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The photoconductivity and inverse photoconductivity of noble-metal nanoparticle films can be tuned by functionalization with alkane thiol monolayers

Triblock copolymer vesicles show highly reversible pH-induced volume changes

A new class of perovskite materials with unusual disorder are multiferroic near room temperature

Incorporating binding sites for metal ions into DNA strands that assemble into well-defined three-dimensional structures has enabled researchers to build metal-nucleic acid cages. There is potential for the geometry, pore size and chemistry of such materials to be easily tuned, which may prove useful for applications in molecular sensing and encapsulation.

When a racemic mixture of tartaric acid is adsorbed on a Cu(110) surface, the (R,R) and (S,S) enantiomers separate to form enantiopure domains that cover equal amounts of the substrate. Repeating the experiment with just a small excess of one enantiomer, however, has a drastic effect on the surface assembly with only the majority isomer forming ordered superstructures.

Building artificial chemical systems that mimic the behaviour of cells could offer new insights into biological processes. Now, researchers show that by compartmentalizing the autocatalytic formose reaction inside lipid vesicles, and using small-molecule precursors as a ‘metabolic’ fuel, they can create a system that is capable of communicating with living bacterial cells.

Chemical methods of achieving asymmetric protonation are classified according to reaction mechanism, with a view to developing a greater understanding of this most fundamental of asymmetric processes, and thus improving the potential for its application in synthesis.

Spin transitions — metal ions changing from high- to low-spin states — can be triggered by a range of stimuli and have normally only been observed in octahedrally coordinated ions. Now, a four-coordinate, square-planar iron(II) compound, SrFeO₂, exhibits such a spin transition, accompanied by a transition from an antiferromagnetic insulator to a ferromagnetic half-metal.

Platinum nanoparticles are excellent catalysts, but maintaining that effectiveness at ever smaller particle sizes is crucial to make best use of the precious metal. Now, a dendrimer has been used as a template to make subnanometre clusters, with a defined number of atoms, that exhibit high catalytic activity.

Nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide can form adducts with frustrated Lewis pairs that consist of sterically bulky phosphines and boranes

The asymmetric synthesis of antibiotic TAN-1085 has been achieved by a series of axial chirality transfer steps

The magnetic domains in an iron–palladium film have been quantitatively observed using off-axis electron holography

Bifurcating reaction pathways are those for which a single transition-state structure leads to two separate products, and they have been seen previously in the reactions of certain small molecules. Now, calculations provide evidence for a pathway that bifurcates in the synthesis of a terpene — leading to distinctly different structures.

Atmospheric measurements made at the Pearl River Delta in China suggest that a new pathway to hydroxyl radical recycling exists

A trinuclear nickel cluster is the basis for a porous material with a highly connected and symmetric structure

A gallium-substituted carbene analogue can form and stabilize a compound with the shortest bismuth–bismuth double bond observed so far

Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) is broadly used to examine chemical composition, but single-atom analysis is hampered by the damage caused by incident electrons. Now, with an EELS technique that does not cause such damage, single calcium atoms have been identified and various elemental analyses demonstrated using metallofullerene-doped nanotubes.

The unusual properties of graphene make it a promising candidate for nanoelectronics applications, but it remains a difficult material to make. Now, on the basis of spectroscopic data that characterize the graphene-precursor graphite oxide, researchers have devised an efficient reduction process for the large-scale production of nearly pure, highly conductive graphene sheets.

A colorimetric sensor based on the supramolecular aggregation of the analyte and sensing molecules has been developed to detect melamine in milk products

The fragmentation of white phosphorus has been carried out with neutral organic species rather than transition metals