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The structure of ionic liquids under confinement is not well understood and hinders their widespread use for applications. Convincing evidence of partial breaking of Coulombic ordering of ions confined in subnanometre carbon pores is now provided.
Compared to monovalent lithium or sodium ions, the reversible insertion of multivalent ions into battery electrodes has proved challenging. An aliovalent doping strategy involving reversible Mg2+ and Al3+ insertion in anatase TiO2 is now reported.
A model analysing the neighbour transfer integrals between adjacent molecules is used to build a three-dimensional map, which helps to visualize the electronic conditions yielding large carrier mobility in molecular crystals.
Designing fully tunable metamaterials for applications ranging from sensors to superlenses remains a challenge. A reversible electrotuneable liquid mirror based on voltage-controlled self-assembly/disassembly plasmonic nanoparticles is now reported.
At tissue boundaries, cellular repulsive events are manifested as deformation waves that result from an oscillatory pattern of traction forces and intracellular stress that pull cellular adhesions away from the boundary.
Irradiation with a strong terahertz electric-field pulse is found to induce a Mott transition in an organic molecular compound. The metallization is attributed to an impulsive dielectric breakdown.
Theoretical analysis of competing diffusion modes within electrocatalytic films is challenging. It is now shown that the competition depends on a single dimensionless parameter that contains all operational and structural experimental factors.
Femtosecond laser pulses can induce local bulging or plasma ablation of silk with limited structural damage, thus offering a technique for cutting, patterning, bending and welding of silk with various other materials.
Cardiac repair usually requires highly invasive interventional procedures. Here, the authors develop an injectable shape-memory cardiac patch and demonstrated its applicability in a myocardial infarction model.
Measurement of the nuclear polarization in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots through manipulation of the nuclear spin states with radiofrequency pulses reveals polarizations up to 80%.
Metal-oxide superlattices were found to possess coexisting phases; a ferroelectric phase and a vortex phase with electric toroidal order. Electric fields interconverted from one phase to another, potentially enabling new functionality.
Highly nanostructured purely organic films are shown to enhance the Raman signal of methylene blue molecules by three orders of magnitude, due to the unique molecular geometry, morphology and electronic properties of the films.
Ligand–integrin binding is essential for cell and tissue growth. Here, controlled integrin binding on a hyaluronic acid hydrogel was shown to promote endothelial cell sprouting in vitro and vessel network formation in vivo.
Encapsulation of single- and double-wall carbon nanotubes in carbon nanocages, which may contain gadolinium or erbium, leads to a reduction of the thermal conductivity and an improved Seebeck coefficient.
Polymer membranes were formed from the inefficient packing of 2D polymer chains in a 3D amorphous solid, forming small and large micropores that enable high gas selectivity and permeability. This strategy may be applied to other polymers.
Viscoelastic phase separation of colloidal suspensions can be interrupted to form gels either by glass transition or crystallization. A kinetic pathway to spontaneously form network or porous structures made of metallic and semiconducting crystals is proposed.
Nanostructured zeolites were synthesized without hydrophilic silanol groups, and without fluoridation, via the introduction of atomically dispersed tungsten. This resulted in improved catalytic and gas separation properties.