Volume 22 Issue 6, June 2023

A low-valence carbon-doped ruthenium oxide-based catalytic material achieved a catalytic trinity of superior activity, selectivity and stability during the conversion of carbon dioxide into methane at low temperatures.

In heavily hole-doped cuprates, superconductivity does not die by simply dissolving into a uniform metal due to the lack of pairing, but rather survives by shattering into nanoscale superconducting puddles.

Current-inducing switching of magnetization is crucial for future magnetic data processing technologies, but switching it with speed and energy efficiency remains challenging. Using femtosecond optical pulses, instead of conventional charge currents, is found to make spintronics not only ultrafast but also counterintuitive.

Above-bandgap, nanosecond laser pulses enable the localized in situ writing of spin defects in prefabricated nanophotonic cavities. The approach preserves defect and cavity mode properties, key requirements towards cavity–emitter coupling in quantum networks.

A strategy of using a high ligand/metal ion concentration ratio eliminates lattice defects in polycrystalline zirconium metal–organic framework membranes, enhancing their molecular sieving performance.

The direct observation of enhanced dislocation mobility in iron by in situ electron microscopy offers key insights and adds to the ongoing debate on the mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement.

Controlling the vapour transport mode with sustained release of precursor species allows for the growth of single-crystalline black phosphorus and black phosphorus–arsenic thin films on the millimetre scale.

This Review discusses the field of antiferromagnetic spintronics with a focus on coherent effects.

Using direct laser writing with a nanosecond pulsed laser operating at above-bandgap photon energies, we demonstrate the selective formation of spin defects in photonic crystal cavities in 4H-silicon carbide and their in situ characterization.

The authors present scanning tunnelling spectroscopy data that show that the mechanism of superconductivity in overdoped cuprate superconductors is qualitatively different from conventional mean-field theory.

Screw dislocations in α-iron move more easily in the presence of hydrogen, as evidenced by real-time imaging using quantitative transmission electron microscopy.

Subcentimetre-size black phosphorous and its alloy films have been achieved on conventional substrates through sustained feedstock release design, and exhibit high crystalline quality and composition-dependent bandgap tunability.

The authors demonstrate optically induced ultrafast magnetization reversal taking place within less than a picosecond in rare-earth-free spin valves of [Pt/Co]/Cu/[Co/Pt].

Electronic compressibility measurements of twisted double-bilayer WSe₂ reveal correlated insulators with spin-polaron charged excitations, as well as close competition between moiré bands at Γ and K valleys.

We synthesized stretchable electroluminescent polymers capable of reaching a near-unity theoretical quantum yield through thermally activated delayed fluorescence. Their polymers show 125% stretchability with 10% external quantum efficiency and demonstrate a fully stretchable organic light-emitting diode.

Understanding charge-compensating interactions and ionic dynamics in organic mixed conductors can be challenging. Operando NMR spectroscopy is now used to quantify cation and water movement during doping/dedoping in mixed conductor films.

Surface strain can be used in gas phase catalysis and electrocatalysis to control the binding energies of adsorbates on active sites, but in situ or operando strain measurements can be challenging. Coherent diffraction now allows strain inside individual Pt nanoparticles to be mapped and quantified under electrochemical control.

Activating CO₂ to form methane is a potential strategy for energy decarbonization, but to activate CO₂ typically requires high temperatures. Here a ruthenium oxycarbonate is presented that forms by carbon interstitial doping of RuO₂, and this catalyst enables CO₂ activation at 50 °C.

MOF membranes can present exceptional molecular-sieving properties, but lattice defects arising from incomplete cluster coordination can hinder this. Here a strategy for the elimination of lattice defects by increasing the ligand to secondary building unit ratio is proposed and demonstrated.

Photopolymerizable hydrogels enable optical clearance and high homogeneous expansion for high-resolution optical imaging of cells embedded within degradable hydrogels.

Detailed structures of both solvated corona chains and sub-nanometre crystalline core lattice of polymer-based nanofibres in solution are obtained using high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy.