Engineering articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hydrogels and hydrophobic elastomers of various shapes are difficult to bond in arbitrary sequences. Here the authors mix silane coupling agents into a precursor to form hydrogel resins with robust properties that can be spun, coated and printed in air.

    • Qihan Liu
    • , Guodong Nian
    •  & Zhigang Suo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventional refractive elements are bulky, thick and offer limited active tunability. Here, the authors demonstrate MEMS-based tunable metasurface doublets with more than 60 diopters change in the optical power upon a 1-micron movement of a membrane with one of the metasurface elements.

    • Ehsan Arbabi
    • , Amir Arbabi
    •  & Andrei Faraon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One way to improve the performance of supercapacitors is to use hybrid carbon nanomaterials. Here the authors show a bioinspired electrode design with graphene petals and carbon nanotube arrays serving as leaves and branchlets, respectively. The structure affords excellent electrochemical characteristics.

    • Guoping Xiong
    • , Pingge He
    •  & Timothy S. Fisher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Improving the efficiency of gas separation technology is needed, since existing methods represent a significant portion of the world’s energy consumption. Here, the authors report an enhancement in the release rate of carbon dioxide and oxygen using a counter-current amplification method inspired by fish.

    • Kyle Brubaker
    • , Armand Garewal
    •  & Aaron P. Esser-Kahn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The thermal stability impedes the application of nanoscale magnetic tunnel junctions in electronic and spintronics devices. Here the authors achieved current-induced magnetization switching in magnetic tunnel junctions smaller than 10 nm with sufficient thermal stability due to the shape anisotropy without adding new material systems.

    • K. Watanabe
    • , B. Jinnai
    •  & H. Ohno

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intrinsic limitations of nanoporous graphene limit its applications in water treatment. Here the authors produce post-treatment-free, low-cost graphene-based membranes from renewable biomass and demonstrate their high water permeance and antifouling properties using real seawater.

    • Dong Han Seo
    • , Shafique Pineda
    •  & Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Energy storage in thermoset shape memory polymers happens through entropy reduction during the programming step, but low energy release is known to be a bottleneck for wide-spread application. Here, the authors show a thermoset network that stores energy primarily through enthalpy increase by bond length change, which leads to an improved energy output.

    • Jizhou Fan
    •  & Guoqiang Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanocarrier administration is often performed via intermittent bolus injection while sustained delivery platforms are rarely reported. Here the authors demonstrate that the cylinder-to-sphere transitions of self-assembled filomicelle scaffolds can be used for sustained delivery with improved resorptive capacity and biocompatibility.

    • Nicholas B. Karabin
    • , Sean Allen
    •  & Evan A. Scott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tools to investigate a wide range of 3D microenvironmental parameters are important for understanding and controlling cell fate. Here, the authors develop hydrogels with orthogonal biochemical gradients and use this screening system to identify microenvironments that induce mesenchymal stem cell chondrogenesis.

    • Sebastián L. Vega
    • , Mi Y. Kwon
    •  & Jason A. Burdick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of humanoid robots with artificial intelligence calls for smart solutions for tactile sensing systems that respond to dynamic changes in the environment. Here, Yoon et al. emulate non-adaption and sensitization function of a nociceptor—a sensory neuron—using diffusive oxide-based memristors.

    • Jung Ho Yoon
    • , Zhongrui Wang
    •  & J. Joshua Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    DNA based technology holds promise for non-volatile memory and computational tasks, yet the relatively slow hybridization kinetics remain a bottleneck. Here, Song et al. have developed an electric field-induced hybridization platform that can speed up multi-bit memory and logic operations.

    • Youngjun Song
    • , Sejung Kim
    •  & Xiaohua Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) fate can be mechanically regulated by substrate stiffness but this is difficult to control in a 3D hydrogel. Here the authors identify miRNAs that change expression in response to substrate stiffness and RhoA signalling and show that they can bias MSC fate in a 3D soft hydrogel.

    • Jessica E. Frith
    • , Gina D. Kusuma
    •  & Justin J. Cooper-White

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electronic skins have been developed to emulate human sensory systems, but simultaneous detection of multiple stimuli remains a big challenge due to coupling of electronic signals. Here, Hua et al. overcome this problem in a stretchable and conformable matrix network integrated with seven different modes.

    • Qilin Hua
    • , Junlu Sun
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how individual crystals share load inside a polycrystal is crucial to improve component lifetime, but remains difficult to measure. Here, the authors show that the crystal orientation of a grain and that of its neighbours can surprisingly cause stress relaxation in zirconium and titanium under load.

    • Hamidreza Abdolvand
    • , Jonathan Wright
    •  & Angus J. Wilkinson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional materials show great potential for membrane technologies, but their disordered channels hinder their molecular sieving performance. Here, Wang, Gogotsi and colleagues design a MXene membrane with ordered nanochannels that exhibits an excellent H2/CO2 gas separation performance.

    • Li Ding
    • , Yanying Wei
    •  & Yury Gogotsi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance enables the new spintronic devices but is limited by the low amplitude or working temperature. Here, the authors report the large unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance in a topological insulator and ferromagnetic metal bilayer system at relatively higher temperature.

    • Yang Lv
    • , James Kally
    •  & Jian-Ping Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Poor adherence to daily antiretrovirals can significantly affect treatment efficacy, but oral long-acting antiretrovirals are currently lacking. Here, the authors develop a once-weekly oral dosage form for anti-HIV drugs, assess its pharmacokinetics in pigs, and model its impact on viral resistance and disease epidemics.

    • Ameya R. Kirtane
    • , Omar Abouzid
    •  & Giovanni Traverso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many industrial applications require switchable adhesive properties in wet conditions, but this still remains challenging to achieve. Here the authors synthesize an adhesive based on host-guest interactions that exhibits reversible, tunable and fast regulation of the wet adhesion on diverse surfaces.

    • Yanhua Zhao
    • , Yang Wu
    •  & Zuankai Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reservoir computing facilitates the projection of temporal input signals onto a high-dimensional feature space via a dynamic system, known as the reservoir. Du et al. realise this concept using metal-oxide-based memristors with short-term memory to perform digit recognition tasks and solve non-linear problems.

    • Chao Du
    • , Fuxi Cai
    •  & Wei D. Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oxide-based memristors hold promise for artificial neuromorphic computing, yet the detail of the switching mechanism—filament formation—remains largely unknown. Hoskins et al. provide nanoscale imaging of this process using electron beam induced current microscopy and relate it to resistive states.

    • Brian D. Hoskins
    • , Gina C. Adam
    •  & Jabez J. McClelland

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hemispherical format has been adopted in camera systems to better mimic human eyes, yet the current designs rely on complicated fabrications. Here, Zhang et al. show an origami-inspired approach that enables planar silicon-based photodetector arrays to reshape into concave or convex geometries.

    • Kan Zhang
    • , Yei Hwan Jung
    •  & Zhenqiang Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dense connective tissues do not easily heal, in part due to a low supply of reparative cells. Here, the authors develop a fibrous scaffold for meniscal repair that sequentially releases collagenase and a growth factor at the injury site, breaking down the extracellular matrix and recruiting endogenous cells.

    • Feini Qu
    • , Julianne L. Holloway
    •  & Robert L. Mauck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic materials that support both electronic and ionic transport hold promise for applications in bioelectronics and energy storage. Here, Inal et al. use transistors to quantify the materials performance of organic mixed conductors in terms of the product of charge mobility and volumetric capacitance.

    • Sahika Inal
    • , George G. Malliaras
    •  & Jonathan Rivnay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical coherence tomography is an established optical tool for in vivo clinical imaging and diagnosis applications, but endoscopic technologies remain limited. Here, Yuan et al. develop a flexible, narrow diameter, super-achromatic endoscopic probe for ultrahigh-resolution in vivo OCT imaging of small luminal organs or narrow constrictions.

    • Wu Yuan
    • , Robert Brown
    •  & Xingde Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Micro-electromechanical systems fabrication techniques are based on silicon micromachining processes, resulting in rigid and low aspect ratio structures. Here the authors demonstrate a flexible, high aspect ratio micro-electromechanical system in fibre enabled by an electrostrictive ferrorelaxor terpolymer layer.

    • Tural Khudiyev
    • , Jefferson Clayton
    •  & Yoel Fink

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Complex phase transformations in β-stabilised titanium alloys can dramatically change their α and β microstructures, providing tailorability for aerospace or biomaterial applications. Here the authors show that Ti-Nb alloys exhibit giant thermal expansions and identify two new pathways that lead to α phase formation.

    • Matthias Bönisch
    • , Ajit Panigrahi
    •  & Jürgen Eckert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural silk fibers are produced using a simple and green approach compared to alternative synthetic methods. Here, the authors show a bioinspired approach to spin regenerated silk fibers using anisotropic liquid crystals and dry spinning, resulting in remarkably robust fibers.

    • Shengjie Ling
    • , Zhao Qin
    •  & Markus J. Buehler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    River beds often exhibit armouring, in which formation of a coarse surface layer shields the finer underlying grains from erosion. Here, using experiments in a laboratory river and discrete and continuum models, the authors demonstrate that river-bed armouring is driven by vertical granular segregation.

    • Behrooz Ferdowsi
    • , Carlos P. Ortiz
    •  & Douglas J. Jerolmack

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Linear acoustic metamaterials based on resonances are generally tunable but limited by their narrow bands. Here, Fang et al. fabricate one- and two-dimensional nonlinear acoustic metamaterials with a broadband, low-frequency, response—greatly suppressing low frequency noise.

    • Xin Fang
    • , Jihong Wen
    •  & Dianlong Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Monomer sequence is an emerging tool to precisely encode information (and thus structure and function) into polymer systems. Here the authors use sequence-control in complex coacervates to understand how monomer sequence translates to physical material properties.

    • Li-Wei Chang
    • , Tyler K. Lytle
    •  & Sarah L. Perry

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coating porous membranes with nanoparticles can enhance their separation and antifouling properties, but methods to do so remain complex. Here, Lee and colleagues use solvent transfer-induced phase separation to prepare nanoparticle-functionalized hollow fiber membranes from bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels.

    • Martin F. Haase
    • , Harim Jeon
    •  & Daeyeon Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Implementing a nucleic acid preconcentration method can improve the sensitivity of microfluidic analysis systems. Here Friedrich et al. concentrate DNA by many orders of magnitude using pressure-driven flow, which could lead to a simple and practical microanalysis platform.

    • Sarah M. Friedrich
    • , Jeffrey M. Burke
    •  & Tza-Huei Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spider-silk-mimicking microfibers often suffer from low efficiency and durability in water collection. Here, the authors fabricate robust microfibers with spindle cavity-knots and different topological fiber-networks with improved water-collecting performance

    • Ye Tian
    • , Pingan Zhu
    •  & Liqiu Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Shape memory materials are capable of returning to their original form post-deformation, but those with high actuation performances remain scarce. Here the authors reveal that CaFe2As2 exhibits cryogenic linear shape memory behaviour with high recoverable strain and yield strength, owing to a reversible uni-axial phase transformation.

    • John T. Sypek
    • , Hang Yu
    •  & Seok-Woo Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The signalling scheme used in access networks require electrical bandwidths many times greater than subscribers can utilise. Here, the authors describe a promising approach to achieve bidirectional transmission with bandwidth-efficient yet low-complexity coherent optical network unit transceiver.

    • M. S. Erkılınç
    • , D. Lavery
    •  & P. Bayvel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Origami is a popular method to design building blocks for mechanical metamaterials. Here, the authors assemble a volumetric origami-based structure, predict its axial and rotational movements during folding, and demonstrate the operation of mechanical one- and two-bit memory storage.

    • Hiromi Yasuda
    • , Tomohiro Tachi
    •  & Jinkyu Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How soft tissues respond to mechanical load is essential to their biological function. Here, the authors discover that – contrary to predictions of poroelasticity – fluid mobility in collagenous tissues induces drastic volume decrease with tensile loading and pronounced chemo-mechanical coupling.

    • Alexander E. Ehret
    • , Kevin Bircher
    •  & Edoardo Mazza

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Memristors can switch between high and low electrical-resistance states, but the switching behaviour can be unpredictable. Here, the authors harness this unpredictability to develop a memristor-based true random number generator that uses the stochastic delay time of threshold switching

    • Hao Jiang
    • , Daniel Belkin
    •  & Qiangfei Xia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical non-reciprocity achieved through refractive index modulation can have its challenges and limitations. Here, Dinc et al. introduce the concept of non-reciprocity based on synchronized spatio-temporal modulation of conductivity to achieve different types of non-reciprocal functionality.

    • Tolga Dinc
    • , Mykhailo Tymchenko
    •  & Harish Krishnaswamy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Devising effective swimming and propulsion strategies in microenvironments is attractive for drug delivery applications. Here Ahmed et al. demonstrate a micropropulsion strategy in which a combination of magnetic and acoustic fields is used to assemble and propel colloidal particles along channel walls.

    • Daniel Ahmed
    • , Thierry Baasch
    •  & Bradley J. Nelson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soluble vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) enhances vascular engraftment of transplanted cells but the efficacy is low. Here, the authors show that VEGF-immobilized microparticles prolong survival of endothelial progenitors in vitro and in vivo by downregulating miR17 and upregulating CDKN1A and ZNF652.

    • Sezin Aday
    • , Janet Zoldan
    •  & Lino Ferreira

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is growing interest in the development of components to facilitate wireless communications in the terahertz but the characterization of these systems involve an unmodulated input. Here the authors demonstrate multiplexing and demultiplexing of data streams in the terahertz range using a real data link.

    • Jianjun Ma
    • , Nicholas J. Karl
    •  & Daniel M. Mittleman

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