Volume 13 Issue 11, November 2014

Metallic nanocrystals can be deformed pseudoelastically at room temperature without generating dislocations.

Aberration-corrected electron microscopes are now being exploited to achieve quantitative atomic-resolution information about surface morphology from a single image.

Semiconducting quantum dots have been used to harvest triplet excitons produced through singlet fission in organic semiconductors. These hybrid organic–inorganic materials may boost the efficiency of solar cells.

The combination of topological constraints and deformability in an active system of microtubules and molecular motors leads to rich dynamic behaviour.

Crystalline silver nanoparticles can be deformed at room temperature and without generating dislocations through the diffusion of surface atoms, as high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and atomistic simulations show.

Photocatalytic efficiency can be limited by slow transfer of photoexcited holes and high charge recombination rates. Using a hydroxyl anion–radical redox couple leads to enhanced photocatalytic H₂ generation on Ni-decorated CdS nanorods.

A combination of microscopy and spectroscopy techniques are used to directly observe a ferroelectric field effect and screening by oxygen vacancies at the BiFeO₃/La_xSr_1−xMnO₃ interface.

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.

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.

The three-dimensional atomic structure of a thin MgO crystal is reconstructed from one high-resolution transmission electron microscopy image.

Successful synthesis of stable one-dimensional ionic crystals composed of two atomic species and encapsulated in carbon nanotubes is now 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.

Malignant cells in tumours invade surrounding tissues. Single-cell-resolution measurements of the migration—through micropillar arrays—of a cell population following the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition show intriguing emergent dynamics.