Research articles

Desired for optical sensing or visual communications, structural colour-changing materials are hindered by the lack of scalable manufacturing. Here, by adapting Lippmann photography, large-area manufacturing of colour patterns in photosensitive elastomers is realized.

Solid-state ionic conduction is a key enabler of electrochemical energy storage and conversion. A quantitative framework for ionic conduction between atomistic and macroscopic timescales in β- and β″-aluminas is now proposed for ‘atoms-to-device’ multiscale modelling and optimization.

Polymer electrolytes provide a safe solution for future solid-state high-energy-density batteries, but combining high ionic conductivity and a high transference number is a challenge. A polymeric ionic liquid used as a polymer solvent is now shown to be promising for both sodium and potassium batteries.

Heterostructures combine the unique properties of each constituent, improving the efficiency and stability of perovskite-based optoelectronic devices, yet the films suffer from poor compositional and structural uniformity. Here, the authors demonstrate a ligand-assisted welding process to fabricate a series of epitaxial 2D and 3D perovskite heterostructures.

Knowledge of band structure aids in understanding charge transport behaviour, yet it has proved impossible to measure the conduction (LUMO) band of organic semiconductors, in particular due to sample degradation by the electron beam. To address this, the authors developed and used AR-LEIPS to reveal the LUMO band dispersion of pentacene.

We show that an insulating bulk state and helical edge state coexist in Bi₄Br₄ and that this coexistence persists up to room temperature.

Single-molecule electronics provide the potential solution for high-density integration and low-power consumption in massive data-driven applications, but have yet to be explored. Here, the authors report low-power logic-in-memory operations, based on single electric dipole flipping in the two-terminal single-metallofullerene device at room temperature.

Colour centre emission from hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) holds promise for quantum technologies but activation and tuning are challenging. Here, the authors show twist-angle emission brightness tuning and external voltage brightness modulation at the twisted interface of hBN flakes.

Myelofibrosis causes a pathological remodelling of the bone marrow, which becomes stiffer and more elastic, thus promoting the proliferation of proinflammatory monocytes and their differentiation into dendritic cells.

Directed cell movement known as durotaxis, typically associated with cellular migration in response to a substrate gradient of increasing stiffness, is now shown to also occur in the opposite direction, following a gradient of decreasing stiffness.

A nacre-inspired, centimetre-sized bulk material is prepared by assembling graphene oxide and microscale amorphous/crystalline heterophase reinforcing platelets adhered together with polymer-based crosslinkers, which shows high flexural strength and fracture toughness.

The twist angle dependence of correlations in alternating twist quadrilayer graphene is reported.

A rectified Josephson supercurrent is realized in lateral junctions using a proximitized ferromagnetic Pt barrier, with important implications for practical magnetic field free-superconducting spintronics.

Superconductivity is reported in magic-angle twisted four-layer and five-layer graphene systems. While they find that all magic-angle graphene systems fit into a unified hierarchy of systems that share a set of flat bands in their electronic band structures, they also report that there is a key distinction between magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene and the other family members, related to the difference in the way the electrons move between the layers in a magnetic field.

Temperature-independent (Elinvar) soft elasticity with high strength, which is technologically desired but scientifically challenging, is achieved in a lightweight strain glass Mg alloy.

Rechargeable batteries with sodium metal anodes are promising as energy-storage systems despite safety concerns related to reactivity and dendrite formation. Solvent-free perfluoropolyether-based electrolytes are now reported for safe and stable all-solid-state sodium metal batteries.

The partial oxidation of CH₄ to CH₃OH is challenging to perform in artificial systems due to ready over-oxidation to CO and CO₂. Here by confining mono-iron hydroxyl sites in a metal–organic framework, photo-oxidation of CH₄ to CH₃OH is achieved with high selectivity and time yield.

Here the authors describe a method for remote magnetothermal stimulation of neurons that achieves subsecond behavioural responses in Drosophila fruit flies by combining magnetic nanoparticles with TRPA1-A, a rate-sensitive thermoreceptor. Tuning the properties of magnetic nanoparticles to respond to different magnetic field strengths and frequencies enables multichannel thermal magnetogenetic stimulation.

Hafnium dioxide is of technological interest as it is compatible with silicon; however, previous work indicates that a nanometre grain size is required to generate ferroelectricity. Here ferroelectric Y-doped HfO₂ thin films with high crystallinity are grown with large crystal grain sizes, indicating that ferroelectricity is intrinsic.

A competitive-chemical-reaction-based growth mechanism by controlling the kinetic parameters can easily realize the growth of transition metal chalcogenides and transition metal phosphorous chalcogenides with different compositions and phases.