Metal-organic frameworks are promising materials for hosting functional biomolecules. Here, a 3D europium metal-organic framework could split into a 2D one upon solvent addition and re-cross-link to 3D with excess solvent which can host enzymes as a biocatalyst.

Perovskite solar cells and have shown great promise on the lab scale, but work is needed to scale-up their fabrication. Here, blade coating is used to fabricate 15 cm×15 cm perovskite modules with a nickel oxide hole transport layer, achieving high power conversion efficiency and stability.

The elastic properties of alloys are typically insensitive to changes in microstructure. Here, an as-cast Al-Ce alloy achieves a large Young’s modulus of approximately 92 GPa, due to the presence of isotropic, high symmetry secondary phase.

Three-dimensional stacking of single-crystalline oxide semiconductors on insulating films is key to large-scale integration of electronic circuits. Here, a technique is reported for single-crystalline In₂O₃ formation over an insulting film with no grain boundaries, achieving high processing speed and low power consumption.

Stimuli-responsive oligosaccharide-based molecular designs are limited due to their intrinsic structural diversity and difficulties in selective synthesis. Here, photodegradable glyco-microfibers are synthesized by the selfassembly of cellobiose derivatives bearing nitrobenzyl groups.

Describing site-specific segregation in multi-species materials is a computationally complex task that typically requires model simplification, at the expense of atomic accuracy, or limitation to small samples. Here, the relationships between local atomic environments at grain boundaries and their segregation energies are investigated by developing suitable machine learning atomic descriptors.

There is growing interest in reducing the chemical complexity of engineering alloys. Here, an Mg-Ca alloy for use in bone fixation has less than 1 weight % calcium, and achieves strength and ductility superior to many conventionally-processed magnesium alloys.

Altermagnetism is attracting great interest as a new third type of collinear magnetic order, distinct by symmetry from conventional ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. Now, a mechanism for an interaction-induced formation of altermagnetism in isotropic crystals is presented, based on spontaneous orbital ordering.

Sodium-ion battery safety can be improved by using non-flammable electrolytes, but they are traditionally incompatible with carbon-based anodes. Now, low-concentration phosphate electrolytes modulated by anion-cation interactions are shown to work well with standard electrodes, displaying stable operation over a wide temperature range.

Solar-powered desalination is attractive for cost-effective drinking water in rural communities. Now, nanoporous zinc films created by dealloying are shown to be efficient photothermal materials.

Adsorption has widely been studied in porous materials but the mechanism remains a mystery for nonporous systems. Now, nonporous polymeric crystals have been demonstrated to absorb molecules by coupling dynamic boron-nitrogen bonding and host-guest binding.

Celebrating one year of publishing at Communications Materials