Materials science articles within Nature Chemistry

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  • Article |

    The wealth of solution-chemistry properties of a well-known M6L4 coordination cage can be transferred into the solid state by networking the cage into a highly porous crystalline structure. The material behaves as a ‘fullerene sponge’, absorbing up to 35 wt% of C60 or C70 into the crystal, with a preference for C70 when exposed to mixtures of the two.

    • Yasuhide Inokuma
    • , Tatsuhiko Arai
    •  & Makoto Fujita

  • Research Highlights |

    A sugar-derived amphiphilic molecule has been prepared that immobilizes oil into a solid from a mixture with water and enables its subsequent recovery.

    • Anne Pichon

  • Research Highlights |

    The unit cell volume of alkali metal fullerides is related to the temperature at which superconducting behaviour begins.

    • Neil Withers

  • Editorial |

    As the beautiful game once again takes to the world stage this summer, it is worth remembering that 2010 also marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the professional debut of a very tiny football.

  • Article |

    Although intermetallic compounds and alloys feature metal atoms bonded solely to other metal atoms, this motif is unusual in molecular compounds. Now, three compounds with lanthanide metals surrounded by transition metal atoms have been made. Although reactive, they mimic intermetallic bonding and form a conceptual link from coordination compounds.

    • Mikhail V. Butovskii
    • , Christian Döring
    •  & Rhett Kempe

  • Research Highlights |

    Single metal atoms can be identified within the pores of a zeolite catalyst.

    • Neil Withers

  • News & Views |

    To improve organic electronic devices, the principles underlying organic-film/metal-electrode interfaces must be understood. A comprehensive study of the organic electron acceptor TCNQ on a copper surface reveals a structural rearrangement of both the organic molecule and the metal surface atoms after charge transfer across the interface.

    • Clara Santato
    •  & Federico Rosei

  • News & Views |

    Single-molecule magnets are coordination clusters with magnetic properties that are typically reliant on the coupling between pairs of metal centres. Now, a cluster in which magnetism arises from delocalized electrons — built using an imidazolate bridge, a common linker in metal–organic architectures — shows promise for molecular memory devices.

    • Annie K. Powell

  • Article |

    Although the triiodide/iodide redox couple works efficiently in dye-sensitized solar cells it restricts functionality by absorbing visible light. Now, a disulfide/thiolate redox couple that has negligible absorption in the visible spectral range is presented, which in conjunction with a sensitized heterojunction, displays an efficiency of 6.4% under standard illumination test conditions.

    • Mingkui Wang
    • , Nathalie Chamberland
    •  & Michael Grätzel

  • Article |

    Single-molecule magnets are clusters of metal ions linked together by organic bridges, with properties typically arising from exchange coupling of unpaired metal electrons. In mixed-valence systems, another magnetic mechanism involving itinerant electrons can also occur and induce a high-spin ground state. Now, such electron delocalization has been observed through an imidazolate bridge — a common linker in metal-organic architectures — which may enable the construction of higher spin clusters or three-dimensional magnets.

    • Bettina Bechlars
    • , Deanna M. D'Alessandro
    •  & Jeffrey R. Long

  • Article |

    A methodology for describing local electronic transmission through bridging molecules between metallic electrodes is presented. Its application to simple alkane, phenyl and cross-conjugated systems highlights an unexpected number of cases whereby ‘through space’, rather than ‘through bond’ terms dominate and that interference effects coincide with the reversal of ring currents.

    • Gemma C. Solomon
    • , Carmen Herrmann
    •  & Mark A. Ratner

  • News & Views |

    Embedding platinum nanoparticles in a polymer matrix produces a system that reacts like a homogeneous catalyst, but provides the stability and separation advantages of a heterogeneous one.

    • Gadi Rothenberg

  • News & Views |

    Although it may seem counter-intuitive, the attraction between positively charged radical ions offers a new approach to driving controlled motion in molecular machines.

    • Harry L. Anderson

  • News & Views |

    Synthetic procedures for making nanoparticles often result in samples that contain a range of different particle sizes. By using hollow self-assembled metal–organic spheres as templates, however, it is possible to make silica nanoparticles with uniform shapes and sizes in a precisely controlled fashion.

    • Boris Breiner
    •  & Jonathan R. Nitschke

  • News & Views |

    Electrically tunable materials are used to construct switches and memory devices. Applying an electric field within a specific temperature range to cyanometallate complexes triggers their charge-transfer phase transition, altering their optical and magnetic properties.

    • Osamu Sato

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