News & Views

Light-absorbing materials can exhibit exceptional photothermal effects as their characteristic dimensions approach the nanoscale. A flash welding technique that exploits the peculiar photothermal response of polyaniline nanofibres opens new avenues for processing and patterning polymer-based materials and devices.

The temperature dependence of the viscosity of most glass-forming liquids is known to depart significantly from the classical Arrhenius behaviour of simple fluids. The discovery of an unexpected correlation between the extent of this departure and the Poisson ratio of the resulting glass could lead to new understanding of glass ageing and viscous liquid dynamics.

Superconductivity and ferromagnetism are two very useful phenomena, but rarely coexist in bulk materials. Bringing them together in artificial hybrid structures produces some unusual results.

A glass transition in amorphous silicon has been surmised but never clearly shown experimentally. The very fast timescale of ion hammering experiments allows observation of the long-sought low-density liquid polyamorph of silicon.

Stethoscopes, loudspeakers, microphones, pressure gauges and many other common devices share a basic mechanism of operation — a pliable membrane deflecting under the influence of an external force. A nanocomposite membrane has now been developed that shows great sensitivity and autorecovery capabilities.

Controlling metal oxidation is an age-old problem and the integrity of the metal–oxide interface is key to long-term material stability. A deeper investigation of this buried interface reveals the processes occurring at the atomic scale, and provides tantalizing clues for alloy design.

The extraordinarily high strength and stiffness of single-walled carbon nanotubes promises a myriad of unique applications, but many of these are reliant on the growth of ultralong, continuous nanotubes. A new synthetic procedure takes us a step closer to this goal.

Chemical immobilization of electro-active enzymes on conducting nanocrystalline-diamond thin films is laying the basis for diamond-based electrochemical biosensors and bio-interfaces.

Describing the structure of amorphous materials such as metallic glasses has been a longstanding problem in materials science. A new technique called fluctuation microscopy allows us to see order on length scales that are difficult to study with traditional scattering techniques.

The coupling of energy to surface-plasmons in the metal contacts of a light-emitting diode is usually considered detrimental to optical efficiency. A new study suggests that the opposite could be true.

Biological and biomimetic membranes are multiscale assemblies extending from small molecular clusters to large domains with an area of 100,000 nm². New computer simulations give us a look into this experimental twilight zone.

Self-assembly of soft materials has achieved structural periodicity of tens of nanometres. Layered superlattices prepared from viruses and lipid membranes could now be used as templates for organising macromolecules.

The world of polymer science is running in 100 different directions. Some pursue the most basic chemistry and physics questions, others have immediate industrial concerns; remarkably, the end-points tend to converge.

Experience with friction is as old as human history, but the subject remains surprisingly subtle. Now the first experimental observations of the initial fleeting instants of sliding have been made. The results have implications that range from the smallest sliding surfaces in nanomachines to seismic signals in earthquakes.

Ceramic composites reinforced with nanoscale materials such as nanotubes are widely expected to have superior mechanical properties compared with more conventional composite materials. However, new work shows that the toughness of these nanocomposites can be severely overestimated when measured by the standard indentation method.

Supramolecular interactions between organic molecules not only enable them to self-organize into large regular assemblies, but also enhance their electronic and luminescent properties, which should help to improve the performance of organic devices.

Carbon nanotubes have great potential as polymer additives, but they are difficult to process. A mixture of nanotubes in a polypropylene melt exhibits enhanced electrical conductivity and an unusual flow force that simplifies processing.