Structural properties articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    To understand and predict friction, it is crucial to observe sliding at the nanoscale to uncover the mechanisms at play. Here, the authors show that nano-contacts exhibit strength near the ideal limit, and find that pull-off forces predicted by continuum models are reduced by shearing.

    • Takaaki Sato
    • , Zachary B. Milne
    •  & Hiroyuki Fujita

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structural disorder in materials is challenging to characterise. Here, the authors use multivariate analysis of atomic pair distribution functions to study structural collapse and melting of metal–organic frameworks, revealing powerful mechanistic and kinetic insight.

    • Adam F. Sapnik
    • , Irene Bechis
    •  & Thomas D. Bennett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Helically twisted conductive nanocarbon materials are applicable to optoelectronic and electromagnetic molecular devices but the design of nanocarbons with an absorption edge in the low energy region is challenging. Here, the authors report the synthesis of a helically fused oligophenanthrenes and demonstrate an increased effective conjugation length leading to an absorption edge in the NIR region.

    • Yusuke Nakakuki
    • , Takashi Hirose
    •  & Kenji Matsuda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The formation pathway of shape-anisotropic nanoparticles is difficult to characterize and not well understood. The authors synthesize a prismatic-shaped Au56 nanocluster as possible seed of a prismatic nanoparticle and characterize the structure and ligand bonding motifs, providing insight into the formation and surface protection mechanisms.

    • Yongbo Song
    • , Yingwei Li
    •  & Rongchao Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interstitials can substantially strengthen metals. Here the authors show a massive interstitial solid solution (MISS) approach enabling a model multicomponent alloy to achieve near-theoretical strength together with large deformability.

    • Chang Liu
    • , Wenjun Lu
    •  & Dierk Raabe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Modulating the atomic coordination structure has emerged as a promising strategy to further improve catalytic performance. Here, the authors report an atomic Co1/NPC catalyst with unsymmetrical single Co1N3P1 sites that displays high activity and chemoselectivity for hydrogenation of functionalized nitroarenes.

    • Hongqiang Jin
    • , Peipei Li
    •  & Changyan Cao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thin-film composite membranes formed by conventional interfacial polymerization generally suffer from depth heterogeneity of the polyamide layer. Here, authors investigate salt-mediated polymerization approaches to achieve membranes with tuneable structural homogeneity.

    • Liang Shen
    • , Ruihuan Cheng
    •  & Yan Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Supports can largely affect the catalytic performance of metal nanoparticles, but the underlying principles are not yet fully understood. Here the authors demonstrate that metal-support interfacial compatibility of Ru/TiO2 can critically control the metal-support interaction modes and the catalytic performances in CO2 hydrogenation.

    • Jun Zhou
    • , Zhe Gao
    •  & Leyu Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origins of deformation twins in Mg have remained unclear in the past. Here the authors, by combining in situ experimental observations and atomistic simulations, capture the rapid twinning phenomena in Mg crystals and show that twinning occurs through pure atomic shuffle.

    • Lin Jiang
    • , Mingyu Gong
    •  & Julie M. Schoenung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Grain boundary can change its structure upon deformation. Here, the authors show that during this process, grain boundary mobility can be tuned dynamically via a self-stimulated twinning process.

    • Qishan Huang
    • , Qi Zhu
    •  & Jiangwei Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The preparation of nanocages with unprecedented architectures may lead to new functions. Here the authors report the self-assembly of organic cages featuring twin cavities; the geometry and pocket size determine the molecular packing and the proton conductivity performance.

    • Zhenyu Yang
    • , Chunyang Yu
    •  & Shaodong Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    NEMS devices, nano-electro-mechanical systems, by virtue of their minute size, offer ultra-high sensitivity, though at the expense of manufacturing complexity. Here, Stassi et al succeed in manufacturing high quality factor NEMS devices using high resolution 3D printing.

    • Stefano Stassi
    • , Ido Cooperstein
    •  & Carlo Ricciardi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fine tuning of mechanical properties in elastomers is important for application of elastomers in flexible devices and biomedical field. Here, the authors prepare a nacre inspired PDMS-montmorrillonite composite with good mechanical properties and demonstrate crack tracing using aggregation-induced emission luminogens.

    • Jingsong Peng
    • , Antoni P. Tomsia
    •  & Qunfeng Cheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic polymer nano-objects with well-defined hierarchical structures are important for a wide range of applications such as nanomaterial synthesis, catalysis, and therapeutics. Here the authors demonstrate the strategy of fabricating controlled hierarchical structures through self-assembly of folded synthetic polymers.

    • Chaojian Chen
    • , Manjesh Kumar Singh
    •  & Tanja Weil

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origins of the superior catalytic activity of poorly crystallized Ir-based oxide material for the OER in acid is still under debate. Here, authors synthesize porous IrMo oxides to deconvolute the effect of Ir oxidation state from short-range ordering and show the latter to be a key factor.

    • Marine Elmaalouf
    • , Mateusz Odziomek
    •  & Jennifer Peron

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    The longevity of a lithium-ion battery is limited by cathode degradation. Combining atom probe tomography and scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals that the degradation results from atomic-scale irreversible structural changes once lithium leaves the cathode during charging, thereby inhibiting lithium intercalation back into the cathode as the battery discharges. This information unveils possible routes for improving the lifetime of lithium-ion batteries.

    • Baptiste Gault
    •  & Jonathan D. Poplawsky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Composites which are made up of a single polymer, and yet allow modulation of the mechanical properties of the matrix without stress concentration, are challenging to fabricate. Here, the authors design a selfreinforced homocomposite alginate hydrogel with enhanced mechanical properties incorporating soft dendritic alginate colloids in the matrix and demonstrate its application in extrusion printing.

    • Austin H. Williams
    • , Sangchul Roh
    •  & Orlin D. Velev

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The efficiency of chemical reactions in biological systems is often connected to the properties of confined water, but the developments and applications of artificial mimicking systems are impeded by the complexity of the biological systems. Here, the authors show how surface bound water in nanoporous cellulosic fibers can increase the reaction rate of surface acetylation reactions and enable regioselectivity of the reaction

    • Marco Beaumont
    • , Paul Jusner
    •  & Thomas Rosenau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intrinsic mechanical properties of sub-100 nm thin films are markedly difficult to obtain, yet an ever-growing necessity for emerging fields such as soft organic electronics. Here, the authors present a shear motion assisted transfer technique for fabricating free-standing sub-100 nm thin films and measuring their inherent structural–mechanical properties.

    • Luke A. Galuska
    • , Eric S. Muckley
    •  & Xiaodan Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The micro-structures of zeolite catalysts affect their macroarchitectures and catalytic performances. Here, the different SAPO-34/18 intergrowth catalysts are atomically resolved, and the correlation between synthesis conditions and zeolite structures is revealed to further enhance their performances in methanol conversion.

    • Boyuan Shen
    • , Xiao Chen
    •  & Fei Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strong self-healing materials with high healing efficiency are of great use in many fields but their fabrication is extremely challenging. Here, the authors present a robust self-healing material by incorporating high density noncovalent bonds at the interfaces between dentritic tannic acid-modified tungsten disulfide nanosheets and a polyurethane matrix to collectively produce a strong interfacial interaction.

    • Yuyan Wang
    • , Xin Huang
    •  & Xinxing Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is a clinical need to monitor immune-related toxicities of immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Here, the authors develop a digital SERS platform for multiplexed single cytokine counting to track immune-toxicities and demonstrate the ability to use pre-screening to identify patients at higher risk.

    • Junrong Li
    • , Alain Wuethrich
    •  & Matt Trau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Artificial superhydrophobic coatings that are simple to prepare and practical to use are sought after. Here, the authors create versatile, complete-waterproof coatings based on a single-step, stoichiometrically controlled reaction of organosilanes with water.

    • Lishen Zhang
    • , Alvin G. Zhou
    •  & Hua-Zhong Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Segregation of solute atoms at interfaces affects the properties of alloys and needs to be understood to allow their rational design. Here the authors report an unusual solute segregation phenomenon in a group of Mg alloys, driven by chemical bonding, where solute atoms larger than Mg segregate to compression sites of specific fully coherent twin boundary.

    • Cong He
    • , Zhiqiao Li
    •  & Jian-Feng Nie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Short range atomic ordering quantification and nanoscale spatial resolution over a large area for amorphous materials is crucial for accelerating technology development but remain challenges. Here, the authors explore nanoscale heterogeneity of amorphous silicon by tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy via multiresolution manifold learning.

    • Guang Yang
    • , Xin Li
    •  & Jagjit Nanda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The charging of Fe and Mn oxide anodes in lithium-ion batteries are believed to form rocksalt phases via reconstructive conversion reactions. Here, the authors show that MxOy (M = Fe, Mn) transform into non-native body-centred cubic FeO and zincblende MnO via topotactic displacement-like pathways.

    • Xiao Hua
    • , Phoebe K. Allan
    •  & Andrew L. Goodwin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Separation of isotopes of heavier gases than hydrogen or helium is essential for biomedical applications, but current methods are very energy and time consuming. Here the authors report cryogenic separation of oxygen and methane isotopes through adsorption in nanoporous materials, based on a collective nuclear quantum effect.

    • Sanjeev Kumar Ujjain
    • , Abhishek Bagusetty
    •  & Katsumi Kaneko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vertically stacked graphene oxide sheets are promising structures for molecular sieving technologies. By folding large planar sheets in an accordion-like manner, Liu et al. fabricate a thin robust filter with near-vertically aligned nanochannels geared towards commercial separation membranes.

    • Muchun Liu
    • , Paula J. Weston
    •  & Robert H. Hurt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Knowledge about kinetically favored intermediate states in self-assembly processes can provide information about the self-assembly process but trapping these states without changing the reaction conditions is challenging. Here, the authors report a method for trapping metastable intermediates in self-assembly processes that is based on a photopolymerization strategy.

    • Joonsik Seo
    • , Joonyoung F. Joung
    •  & Jong-Man Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Study of structural inhomogeneities in zeolites is important but limited by conventional techniques. Here the authors employ in situ free-electron-laser-based time-resolved coherent X-ray diffraction imaging to visualize the effect of these inhomogeneities during catalytic deoxygenation of NOx.

    • Jinback Kang
    • , Jerome Carnis
    •  & Hyunjung Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Direct visualisation of site-specific strain variations of catalysts is needed to better understand catalytic properties. Here, the authors determine with attojoule precision that the well-known catalytic hysteresis phenomenon occurs at single particle level and involves three-dimensional strain field.

    • Aline R. Passos
    • , Amélie Rochet
    •  & Florian Meneau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dealloying usually relies on chemical dissolution of an alloy component. By contrast, the authors demonstrate an atomic-scale phase separation process that differs completely from the chemical dealloying mechanism and thus represents a significant departure from the well-known Hume-Rothery rules.

    • Lianfeng Zou
    • , Penghui Cao
    •  & Guangwen Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Superlattices of nanoparticles promise new properties emerging from the periodic order. Here, the authors describe the synthesis of superlattices of plasmonic gold nanoparticles with high crystallinity and demonstrate how new plasmon-polariton modes appear in the structures.

    • Florian Schulz
    • , Ondřej Pavelka
    •  & Holger Lange

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The crystal phase-based heterostructures of noble metal nanomaterials are of interest for various applications. Here, the authors report the wet-chemical synthesis of gold nanorods with a well-defined fcc-2H-fcc heterophase, which possess unique optical and catalytic properties.

    • Zhanxi Fan
    • , Michel Bosman
    •  & Hua Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fabricating and mechanically testing nanoarchitected materials remains a challenge. Here, the authors use colloidal synthesis to fabricate Au-Ag hollow nanoboxes and investigate the effect of either a rough or a smooth nanobox surface on the mechanical properties.

    • Radhika P. Patil
    • , David Doan
    •  & X. Wendy Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silicon is thought to be brittle, which limits its mechanical application in devices. Here, the authors lithographically fabricate silicon and show its superior surface quality leads to near ideal strength and micron-scale plasticity.

    • Ming Chen
    • , Laszlo Pethö
    •  & Jeffrey M. Wheeler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Body-centred cubic metals rarely show twinning during deformation. Here, the authors use high resolution transmission electron microscopy to show tungsten, a body-centred cubic metal, spontaneously undergoes detwinning when unloaded.

    • Xiang Wang
    • , Jiangwei Wang
    •  & Scott X. Mao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aspects of twinning in hexagonal-close-packed crystals remain elusive. Here, the authors directly image twinning in rhenium nanocrystals and show the process is mediated by disconnections on Prismatic│Basal interfaces as the twin initially deviates from its ideal orientation before it is corrected.

    • Yang He
    • , Bin Li
    •  & Scott X. Mao

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