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  • This Perspective provides an overview on the emergent field of colloidal robotics, discussing recent developments on colloidal and micrometre-sized particles that can perform functions such as sensing, communication, computation and motion.

    • Albert Tianxiang Liu
    • Marek Hempel
    • Michael S. Strano
    Perspective
  • Pressure sensing is challenging in liquid environments, where typical solid-state sensors do not perform well. A sensor with solid–liquid–liquid–gas multiphasic interfaces — its design inspired by the lotus leaf, and in which a trapped air layer modulates capacitance changes with pressure — is shown to achieve near-ideal pressure sensing and is well suited to liquid environments.

    Research Briefing
  • Hydrogels are promising materials but are often limited by inadequate mechanical properties and time-consuming fabrication processes. Here the authors demonstrate a rapid biomimetic interfacial-bonding nanocomposite strategy for ultra-tough hydrogels with high tensile strength.

    • Bingkun Bao
    • Qingmei Zeng
    • Linyong Zhu
    Article
  • Nanoparticle retention inside tumours has been associated with lymphatic vessel collapse. It is now shown that nanoparticles exit from solid tumours through lymphatic vessels in or surrounding the tumour by a nanoparticle-size-dependent mechanism.

    • Luan N. M. Nguyen
    • Zachary P. Lin
    • Warren C. W. Chan
    Article
  • Solid-state pressure sensors have performance limitations in liquid environments. Here, the authors design a pressure sensor using solid–liquid–liquid–gas multiphasic interfaces where a trapped air layer modulates capacitance changes with pressure to achieve near-friction-free contact line motions for near-ideal pressure sensing.

    • Wen Cheng
    • Xinyu Wang
    • Benjamin C. K. Tee
    Article
  • By means of a precise folding–tearing process, screw dislocations with helical cores — appearing in pairs and taking on a DNA-like double-helix structure — are engineered to control the growth of twisted bilayer graphene.

    • Pascal Pochet
    • Harley T. Johnson
    News & Views
  • An alloy engineering approach is developed to reliably grow atomically thin bilayers with predictable and tunable moiré patterns.

    • David B. Geohegan
    • Alexander A. Puretzky
    • Kai Xiao
    News & Views
  • Piezoresponse microscopy and spectroscopy reveal the inextricable role of surface electrochemistry in stabilizing and controlling ferroelectricity in doped hafnia.

    • Xia Hong
    News & Views
  • Ferroelectricity in hafnia-based systems seems to be correlated with oxygen vacancy dynamics, but the coupling of this and ferroelectric response is rarely studied. Here it is shown that Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 can be antiferroionic, with antiferroelectric behaviour coupled to surface electrochemistry.

    • Kyle P. Kelley
    • Anna N. Morozovska
    • Sergei V. Kalinin
    Article
  • Controlling the periodicity of synthesized moiré materials is vital to harness their unique physics. Here the authors realize the van der Waals epitaxy of tunable moiré heterostructures and reveal the epitaxial science governing their formation.

    • Matthieu Fortin-Deschênes
    • Kenji Watanabe
    • Fengnian Xia
    Article
  • In situ tests show that all-inorganic lead halide perovskite micropillars can morph into distinct shapes without affecting their optoelectronic properties and bandgap, which provides insights into the plastic deformation of semiconductors and also shows their potential for manufacturing relevant devices.

    • Xiaocui Li
    • You Meng
    • Yang Lu
    Article
  • The authors demonstrate that the electrostatic potential originating on the surface of twisted bilayer and multilayer hexagonal boron nitride can be used to generate a moiré potential modulation on adjacent semiconductor layers, enabling the possibility of controlling the properties of this adjacent layer.

    • Dong Seob Kim
    • Roy C. Dominguez
    • Yoichi Miyahara
    Article