Research Highlights

An article in Nature presents a conceptually new scanning probe microscope, called a quantum twisting microscope, which enables both momentum-resolved measurements and in situ tuning of the twist angle between 2D materials stacked on top of each other.

A paper in Nature reports the observation of spin-polarized excitonic topological states in the topological insulator Bi₂Te₃.

An article in Nature Communications reports a solvent-free electronic material that is as soft as biological tissue like the brain.

An article in Science demonstrates a Li–air battery with a solid-state electrolyte that achieves an energy density higher than for Li-ion batteries.

An article in ACS Nano uses a nonspecific crosslinker to covalently stabilize a variety of 2D and 3D nanocrystal superlattices.

An article in Science reports new insight in the formation of defects during 3D printing of metals and presents a highly accurate method to track defects as they form, opening the way for closed-loop control systems.

An article in Science Advances explains the mechanisms behind the durability of ancient Roman concrete.

An article in Nature Communications reports an environmentally friendly and selective way to synthesize propylene and propylene oxide.

An article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society presents metal–organic frameworks with Olympic rings-inspired structures.

An article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society reports azobenzene crystals that roll continuously under visible light, thanks to crystal packing effects that shift azobenzene’s light-responsive window.

An article in Nature Catalysis presents a computationally guided optimization of iron-based cathodes for protonic ceramic fuel cells that led to the fabrication of devices with good efficiency and stability.

An article in Advanced Materials reports biosensor arrays based on a field-effect transistor that can identify bladder cancer with high accuracy from untreated urine samples.

An article in Angewandte Chemie International Edition discovers a pair of colloidal semiconductor magic-size clusters that can isomerize through either a direct and intra-cluster pathway or an indirect and inter-cluster pathway.

An article in Nature Communications reports on a flexible semimetal with high thermopower that can enable low-temperature solid-state cooling.

A manuscript in Advanced Materials reports a strategy to use electrode design to control the formation of the conduction channels in memristors, improving their reliability.

An article in Nature Communications combines electron diffraction and hierarchical cluster analysis to determine the precise, atom-level structure of covalent organic frameworks.

An article in Nature Materials uses entropy engineering to fabricate capacitors with high energy density.

An article in Angewandte Chemie International Edition finds that a frozen environment can accelerate the degradation of microplastics.

An article in Nature Materials sheds light on the mechanisms underlying dendrite formation in solid-state batteries and shows that a well-chosen metallic interlayer at the electrode–electrolyte interface can mitigate dendrite growth.

An article in Nature Communications reports a wireless theranostic contact lens that can sense and treat the onset of glaucoma.