Synthesis and processing articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Covalent organic frameworks (COF) hold great promise in filtration and separation but combining facile processing, high crystallinity and high separation performance remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate that heterocrystalline COF membranes in which high-crystalline regions are tightly linked by low-crystalline regions can improve molecular sieving properties at high solvent flux.

    • Jinqiu Yuan
    • , Xinda You
    •  & Zhongyi Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Boosting the luminescence of atomically precise metal clusters is a main goal in view of applications. Here, the authors describe a strategy to increase the photoluminescence quantum yield of water-soluble gold clusters at the single-cluster level via formation of bis-Schiff base linkages, providing detailed insight into the mechanism.

    • Haohua Deng
    • , Kaiyuan Huang
    •  & Wei Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report the direct growth of periodic arrays of 2D semiconductor ribbons by exploiting the step edges of high-miller-index Au facets, showing potential for 2D electronic devices. The synthesized ribbons could also be merged to obtain wafer-scale single-crystal monolayers.

    • Pengfei Yang
    • , Dashuai Wang
    •  & Yanfeng Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Covalent organic framework (COF) membranes are important in low energy and cost-effective molecular separations but most COF membranes are assembled via a one-step procedure by concurrent polymerization and crystallization which compromises the ordered structure. Here, the authors propose a two-step phase switching strategy for assembling compact and highly crystalline COF membranes decoupling the polymerization and the crystallization process.

    • Niaz Ali Khan
    • , Runnan Zhang
    •  & Zhongyi Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors report on harnessing sp2-organic molecules as a basis for uniformly initiating the homoepitaxial-like, size-controlled, synthesis of sub-5 nm semiconducting graphene nanoribbons for electronics via chemical vapor deposition.

    • Austin J. Way
    • , Robert M. Jacobberger
    •  & Michael S. Arnold

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Turing structures emerge in reaction-diffusion processes far from thermodynamic equilibrium involving chemicals with different diffusion coefficients in classic Turing systems. Here, authors show that a Turing structure with near zero strain semi-coherence interfaces can be constructed in homogeneous solutions.

    • Yuanming Zhang
    • , Ningsi Zhang
    •  & Zhigang Zou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Liquid metal dealloying is a method to fabricate bicontinuous composite structures with ultra-high interfacial area for diverse applications. This paper demonstrates how the topology of those structures can be controlled by the choice of melt composition.

    • Longhai Lai
    • , Bernard Gaskey
    •  & Alain Karma

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    The industrial application of two-dimensional (2D) materials strongly depends on the large-scale manufacturing of high-quality 2D films and powders. Here, the authors analyze three state-of-the art mass production techniques, discussing the recent progress and remaining challenges for future improvements.

    • Soo Ho Choi
    • , Seok Joon Yun
    •  & Young Hee Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Functionalization of aerogel fibers, characterized by high porosity and low thermal conductivity, to obtain multifunctional materials is highly desirable. Here the authors report hygroscopic holey graphene aerogel fibers hosting LiCl salt, enabling moisture capture, heat allocation, and microwave absorption performance.

    • Yinglai Hou
    • , Zhizhi Sheng
    •  & Xuetong Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic routes of stabilizing crystal structures can discover atomic pickings with desired properties. Here the authors demonstrate inter-element miscibility of In can act as a stabilizer to create Z3-based ordered alloy without significantly changing the original density of state of Z3-FePd3.

    • Kenshi Matsumoto
    • , Ryota Sato
    •  & Toshiharu Teranishi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reduction process is a key step to fabricate metal zeolite catalysts, but existing reduction technologies are always energy intensive and inevitably cause the agglomeration of metallic particles or destroy zeolite structure. Here the authors find that zeolites after ion exchange of ammonium display an interesting and unexpected self-reducing feature.

    • Jie Yao
    • , Yingluo He
    •  & Noritatsu Tsubaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing hydrolytic nanozymes remains challenging. Here the authors present a rational methodology to design hydrolytic nanozyme by developing a data-informed strategy to screen and identify potential scaffold and active sites of hydrolase-like nanozyme.

    • Sirong Li
    • , Zijun Zhou
    •  & Hui Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is a long-standing interest in the development of patterning process for porous materials. Here, the authors report a solvent-free bottom-up approach for the patterning of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks; well-resolved patterns with features down to the scale of 100 nm can be achieved.

    • Yurun Miao
    • , Dennis T. Lee
    •  & Michael Tsapatsis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular self-assembly in water is conventionally limited to amphiphilic molecules. This study harnesses sacrificial surface groups and a post-assembly chemical reaction to form nanostructures unachievable by spontaneous self-assembly alone.

    • Yukio Cho
    • , Ty Christoff-Tempesta
    •  & Julia H. Ortony

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Constructing strong metal-support interactions (SMSI) is an effective means of regulating the interfacial properties of noble metal-based supported catalysts. Here, the authors propose a strategy of ultrafast laser-induced SMSI that can be constructed on a CeO2-supported Pt system by confining electric field in localized interface.

    • Jian Zhang
    • , Dezhi Zhu
    •  & Chang-An Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Creating atomically-precise quantum architectures with high digital fidelity and desired quantum states is an important goal for quantum technology applications. Here the authors devise an on-surface synthetic protocol to construct atomically-precise covalently linked organic quantum corrals with the formation of a series of new quantum resonance states.

    • Xinnan Peng
    • , Harshitra Mahalingam
    •  & Jiong Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In conjugated polymers, n-doping is often limited by the tradeoff between doping efficiency and charge carrier mobilities, since dopants often randomly distribute within polymers, leading to significant structural and energetic disorder. Here, the authors screen a large number of polymer building block combinations and explore the possibility of designing n-type conjugated polymers with good tolerance to dopant-induced disorder.

    • Xinwen Yan
    • , Miao Xiong
    •  & Ting Lei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The spatial configuration of heterostructured nanocrystals has important roles in their applications, but it is difficult to fine tune. Here the authors report a surface lattice engineering approach that can be used to achieve precise control of geometrical symmetry, spatial composition, and dimension of metal heterostructured nanocrystals.

    • Bo Jiang
    • , Yifei Yuan
    •  & Jun Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene nanoribbons are potential systems for engineering topological phases of matter, but the pre-required gapped phases are difficult to find. Here, the authors show that chiral graphene nanoribbons undergo a transition from metallic to topological insulators, and then to trivial band insulators as they are narrowed down to nanometer widths.

    • Jingcheng Li
    • , Sofia Sanz
    •  & Jose Ignacio Pascual

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Similarly to graphene, attempts to fabricate phosphorene by epitaxy or starting from a few layers of bulk black phosphorus have failed so far. Here, the authors present a controllable bottom-up approach to grow atomically thin, crystalline 1D flat phosphorus chains on a Ag(111) substrate.

    • Wei Zhang
    • , Hanna Enriquez
    •  & Hamid Oughaddou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rapid growth of highly crystalline Covalent organic framework (COF) materials remains challenging. Here, the authors accelerate single-crystal polymerization using supercritical CO2 and realize the fabrication of two-dimensional COF single crystals within several minutes.

    • Lan Peng
    • , Qianying Guo
    •  & Dacheng Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorescence probes are indispensable for biomedical imaging, however, interference with tissue autofluorescence results in low signal-to-noise ratio limiting the development of bioimaging with AIE materials. Here the authors develop AIEgen room-temperature phosphors with long emission lifetimes efficiently eliminating intereference with the background signal in imaging.

    • Jianhui Yang
    • , Yahui Zhang
    •  & Xin Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atomic diffusion is a powerful tool for the synthesis of heterostructures, even though controlled atomic diffusion is difficult to achieve. Here, the authors control solid-solid atomic diffusion between an Ag nanowire and a Te nanowire, producing 1D heterostructures by applying an electrical bias inside a TEM.

    • Hui Zhang
    • , Tao Xu
    •  & Litao Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite many reports on nanoparticle-covalent organic frameworks (COF) composites, a universal strategy for the synthesis of monodisperse core-shell structured COF nanocomposites remains challenging. Here, the authors develop a strategy for interfacial growth of highly crystalline COFs on functional nanoparticles with abundant optical, electrical and magnetic properties.

    • Liang Chen
    • , Wenxing Wang
    •  & Xiaomin Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is challenging to control the growth of colloidal III-V quantum dots, due to complex reaction pathways. Here, the authors isolate a single-crystalline tetrapod species as a late-stage intermediate and use it as a tailored-growth platform in colloidal synthesis.

    • Youngsik Kim
    • , Hyekyoung Choi
    •  & Sohee Jeong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adsorption is a fundamentally important process but challenging to quantify, especially at the nanoscale. Here, the authors map the adsorption affinity and cooperativity of various ligands on single gold nanoparticles and discover adsorption crossover behaviors between different facets, leading to a strategy to control particle shape.

    • Rong Ye
    • , Ming Zhao
    •  & Peng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Control of the phases associated with the metal-insulator transition in VO2 underpins its applications as a phase change material. Here, the authors report phase management by means of oxide inhibitor-assisted growth and present high-performance VO2 actuators based on asymmetric phase transition routes.

    • Run Shi
    • , Yong Chen
    •  & Chun Cheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Force sensing using mechanochromic polymers is currently limited to two state systems and does not allow directly correlating the force with the absorption or emission wavelength. Here, the authors present a mechanochromic donor-acceptor torsional spring that undergoes force-induced planarization during uniaxial elongation leading to force dependent red-shifted absorption and emission spectra.

    • Maximilian Raisch
    • , Wafa Maftuhin
    •  & Michael Sommer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanographenes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are important classes of compounds with numerous applications, but challenging to access due to a lack of programmable and diversity-oriented methods. Here, the authors report a diversity-oriented, growth-from-template synthesis of nanographenes enabled by iterative annulative π-extension reactions from small PAH starting materials.

    • Wataru Matsuoka
    • , Hideto Ito
    •  & Kenichiro Itami

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Creating predictable, controllable nanoparticles relies on a mechanistic understanding of their synthesis. Here, through integrated in situ liquid microscopy and first-principles calculations, the authors elucidate the atomistic details involved in the formation of colloidal core-shell nanoparticles.

    • Wenpei Gao
    • , Ahmed O. Elnabawy
    •  & Miaofang Chi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Etching is one of the key considerations in the synthesis, storage, and application of metal nanoparticles. Here, the authors study the etching of water-soluble thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters at a molecular level and reveal an unusual recombination process in the oxidative reaction environment.

    • Yitao Cao
    • , Tongyu Liu
    •  & Jianping Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoimprinting faces challenges with imprinting hard materials at low or room temperature, and with fabricating complex nanostructures rapidly. Here, the authors overcome these challenges by a room-temperature ultrasonic nanoimprinting technique that capitalizes on the concentration of ultrasonic energy flow at nanoscale.

    • Junyu Ge
    • , Bin Ding
    •  & Hong Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tetrahedral nanocrystals are out-of-equilibrium structures whose growth mechanism is a long-standing open problem. Here, the authors show that pure Pt tetrahedral nanocrystals grow in the gas phase and single out the defect-mediated mechanism leading to the symmetry-breaking for tetrahedral growth.

    • Yu Xia
    • , Diana Nelli
    •  & Z. Y. Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Growing nanoparticle crystals typically requires strict control over interparticle interactions and assembly. Here, the authors show that a trace amount of polymeric impurities induces reproducible, rapid growth of high quality 3D nanoparticle crystals in solution and on patterned substrates.

    • Yiwen Qian
    • , Alessandra da Silva
    •  & Ting Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing organic photoluminescent materials with high emission efficiencies in the solid state under a water atmosphere is important for practical applications. Here, the authors report the formation of intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds in a tautomerizable Schiff base and intercalation of water in the crystal lattice leading to a luminescent organic hydrate.

    • Feng Zhou
    • , Peiyang Gu
    •  & Jianmei Lu

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