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The combination of high-mobility charge transport and efficient luminescence in one material has so far proved elusive in semiconducting polymers. Varying the side groups on a single polymer can improve both properties simultaneously.
Sea cucumber skin is the architectural basis for polymer nanocomposites that can adapt their mechanical properties in response to biomedically relevant chemical stimuli, in a similar fashion to the animals' self-defence mechanism.
The systematic development of phase-change materials has been hampered by experimental and computational difficulties. The first successful modelling of the full phase-change cycle therefore closes an important gap.
The successful synthesis of highly crystalline Cs3C60, exhibiting superconductivity up to a record temperature for fullerides of 38 K, demonstrates a powerful synthetic route for investigating the origin of superconductivity in this class of materials.
The interplay of various mechanical forces leads to characteristic shapes of torn adhesive films. Analysis of these shapes provides potential for new approaches to material characterization.
New dosimeters are needed to measure radiation up to extreme levels created by particle accelerators and nuclear fusion reactors. The time to develop these dosimeters is now.
Understanding how excited states behave at heterojunctions between polymers in blends is fundamental to designing better organic solar cells and light-emitting diodes. A quantum-mechanical molecular-scale model of how excitations behave at heterojunctions has been developed, showing an unexpectedly wide but specific range of excitonic states.
Multiferroic materials are of interest because they allow control of their magnetic properties through electric fields. However, room-temperature magnetoelectrics often show antiferromagnetic order, reducing the effects of such coupling. A novel approach demonstrates switchable electric field control over a local magnetic field through the indirect route of exchange bias.
X-ray diffraction computed tomography can provide high-resolution phase mapping of nanocrystalline and powdered crystalline materials. Moreover, a reverse analysis offers the possibility to extract, a posteriori, the scattering/diffraction pattern from a selected area of the tomography image.
Composites with added carbon nanotubes are known for their improved mechanical strength. Laminates of thin films of aluminium and carbon nanotubes are now used for the fabrication of micromechanical resonators with significantly enhanced mechanical properties.
C60-based solids are the archetypal molecular superconductors, reaching transition temperatures as high as 33 K. Now, Cs3C60 solids, having a transition temperature of 38 K, have been isolated. Both face-centred-cubic and body-centred-cubic phases were synthesized, and, uniquely among C60 solids, the superconducting phase was found to be body-centred cubic.
Chiral detection using organic sensors has been limited to concentration levels of parts-per-thousand. The use of a thin-film transistor and of semiconducting oligomers with chiral side arms improves differential detection of enantiomers to parts per million.
Efficient light emission combined with high charge-carrier mobility has proven elusive for polymer semiconductors, because high mobility is typically achieved using approaches that quench luminescence. A new strategy, introducing a limited number of more-effective hopping sites between otherwise relatively isolated polymer chains, achieves this aim.
Microporous materials such as zeolites are widely used in separation and catalytic applications. A thermally stable family of zeolites with chiral and achiral structures built from the same layer is now reported.
The large-scale production of high-quality graphene layers is one of the main challenges to be overcome for successful application of this material. Epitaxial growth on ruthenium substrate produces homogeneous domains of single- and double-layer graphene on the scale of several tens of micrometres. The electronic properties of the second layer show great potential for applications.
Inducing and understanding insulator–metal transitions in binary oxide can be challenging. A transition driven chemically by an internal redox reaction is now observed in a non-stoichiometric, amorphous gallium oxide.
