Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Although solid oxide electrochemical cells can store electricity and convert fuels to electricity, their development is limited by long-term stability. Degradation is now eliminated by reversibly cycling between electrolysis and fuel-cell modes.
Direct imaging and characterization of propagating plasmons in high-quality graphene, encapsulated between two films of hexagonal boron nitride, has now been achieved together with the observation of very low plasmon damping.
The inclusion of long-range electrostatic effects in the modelling of donor–acceptor systems now leads to a more accurate estimation of the energy landscape and open-circuit voltage of organic solar cells.
Enhancing the superconducting temperature is often the main driver of synthetic studies of novel superconducting materials. Now, an approach yielding an air-stable iron selenide system that superconducts up to 40 K is reported.
Transdermal light-triggered activation of cell-adhesive peptides on the surface of implanted hydrogels alters cell–material interactions, such as cell adhesion and spatial patterning, and fibrous encapsulation and vascularization of the material.
Heavy alkaline-earth hydrides could be of interest as ionically conducting electrolytes for electrochemical applications. Barium hydride is now shown to exhibit fast ionic transport of hydride ions in a high-temperature and high-symmetry phase.
A body-centred icosahedral quasicrystal has been assembled, by using molecular dynamics simulations, from a one-component fluid of particles interacting via a tunable, isotropic pair potential.
Molecular design rules are defined to obtain metal-free blue-emitting organic compounds that show thermally activated delayed fluorescence with high photoluminescence efficiency. An internal electroluminescence quantum efficiency of 100% is reached.
Although Li-rich layered oxides are attractive electrode materials for batteries, they suffer from voltage decay on cycling. A correlation between trapped metal ions in interstitial tetrahedral sites and voltage decay is established, which could prove useful for developing high-capacity electrodes without decay.
The unexpectedly large flexoelectric response in ferroelectric perovskite materials is now shown to be induced by macroscopic symmetry breaking in paraelectric phases.
Iron selenide is an appealingly clean system for understanding the origin of superconductivity in iron pnictides. A detailed NMR study shows that the nematic order preceding the superconducting phase is driven by orbital degrees of freedom.
Experiments and computer simulations show that Janus ellipsoids can self-assemble into self-limiting fibres that have shape-memory properties and can be actuated by applying an external electric field.
Amphiphilic proteins act as building blocks for the de novo formation of membrane-based organelles within Escherichia coli. The organelles can be selectively functionalized in vivo with unnatural amino acids and hence may permit chemical reactions inside the cell that have not been possible so far.
The detailed nucleation and growth kinetics and the crystal structure of catalytically relevant CoPt3/Au, FePt/Au and Pt/Au metal dumbbell nanoparticles have been obtained by in situ synchrotron small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering techniques.
Caloric effects in magnetic materials are promising for many applications. A significant barocaloric effect is observed in Mn3GaN and shown to be promoted by frustration arising from its antiferromagnetism.
Ferroelectric switching is studied in PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 thin films. Nanotwinned ferroelectric domains with broadened switching characteristics are observed and control over ferroelectric switching is demonstrated.
Harnessing the optical properties of noble metals down to the nanoscale is crucial for fast information processing. Lateral confinement and delocalization of surface plasmons is now observed in self-assembled network chains of fused gold nanoparticles.
Triplet excitons generated in a pentacene layer by singlet exciton fission are transferred to lead selenide colloidal nanocrystals with high efficiency when their energy matches the bandgap of the nanocrystals.
Lead sulphide colloidal nanocrystals are now used to harvest non-emissive triplet excitons generated in a tetracene layer. Depending on the length of the ligands capping the nanocrystals, exciton transfer efficiency as high as 90% can be achieved.
An adipocyte-targeting gene-carrier complex is shown to selectively transfect mature adipocytes by binding to the protein prohibitin and to lead to the metabolic recovery and to more than 20% body-weight reduction in obese mice.