Design, synthesis and processing articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Molecular actuators hold potential in a number of sensing applications but require careful design to ensure specific functionality. Shepherdet al.report a new platform for molecular actuators based on spin crossover materials, whose response can be controlled by various stimuli or chemical modification.

    • Helena J. Shepherd
    • , Il’ya A. Gural’skiy
    •  & Azzedine Bousseksou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mesoporous polymeric materials are good candidates for advanced separation materials, though their low-cost production remains challenging. Here, the authors report a microphase separation technique for the fabrication of nanoporous networks from frozen solutions of common polymers.

    • Sadaki Samitsu
    • , Rui Zhang
    •  & Izumi Ichinose

  • Article |

    The realization of highly conductive, dispersant-free pastes based on nanocarbon materials has been hindered by agglomeration of particles. Han et al. demonstrate conducting pastes that do not agglomerate due to quadruple hydrogen-bonding motifs among the nanocarbon particles.

    • Joong Tark Han
    • , Bo Hwa Jeong
    •  & Geon-Woong Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon nanotubes can be considered as rolled-up small sheets of graphene. Here Lim and colleagues demonstrate this process, by fabricating carbon nanotubes through a thermally induced process of self-intertwining of graphene nanoribbons.

    • Hong En Lim
    • , Yasumitsu Miyata
    •  & Hisanori Shinohara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hyperpolarization of chemical nuclei is known to greatly increase sensitivity to characterization by magnetic resonance imaging. Here a new platform that allows for the design of a number of hyperpolarized probes for chemical sensing applications is demonstrated.

    • Hiroshi Nonaka
    • , Ryunosuke Hata
    •  & Shinsuke Sando

  • Article |

    Exploiting the optics-like dynamics of low-energy electronic excitations in graphene requires the challenging combination of ballistic transport and complex gating. Here the fabrication and characterization of suspended graphene p–njunctions is reported, paving the way for future electron optics experiments.

    • Peter Rickhaus
    • , Romain Maurand
    •  & Christian Schönenberger

  • Article |

    Flexible CdTe solar cells on metal foil substrates are promising for low-cost roll-to-roll fabrication, but their efficiency is usually low because of their inverted structure. By controlling the doping of the CdTe layer with copper, Kranz et al. show that efficiencies up to 13.6% can be obtained.

    • Lukas Kranz
    • , Christina Gretener
    •  & Ayodhya N. Tiwari

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The incorporation of electronic circuits into various plastic products and devices is limited by the brittle nature of silicon wafers. Here, Sun et al.demonstrate flexible and high-performance all-carbon-based transistor circuits that can be thermo-moulded into various shapes.

    • Dong-Ming Sun
    • , Marina Y. Timmermans
    •  & Yutaka Ohno

  • Article |

    Silicon nanospheres could be of interest for applications in electronics and optoelectronics. Here, Gumenniket al. demonstrate a nanosphere fabrication process based on an optical fibre drawing technique that is able to produce p and n-type spheres paired into rectifying bispherical junctions.

    • Alexander Gumennik
    • , Lei Wei
    •  & Yoel Fink

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Smart hydrogels are 3D networks composed of cross-linked polymer chains that can alter their shape and properties in response to environmental stimuli. Xiaet al.demonstrate a smart hydrogel with rapid response and high elasticity, due to its nano-scale structure.

    • Lie-Wen Xia
    • , Rui Xie
    •  & Liang-Yin Chu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Elemental sulphur is an insulator in the bulk phase, although it may become conducting under ultrahigh-pressure conditions. Here, the authors report a one-dimensional conducting form of sulphur formed by encapsulation inside single-walled and double-walled carbon nanotubes.

    • Toshihiko Fujimori
    • , Aarón Morelos-Gómez
    •  & Katsumi Kaneko

  • Article |

    Vertically assembled graphene devices have received less attention than the typical two dimensional arrangements. Chen et al. show that an Au/graphene/Au assembly exhibits a large magnetoresistance ratio of up to 400%, while a Co/graphene/Co device displays a spin valve effect at room temperature.

    • Jing-Jing Chen
    • , Jie Meng
    •  & Da-Peng Yu

  • Article |

    Creating new materials requires novel approaches to design and synthesize small building particles. Sacanna et al. develop a versatile synthetic strategy to design and mass-produce colloidal building blocks starting from two different colloids that leads to selectively functionalized surface areas.

    • Stefano Sacanna
    • , Mark Korpics
    •  & Gi-Ra Yi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polymers are good potential processable materials for electronic components; however, their charge mobilities are quite low. Here, the authors show that wrapping polymers with macrocycles and localization of π-orbitals realizes an ideal orbital alignment for charge hopping with subsequently increased mobility.

    • Jun Terao
    • , Akihisa Wadahama
    •  & Yasushi Tsuji

  • Article |

    A promising route towards molecular devices is the self-assembly of atoms or molecules on a surface. Here, Gruznev et al. show that the synthesis of unique geometries of C60molecules on gold–indium-covered crystalline silicon is governed by moiré interference.

    • D.V. Gruznev
    • , A.V. Matetskiy
    •  & Y.L. Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Flexible organic electronic devices have the potential to serve as biosensors in living animals. Khodagholy et al. show that organic transistors can be used to record brain activity in rats and demonstrate that they have a superior signal-to-noise ratio compared with electrodes due to local signal amplification.

    • Dion Khodagholy
    • , Thomas Doublet
    •  & George G. Malliaras

  • Article |

    The chemical reduction of graphene oxide can provide large quantities of reduced graphene oxide for potential application in electronics and composite materials. Feng et al. report a highly efficient low-temperature one-pot reduction of graphene oxide that uses sodium-ammonia solution as the reducing agent.

    • Hongbin Feng
    • , Rui Cheng
    •  & Jinghong Li

  • Article |

    The recognition of viruses by synthetic materials is historically difficult. Here, a templating procedure using silica nanoparticles coated with organosilanes is used to form virus-imprinted particles, possessing both shape and chemical imprints, capable of virus recognition at picomolar concentrations.

    • Alessandro Cumbo
    • , Bernard Lorber
    •  & Patrick Shahgaldian

  • Article |

    Engineering heterogeneous metallic nanocrystals could produce diverse materials with tunable properties. Here the authors develop a strategy for the rational and independent programming of each architecture-determining element, such as the shape, size and spatial relationship of the component nanocrystals.

    • Yue Yu
    • , Qingbo Zhang
    •  & Jim Yang Lee

  • Article |

    Sub-wavelength structures can be used to convert between light and plasmon polaritons. Genevetet al. design holographic plasmonic interfaces that couple vortex light beams to surface plasmons, allowing them to detect the orbital angular momentum of the beam with a simple silicon photodiode.

    • Patrice Genevet
    • , Jiao Lin
    •  & Federico Capasso

  • Review Article |

    Hydrogels are water-containing polymer networks that have been applied in various biological settings. Burdick and Murphy review recent advances in the development of dynamic hydrogels whose properties and mechanics change in response to biological signals.

    • Jason A. Burdick
    •  & William L. Murphy

  • Article |

    Ultrathin inorganic materials hold promise for a variety of applications, including flexible electronics. This work presents a fabrication method that permits the synthesis of large and flexible freestanding layers of zinc selenide that display a high-photocurrent density.

    • Yongfu Sun
    • , Zhihu Sun
    •  & Yi Xie

  • Article |

    Organic electronic devices are promising for many applications, particularly in biomedical research, but are hindered by thermal instability and low melting points. Now, organic thin-film transistors are shown with excellent thermal properties that can withstand medical sterilization processes.

    • Kazunori Kuribara
    • , He Wang
    •  & Takao Someya

  • Article |

    Water-soluble peptides with stable α-helical conformations are desirable for a range of applications, but incorporating charged residues to improve solubility usually leads to reduced helical stability. Here, polypeptides produced from amino acids with elongated charged side chains are found to be water soluble and exhibit very high helical stability.

    • Hua Lu
    • , Jing Wang
    •  & Jianjun Cheng

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