Volume 9 Issue 5, May 2014

High-capacity silicon anodes could improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, but their cyclability has been limited. Christian Martin analyses recent progress in nanoscale engineering that addresses this shortcoming.

Transistor devices can be fabricated from exfoliated layers of black phosphorus.

A synthetic strategy that allows the separation of enantiomerically pure planar chiral rotaxanes is now reported.

The electron beam of a scanning transmission electron microscope can be used to trigger phase transitions in a monolayer of MoS₂ and record the dynamics of the process with single-atom resolution.

The statistical properties of the fluctuations of the entropy production rate are measured for a nanomechanical oscillator relaxing from an out-of-equilibrium steady state towards thermodynamic equilibrium.

Electronic control of optical Anderson localization can be achieved in optical waveguides with embedded diodes.

Electron holography is used to visualize the three-dimensional structure of a skyrmion lattice and the magnetic flux inside and outside a skyrmion.

Pure spin transport determines the spin lifetime in nanoscale ensembles of spin centres in diamond.

Visible light can induce writing and erasing of charge doping in graphene/boron nitride heterostructures while maintaining high carrier mobility.

Nanoscale robots made from DNA origami can dynamically interact with each other and perform logic computations in a living animal.

A vacuum-trapped nanoparticle can be used to study experimentally the fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities in non-equilibrium nanoscale systems.

Injecting charge carriers into p–n diodes embedded in an optical waveguide can switch Anderson localization modes on and off.

Field-effect transistors with good electrical performance at room temperature are fabricated from few-layer black phosphorus.

A voltage of a few millivolts can be generated by moving a droplet of ionic solution along a strip of monolayer graphene.

Amorphous polythiophene can be made into nanofibres with high thermal conductivity suitable for use in electronics as thermal interface materials.

An in situ scanning transmission electron microscope can be used to follow and control the structural transformation between semiconducting and metallic phases in single-layered MoS₂.

Integration of diverse nanostructures allows the fabrication of a wearable system capable of storing data, performing diagnostics and delivering drugs.