Nanofiber-based hydrogels are useful delivery systems in biomedical applications due to their drug loading capability and controlled release. Here, a biocompatible visible light-triggered in situ-gelling drug delivery system is demonstrated consisting of ascorbyl palmitate nanofibers and gelatin methacryloyl polymer.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can be captured and transformed to useful chemicals with hydrogenation catalysts. Here, iron-functionalized graphene oxide-based catalyst functions as an effective catalyst for the selective conversion of carbon dioxide into a formaldehyde oxidation level.

Detergent-induced membrane interactions are important for biotechnology applications but their mechanism is still not well understood. Here, sub-micron-sized vesicles are shown to fuse by a non-ionic detergent, involving permeabilization, vesicle docking, hemi-fusion, and full lipid mixing steps.

Photodegradation of pollutants is important to produce clean water but their activities are restricted during nighttime. Here, metal-free catalysts derived from intrinsically microporous polyimide show efficient photocatalytic degradation activities of dyes under light and darkness.

Kitaev magnets are interesting as they can host quantum spin liquid phases and fractional quasiparticles for decoherence-free topological quantum computing. Here, a parallel computational program explores all possible 4f electron configurations of rare-earth Kitaev materials, identifying those configurations, such as 4f³ and 4f¹¹ in Nd³⁺ and Er³⁺ compounds, where anisotropic Kitaev interactions prevail over isotropic Heisenberg exchange.

Protein-loaded nanoparticles are important for immunomodulatory applications. Here, an efficient method for producing protein-containing nanoparticles at large scale is developed which overcomes prior limitations on the use of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles.

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