Volume 21 Issue 8, August 2022

Individual fullerenes containing switchable electric dipoles have been demonstrated to function as single-molecule memory and logic at room temperature.

Fruit flies injected with magnetic nanoparticles and genetically modified to sensitize neural circuits to the rate of change in temperature have enabled subsecond behavioural responses to magnetic stimuli and multi-channel magnetic control.

By precisely stacking two sheets of graphene at a specific angle, the resulting moiré superlattice superconducts. Extending this notion, researchers have now found superconductivity in four- and five-layer graphene moiré stacks.

Understanding, at the atomic level, the effect of the stacking and twisting of different layered two-dimensional materials is a major challenge for the future of twistronics. Optical excitations evidence twist-angle-dependent whirlpool-shaped distortions in such materials.

Observation of large remnant polarization in epitaxial yttrium-doped hafnium oxide thin films demonstrates that small-grained or ultrathin microstructures are not required to achieve robust ferroelectric behaviour.

This Review discusses the development of electronanotribology, its intersection with room-temperature ionic liquids and how such collaboration can be used to electrically control friction at the nanoscale.

Real-time imaging of accelerated solid–liquid–gas reactions with nanobubbles uncovers the mechanisms of enhanced triple-phase reactions by identifying the critical distance between solid and gas at the nanoscale.

Photoelectrochemical devices are used for direct solar fuel production, but the stability of light absorbers can hamper their commercial prospects. Integrating a BiOI light absorber into a robust oxide-based architecture with a graphite paste conductive encapsulant results in photocathodes with long-term H₂ evolution activity.

A design paradigm to create robust robotic metamaterials using versatile gear clusters is demonstrated. It enables intriguing programmability of elastic properties and shape while preserving stability for intelligent machines.

Superconductivity is reported in magic-angle twisted four-layer and five-layer graphene systems. While they find that all magic-angle graphene systems fit into a unified hierarchy of systems that share a set of flat bands in their electronic band structures, they also report that there is a key distinction between magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene and the other family members, related to the difference in the way the electrons move between the layers in a magnetic field.

The twist angle dependence of correlations in alternating twist quadrilayer graphene is reported.

Recent studies have revealed unexpected characteristics in moiré superlattices formed by stacking two-dimensional crystals. Here, the authors report whirlpool-shaped periodic lattice distortions in moiré superlattices leading to anomalous optical responses.

Colour centre emission from hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) holds promise for quantum technologies but activation and tuning are challenging. Here, the authors show twist-angle emission brightness tuning and external voltage brightness modulation at the twisted interface of hBN flakes.

Hafnium dioxide is of technological interest as it is compatible with silicon; however, previous work indicates that a nanometre grain size is required to generate ferroelectricity. Here ferroelectric Y-doped HfO₂ thin films with high crystallinity are grown with large crystal grain sizes, indicating that ferroelectricity is intrinsic.

Knowledge of band structure aids in understanding charge transport behaviour, yet it has proved impossible to measure the conduction (LUMO) band of organic semiconductors, in particular due to sample degradation by the electron beam. To address this, the authors developed and used AR-LEIPS to reveal the LUMO band dispersion of pentacene.

Single-molecule electronics provide the potential solution for high-density integration and low-power consumption in massive data-driven applications, but have yet to be explored. Here, the authors report low-power logic-in-memory operations, based on single electric dipole flipping in the two-terminal single-metallofullerene device at room temperature.

Superionic lithium conductivity has only been observed in a few classes of materials, mostly in thiophosphates but rarely in oxides. Corner-sharing connectivity in an oxide crystal structure framework is now shown to promote superionic conductivity.

The partial oxidation of CH₄ to CH₃OH is challenging to perform in artificial systems due to ready over-oxidation to CO and CO₂. Here by confining mono-iron hydroxyl sites in a metal–organic framework, photo-oxidation of CH₄ to CH₃OH is achieved with high selectivity and time yield.

Myelofibrosis causes a pathological remodelling of the bone marrow, which becomes stiffer and more elastic, thus promoting the proliferation of proinflammatory monocytes and their differentiation into dendritic cells.

Here the authors describe a method for remote magnetothermal stimulation of neurons that achieves subsecond behavioural responses in Drosophila fruit flies by combining magnetic nanoparticles with TRPA1-A, a rate-sensitive thermoreceptor. Tuning the properties of magnetic nanoparticles to respond to different magnetic field strengths and frequencies enables multichannel thermal magnetogenetic stimulation.