest cost.

Plasmonic nanolasers embedded in living cells and animal tissues are shown to emit strongly, making them promising potential biocompatible probes.

Liquid fragility is a basic characteristic of glasses and there is debate as to what controls it. X-ray scattering of several metallic liquids now suggests that the strength of the repulsive part of the interatomic potential is key.

Giant coupling between magnetism and phonons — or the giant thermal Hall effect — is reported in the insulating polar magnet (Zn_xFe_1−x)₂Mo₃O₈.

Sub-coercive electric fields and sub-picosecond light pulses are shown to enable low-power manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains in the multiferroic BiFeO₃.

The dynamic self-assembly of a pseudo-crystal, characterized by a phononic bandgap bound to the wavelength of an external coherent driving field.

Substitution of Si with Au and Ir in Ti₃SiC₂ through a solid-state diffusion process allows the synthesis of Ti₃AuC₂, Ti₃Au₂C₂ and Ti₃IrC₂ phases able to form Ohmic contacts with SiC stable at high temperatures under ambient air conditions.

The effect of polaron formation on photoconversion efficiency for oxide photocatalysts is not well known. Femtosecond extreme-ultraviolet measurements suggest that polaron localization is responsible for ultrafast trapping of photoexcited carriers in haematite.

Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite single crystals with optimized combination of Cl and Br ions are used to fabricate γ-ray detectors operating at room temperature and competing with the performance of sodium iodide scintillators.

Printing and heating of a fluorinated elastomer mixed with silver flakes, a fluorine surfactant and methylisobutylketone leads to the formation of in situ silver nanoparticles, which boost the conductivity of this highly stretchable composite material.

Aqueous rechargeable batteries are promising for grid storage and electric vehicles, but they suffer from poor cycle life due to anode instability. Exploiting stable ion-coordination charge storage and chemical inertness towards aqueous electrolytes, quinones are now reported as stable anodes.

DNA origami allows the design of rod-shaped particles with specific geometrical features. This is exploited to examine how particle-level characteristics affect properties of the bulk phase and the superstructures such colloids assemble into.

Droplets with magnetite membranes are designed to engulf in a phagocytosis-inspired manner smaller colloidal objects, demonstrating a route for sequential cargo delivery and release followed by internalized reactions.

The application of tension in a self-assembled articular-cartilage model leads to the formation of tissue with tensile properties similar to those of native tissue.