Volume 5

  • No. 12 December 2020

    This month, we celebrate the fifth anniversary of Nature Reviews Materials. In our editorial, we look back over this time and contemplate the future. See Editorial.

  • No. 11 November 2020

    Materials science provides tools and technologies for protection against viral infections, as well as for the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of viral diseases. This Review discusses present and future directions in antiviral materials-science research, with a focus on COVID-19. See Tang et al.

  • No. 10 October 2020

    Introducing multiplicity and variation into the components of MOFs are fascinating demonstrations of reticular chemistry. In this Review, variances in the framework backbone, functionality and metal, and how this variance creates unique sequences of chemical information, are highlighted. Anisotropy in the MOFs is imposed by the variance and realized along a specific direction. See Xu et al.

  • No. 9 September 2020

    The porous hierarchical structure of wood make it a strong candidate for the design of materials with various functions, including load bearing, multiscale mass transport, and optical and thermal management. In this Review, the composition, structure, characterization methods, modification strategies, properties and applications of natural and modified wood are discussed. See Chen et al.

  • No. 8 August 2020

    Flat metasurface optics provides an emerging platform for combining semiconductor foundry methods of manufacturing and assembling with nanophotonics to produce high-end and multifunctional optical elements. This Review highlights metasurface design, recent advances in the field and initial promising applications. See Chen et al.

  • No. 7 July 2020

    Owing to their layered structure, the properties of 2D perovskites can be controlled by tuning their thickness. This Review surveys how fine-tuning the thickness of 2D perovskites from the sub-micrometre to the molecularly thin regime helps to optimize their electrical and optical properties for use in different applications. See Leng et al.

  • No. 6 June 2020

    Reducible oxides are tunable, multifunctional materials used in many applications, particularly in catalysis; their attractive properties arise from their interacting charge carriers, complex electronic structure and propensity to form mobile defects. This Review surveys theoretical methods to model and understand reducible oxides, using TiO2 as a prototypical example. See Rousseau et al.

  • No. 5 May 2020

    Materials engineering enables the control of water–material interactions in solar vapour generators, which aim to efficiently use solar energy for the cost-effective production of clean water. This Review discusses material-design principles for solar evaporators, spanning from macrostructures to molecular configurations. See Zhao et al

  • No. 4 April 2020

    Fire endangers lives and property worldwide. Significant efforts are underway to develop flame-retardant surface treatments that minimize the weight added to a given object and preserve its intrinsic mechanical properties. This review summarizes the history and latest developments in flame-retardant treatments, as well as outlining the challenges ahead. See Lazar et al.

  • No. 3 March 2020

    Compounds that adopt the ReO3-type structure, like their perovskite counterparts, are numerous and wide ranging in their chemistries and properties. In this Review, the similarities between the subfamilies of this exciting class of materials are illustrated, showing that often the materials are more alike than they are different. See Evans et al..

  • No. 2 February 2020

    The field of molecular magnetism has expanded from the chemical design and study of single-molecule magnets and magnetic materials, to more physics- and nanotechnology-driven areas. In this Review, this change in focus is discussed and molecular magnetism in combination with either molecular spintronics, quantum technologies, metal—organic frameworks or 2D materials is outlined. See Eugenio Coronado

  • No. 1 January 2020

    Hydrogel microparticles are used for numerous biomedical applications, owing to their unique multiscale properties and versatility in their design. The Review outlines the fabrication of different types of hydrogel microparticles as well as their uses, ranging from cell and drug delivery to 3D printing. See Daly et al.