Articles in 2021

Thanks to a stable fluorinated interphase formed on top of a Zn metal anode, a Zn metal battery shows 99.9% Coulombic efficiency and record-high Zn utilization.

A solid–electrolyte interphase that is permeable to Zn(ii) ions but waterproof is formed using an aqueous electrolyte composition. Cycling performances in an anode-free aqueous pouch cell show promise for intrinsically safe energy storage applications.

Semiconductor–superconductor hybrids are used for realizing complex quantum phenomena but are limited in the accessible magnetic field and temperature range. Now, hybrid devices made from InAs nanowires and epitaxially matched, single-crystal, atomically flat Pb films present superior characteristics, doubling the available parameter space.

The toxicity and complicated administration procedures of transition metal catalysts have hampered the applications of bioorthogonal catalysis in vivo. Here the authors fill the needles of a microneedle array patch with palladium nanoparticles deposited on titanium nanosheets and show that the device, applied locally on the skin of mouse models bearing melanoma, promotes intratumoural conversion of systemically injected caged doxorubicin into the active drug, reducing its toxicity and side effects.

Nanoparticle albumin bound paclitaxel (nab-PTX) is widely used in the clinic to treat different cancers, but the effect of albumin on the distribution of the drug in tumours is not clear. Here the authors show that the accumulation of nab-PTX in tumours is affected by signalling molecules involved in nutrient uptake and processing, which could be reprogrammed to increase the drug’s efficacy.

This Review highlights the technological challenges linked to the application of nanophotonics for light detection and ranging (LiDAR).

Graphene promises long-distance transfer of spin information with concomitant high charge carrier mobility. Proximity coupling of bilayer graphene with the 2D interlayer antiferromagnetic CrSBr now enables active generation of spin currents in graphene both electrically and thermally.

Twisted bilayer graphene enables the realization of Josephson junctions and single electron transistors in a single, crystalline material using electric field gating only, thereby avoiding interfaces between dissimilar materials.

Atomically sharp interfaces in van der Waals heterostructures enable the realization of ultrafast non-volatile memory devices.

By employing the nanoconfinement in the mesophase formed by conventional lipids, cryo-enzymatic reactions are performed in subzero liquid water.

In situ electrostatic control of two-dimensional superconductivity is commonly limited due to large charge carrier densities. Now, by means of local gates, electrostatic gating can define a Josephson junction in a magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene device, a single-crystal material.

Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene exhibits a wide range of phases, such as metal, insulator and superconductor states. Now local electrostatic gating devices made from this two-dimensional material platform enable highly tunable Josephson junctions, edge tunnelling spectroscopy and single-electron transistor operation.

This Perspective aims to place nanoplastics in the context of global plastic pollution by assessing its sources and risks, and by assessing commonalities nanoplastics may share with other nanosized objects in environmental systems.

This Perspective examines how the characteristics of nanoplastic impact environmental fate, potential effects on biota and human health, sampling and analysis in a different way from either microplastic or engineered nanomaterials.

A power generator exhibits enhanced output due to a dual-charge-carrier design. The voltage produced is constant yet competitive even under low relative humidity.

The memristor, in which an external electric field controls the formation and annihilation of conductive channels, has been described both as a missing electronic element and a memory and computational element. Here, their utility as building blocks for promising reflective and energy-efficient colour technology is described.

A silver layer can be made to float either above or below an oxide layer in a thin-film architecture by applying a voltage bias.

The use of phase-change materials makes metasurfaces and nanoantennas electrically tunable and switchable, bringing their functionality to the next level.

Localized zero-energy fermionic states can bind to topological defects such as two-dimensional vortices, which can be realized in the bulk of artificial acoustic and optical lattices.

Antiferromagnets are interesting materials for fast spintronics applications, but control of the antiferromagnetic order has been limited to bulk materials so far. Now, uniaxial strain is shown to align the Néel vector in MnPSe₃ down to the monolayer limit.