Volume 15 Issue 2, February 2016

The Paris agreement on climate change represents an important step in the design of a new global framework for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are keys for the success of this ambitious agreement.

Understanding and controlling anionic redox processes is pivotal for the design of new Li-ion battery and water-splitting materials.

Bismuth iodide Bi₄I₄, composed of quasi-one-dimensional molecular chains, was theoretically predicted and now has been experimentally verified to be a novel strong topological insulator.

Different experimental studies based on nuclear magnetic resonance and inelastic neutron scattering reach opposing conclusions regarding the origin of magnetic nematicity in iron chalcogenides.

Conducting complex oxides with correlated electrons at room temperature offer a less explored materials platform for the high conductivity and optical transparency needed for ultrathin invisible circuitry.

A sequential templating technique yields bifunctional catalysts with controlled separation of cooperative catalytic functionalities.

A protein complex found to align with the direction of a magnetic field could be a key piece in the puzzle of how animals detect magnetic fields.

A spool-and-ribbon cell-culture approach provides quick and easy access to the interior of engineered tumours for the analysis of cell responses to molecular gradients.

The role of surface ligands in tuning the optoelectronic properties, controlling the stability and determining the performance in applications of colloidal nanocrystals is discussed in this Review.

The quasi-one-dimensional bismuth iodide β-Bi₄I₄ is theoretically predicted and experimentally confirmed to exhibit a (1;110) Z₂ strong topological insulator phase.

Neutron scattering measurements provide evidence for strong coupling between stripe spin fluctuations, nematicity and superconductivity in single-crystalline FeSe.

The interaction between graphene and the spins of molecular magnets grown on it has been studied. The coupling between graphene phonons, spins and Dirac fermions modifies—and may be used for controlling—the quantum spin dynamics.

Although rechargeable batteries that use light electropositive metal anodes are attractive, electrodeposition of calcium has proved difficult. Calcium plating at moderate temperatures using conventional organic electrolytes has now been demonstrated.

The search for new materials that can improve the energy density of Li-ion batteries is technologically important. An electrochemically active compound with the composition Li₄Mn₂O₅ exhibits an unprecedented discharge capacity of 355 mAh g⁻¹.

Porous materials functionalized with catalytic metals typically possess single catalytic functionalities. The hierarchical ordering of porous silica for directed transport between compartmentalized catalytic regions is presented.

Solvent-free, supersoft and superelastic polymer melts and networks made from bottlebrush macromolecules can display low modulus, high strain at break, and extraordinary elasticity.

A hydrogel-design strategy achieves transparent and conductive bonding of synthetic hydrogels to a variety of non-porous surfaces, with interfacial toughness values over 1,000 J m⁻².

Low efficiency, short lifetime of catalysts and a lack of low-cost materials have limited electrochemical H₂ production. Now, active and stable Co–Mo–S_x chalcogels for the efficient production of H₂ in alkaline and acidic environments are reported.

Electronic many-body effects are used to control the electron effective mass, and thus the plasma energy and electrical conductivity, of thin films of the correlated metals SrVO₃ and CaVO₃, making them good candidates as transparent conductors.

A super-Förster energy-transfer regime, where coherent and incoherent energy transport processes enhance the diffusion of excitons, is observed at room temperature by tuning the distance between the chromophores’ binding sites in a virus scaffold.

A polymeric protein complex consisting of a newly identified magnetoreceptor protein and known magnetoreception-related photoreceptor cryptochromes exhibits spontaneous alignment in magnetic fields.

An engineered tumour model based on a rolling scaffold–tumour composite strip that can be rapidly disassembled for snapshot analyses preserves cell-to-cell interactions and enables spatial mapping of cell metabolism and cell phenotype.

A renally cleared, water-soluble dye emitting in the near-infrared-imaging (NIR)-II window outperforms a clinically approved NIR-I dye in the in vivo imaging of tumours and their nearby blood and lymphatic vasculatures.