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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.
The electronic band structure in silicon optical fibres can be engineered by continuous laser irradiation during the crystallization of the fibres. A reduction of the bandgap down to 0.59 eV is demonstrated.
Single-molecule force spectroscopy is used to correlate the single-molecule nanomechanical properties of a biomimetic polymer with the bulk mechanical performance of the material by means of the derivation of the potential energy landscape.
Vapour growth of WS2/MoS2 two-dimensional materials at low and high temperature allows the synthesis of in-plane lateral heterojunctions and vertically stacked bilayers, respectively, with atomically sharp interfaces.
A high-pressure reaction is used to convert benzene molecules to one-dimensional crystalline carbon nanostructures that show diamond-like sp3 bonding. These nanothreads are expected to have strength and stiffness greater than carbon nanotubes.
Exciton transport in organic materials is negatively affected by molecular disorder. It is now theoretically shown that metalloporphyrin layers support topological edge states that allow exciton currents even in disordered molecular lattices.
Inspired by Boolean binary algebra, an approach to design electromagnetic metamaterials with desired permittivity by using just two elemental building blocks is demonstrated analytically and numerically.
Single-particle-resolution video microscopy of films of colloidal particles shows that solid–solid transitions between square and triangular lattices occur through a two-step nucleation mechanism that involves liquid nuclei.
Investigation of the individual state-of-charge of particles in the phase-separating battery electrode lithium iron phosphate reveals that the fraction of active particles is highly dependent on cycle rate and direction. The findings could lead to enhanced current uniformity and cycle life in other electrode systems.
Deformable synthetic microgel particles bearing molecular-recognition motifs for fibrin fibres are shown to augment clotting in vitro and mimic in vivo clot contraction, thus recapitulating the functions of natural platelets.
In situ electron energy-loss spectroscopy in an environmental transmission electron microscope reveals that palladium nanocrystals undergo sharp phase transitions during hydrogen absorption and desorption, and that surface effects dictate the size dependence of the hydrogen absorption pressures.
Aromatic molecules and transition-metal complexes dispersed in hydroxyl steroidal matrices reveal efficient reverse saturable absorption when irradiated with low-power light. These materials extend the range of applications of optical limiters.
Transition metal dichalcogenides are attracting widespread attention for their appealing optoelectronic properties. Using a combination of numerical and experimental techniques, the exciton binding energy is now determined for MoSe2 on graphene.
Experiments with colloidal nano- and microparticles and computer simulations show that, unexpectedly, confinement and entropy are sufficient for the formation of icosahedral crystalline clusters of up to about 100,000 particles.
Non-optimal electrical contacts can significantly limit the performance of MoS2-based thin-film transistors. Transformation of semiconducting MoS2 into its metallic phase is now shown as a viable strategy to decrease the metal–MoS2 contact resistance.
Physical vapour transport is now used to grow single-atomic-layer lateral MoSe2/WSe2 heterojunctions, enabling the development of in-plane architectures for optoelectronic applications based on these semiconducting materials.
The use of a gold substrate coated with organic monolayers and a highly viscous immobilizing liquid allows the characterization of the electronic properties of carbon-based materials deposited on the coated substrates at the solid/liquid interface.