Characterization and analytical techniques articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ideal metal selection and atomic-level arrangement for catalysts in CO2 hydrogenation are still uncertain. Here, copper is identified as the most effective promoter for enhancing ZnZrOx catalysts when precisely structured into CuZn ensembles, offering new insights for designing superior catalysts for CO2-based methanol synthesis.

    • Thaylan Pinheiro Araújo
    • , Georgios Giannakakis
    •  & Javier Pérez-Ramírez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving a wide angular response in single layer acoustic metalenses is challenging. By leveraging perfect acoustic symmetry conversion, the authors realize an aberration free metalens with a wide field-of-hearing, up to 140 degrees.

    • Dongwoo Lee
    • , Beomseok Oh
    •  & Junsuk Rho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solar-driven artificial food synthesis from CO2 provides an approach to overcome the limitations of natural photosynthesis, but it is very challenging. Here, the authors report a hybrid electrocatalytic-biocatalytic flow system, coupling photovoltaics-powered electrocatalysis (CO2 to formate) with a five enzyme cascade platform (formate to sugar), which achieves conversion of CO2 to C6 sugar (L-sorbose) with a solar-to-food energy conversion efficiency of 3.5%.

    • Guangyu Liu
    • , Yuan Zhong
    •  & Yujie Xiong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    2D materials are being investigated for several applications in micro- and nanoelectronics, but their weak adhesion represents a critical challenge for device integration. Here, the authors propose a button shear testing method to evaluate the adhesion forces of various large-area 2D films on SiO2 and Si3N4 substrates.

    • Josef Schätz
    • , Navin Nayi
    •  & Max C. Lemme

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solidification cracking during fusion welding of high-strength aluminum alloys has been a long-standing issue. Here, the authors achieve reliable and crack-free welding of 2024 aluminum alloy using a Zr-core-Al-shell wire and the oscillating laser-arc hybrid welding technique.

    • Jun Jin
    • , Shaoning Geng
    •  & Xiangqi Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction plays an important role in new energy technologies such as fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Here the authors present a cobalt catalyst with a symmetry-broken Cl−Co−N4 moiety capable of dynamically modulating electron occupancy at active sites during practical reaction conditions to optimize oxygen reduction performance.

    • Meihuan Liu
    • , Jing Zhang
    •  & Qinghua Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Young’s modulus of the MXene Ti3C2Tx, theoretically predicted to be 0.502 TPa, has not yet been experimentally confirmed. This work supplants previous reports using nanoindentation with the correctly measured Young’s modulus of 0.484 ± 0.013 TPa.

    • Chao Rong
    • , Ting Su
    •  & Fu-Zhen Xuan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Relating the degree of network crosslinking as a descriptor to the desalination performance of crosslinked polymer membranes remains challenging. Here, the authors introduce a parameter based on distinct amide bonds per unit mass of polyamide, to unravel the relationship between the crosslinked networks of polyamide membranes and their desalination performance.

    • Yu-Ren Xue
    • , Chang Liu
    •  & Zhi-Kang Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrode potential in any electrochemical systems has long been discussed by classical Debye-Hückel theory which holds only under extremely dilute concentrations. Here, the authors establish the concept ‘liquid Madelung potential’ to comprehensively describe the potential shift at practical concentrations.

    • Norio Takenaka
    • , Seongjae Ko
    •  & Atsuo Yamada

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High and medium-entropy alloys have shown excellent mechanical performance, yet the role of short-range order (SRO) on these properties has been unclear. Here, the authors demonstrate that the reduction of SRO by deformation leads to rejuvenation, explaining their remarkable damage tolerance.

    • Yang Yang
    • , Sheng Yin
    •  & Andrew M. Minor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many material properties are governed by the internal dislocation network within the material. Here, the authors describe a method to determine the three dimensional position and type of dislocations from a measurement along only a single direction within a scanning transmission electron microscope.

    • Tore Niermann
    • , Laura Niermann
    •  & Michael Lehmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    X-ray Free Electron Lasers allow fast structure determination. Here, the authors push the temporal limit of atomic level structure determination to 25 fs, the length of a single pulse, paving the way to the study of fast, non-repeatable processes.

    • Gábor Bortel
    • , Miklós Tegze
    •  & Gyula Faigel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical identification of the building blocks of biopolymers often considerably relies on the presence of markers, extensive simulations, or is not possible at all. Here, the authors report a molecular probe-sensitisation approach addressing the identification of a specific amino acid within different peptides.

    • Xu Wu
    • , Bogdana Borca
    •  & Uta Schlickum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Combining in situ nanoprobe techniques paves the way for gaining insights into structure-selectivity relations for electrocatalysts. Herein, the dynamic evolution of lattice strain in individual nanoparticles is directly visualized with nanoscale resolution in Cu-Ag tandem catalysts during the electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 into value-added chemicals.

    • Marvin L. Frisch
    • , Longfei Wu
    •  & Peter Strasser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrostrictors are materials that develop mechanical strain proportional to the square of the applied electric field. Here authors report. Zr-doped-Ceria as a new lead-free electrostrictive material with a similar electrostriction coefficient to the best electrostrictor material currently in use.

    • Maxim Varenik
    • , Boyuan Xu
    •  & Igor Lubomirsky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In lithium-metal batteries, it is vital to quantify electrolyte side reactions occurring at the metal anode surface. Here, the authors introduce an electrochemical technique, using a series of small-step lithium deposition followed by open circuit voltage analysis, to accurately measure these reactions.

    • Burak Aktekin
    • , Luise M. Riegger
    •  & Jürgen Janek

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Supported CoOx catalysts display higher reactivities towards CO oxidation, yet, corresponding catalytically active phases are still unclear, especially under reaction conditions. Here, by means of in-situ APXPS and ResPES, the authors demonstrate that the topographic restructuring and chemical restructuring occur on these CoOx working catalysts, and also highlight the unique catalytic properties of Co3+ sites.

    • Hao Chen
    • , Lorenz J. Falling
    •  & Miquel Salmeron

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors investigate frequently observed variations in data between different electrochemical cells using in-situ electronic/electrochemical measurements, developing a vertical microcell strategy to eliminate the conductance issue and enhance measurement reproducibility.

    • Hang Xia
    • , Xiaoru Sang
    •  & Yongmin He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of programmable artificial photosynthetic cells is hindered by the requirement for cofactor generation for the biocatalytic module. Here, the authors report on the design of artificial photosynthetic cells using biotic–abiotic thylakoid–CdTe as hybrid energy modules, which enhance the regeneration of NADPH, NADH and ATP cofactors without external supplements by promoting proton-coupled electron transfer.

    • Feng Gao
    • , Guangyu Liu
    •  & Yujie Xiong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Correlated disorder can lead to phenomena that are inaccessible to ordered structures. Here the authors show that local order principles can be directly derived from the three-dimensional difference pair distribution function based on the single crystal diffuse scattering in 3D electron diffraction data from nanometre sized crystals.

    • Ella Mara Schmidt
    • , Paul Benjamin Klar
    •  & Lukas Palatinus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanodiamonds containing NV centers are promising electron paramagnetic resonance sensors, however applications are hindered by their random orientation. Qin et al. propose a new protocol that makes the technique insensitive to the sensor’s orientation and present a proof-of-principle in situ demonstration.

    • Zhuoyang Qin
    • , Zhecheng Wang
    •  & Jiangfeng Du

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Observing the evolution of the solid electrolyte interphase on SiOx-based electrodes in Li-ion batteries is challenging. Here, authors use three-dimensional tomography to visualize the growth of the interphase on single SiOx particles and propose a mechanical confinement strategy to prevent aging.

    • Guoyu Qian
    • , Yiwei Li
    •  & Feng Pan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Analysis of experimental data in condensed matter is often challenging due to system complexity and slow character of physical simulations. The authors propose a framework that combines machine learning with theoretical calculations to enable real-time analysis for electron, neutron, and x-ray spectroscopies.

    • Sathya R. Chitturi
    • , Zhurun Ji
    •  & Joshua J. Turner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon is a key support for metal-catalyzed acetylene hydrochlorination to vinyl chloride but its role remains elusive. Here, the authors, by means of operando spectroscopy, demonstrate the co-catalytic function of neighboring carbon and isolated metal atoms, constituting the active ensemble.

    • Vera Giulimondi
    • , Andrea Ruiz-Ferrando
    •  & Javier Pérez-Ramírez

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Adopting standardized and reliable methodologies to accurately measure particle removal efficiency when developing fibrous materials for controlling airborne contamination is crucial. Here, the authors recommend best practices for experimental assessments and reporting to ensure a reliable evaluation of new airborne particle filtration media and technologies.

    • Paolo Tronville
    • , Vincenzo Gentile
    •  & Jesus Marval

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kagome materials, such as CsV3Sb5, a rich array of correlated phase, including a time-reversal symmetry breaking phase, which could possibly be the result of loop currents. Attempts to verify this with magneto-optical measurements have yielded mixed results. Here, Farhang et al show that the magneto-optical signals are due to specular optical rotation. ‘

    • Camron Farhang
    • , Jingyuan Wang
    •  & Jing Xia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron detectors used in electron microscope are often unable to provide quantified information without calibration. Here, by combining existing detectors with hardware signal processing, the authors demonstrated that the detectors can be run in an electron counting mode enabling imaging at faster speeds, at lower electron doses, and reduces the barrier to quantitative measurements.

    • Jonathan J. P. Peters
    • , Tiarnan Mullarkey
    •  & Lewys Jones

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present crackling noise microscopy, a method for measurement of the crackling of individual nanoscale features based on AFM nanoindentation. They use it to investigate crackling noise and avalanches in the domains and domain walls of ferroelectric materials.

    • Cam-Phu Thi Nguyen
    • , Peggy Schoenherr
    •  & Jan Seidel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the mechanical properties of materials is critical in many fields, from soft hydrogels to biological tissues, yet current measurement methods lack the spatial and time resolution to characterize samples with complex structures. Here, the authors show non-invasive elastography technique offering advancements in resolution, sensitivity, and measurement frequencies.

    • Xu Feng
    • , Guo-Yang Li
    •  & Seok-Hyun Yun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The application of time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy (TR-PEEM) to non-conducting materials is challenging. Here, the authors report the TR-PEEM characterization of near-field dielectric modes and photoemission properties of insulating hexagonal boron nitride structures on indium tin oxide/glass substrates.

    • Yaolong Li
    • , Pengzuo Jiang
    •  & Qihuang Gong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Angular-resolved photoemission data is commonly used to determine the 3D electronic structure assuming free-electron final states. Strocov et al. show that even at high excitation energies the complexity of final states in various materials can go far beyond the free-electron picture.

    • V. N. Strocov
    • , L. L. Lev
    •  & J. Minár

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The existence of peripheric charged groups on poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (pNIPAM) microgels together with the corresponding counter ion clouds has been proposed to be responsible for the spontaneous deswelling of pNIPAM microgels in concentrated suspensions but no direct measurement of such an ionic cloud exists. Here, the authors use small-angle neutron scattering with contrast variation with different ions to isolate the change in the form factor directly related to the counterion cloud and obtain its radius and width.

    • Boyang Zhou
    • , Urs Gasser
    •  & Alberto Fernandez-Nieves

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic redox-flow batteries have the potential to cheaply store renewable electricity at grid scale but require further development. Here, the authors show that combining spectroscopic measurements with statistical inference techniques can shed light on why these batteries lose capacity over time.

    • Sanat Vibhas Modak
    • , Wanggang Shen
    •  & David G. Kwabi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The solid-electrolyte interphase is crucial for most batteries, but its characterization is challenging. Here, authors develop a depth-sensitive plasmon-enhanced Raman spectroscopy method to enable in-situ and nondestructive resolving of its structure and chemistry as well as formation mechanisms.

    • Yu Gu
    • , En-Ming You
    •  & Bing-Wei Mao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single molecule magnets (SMMs) are molecules with magnetic states separated by an energy barrier. These two (or more) states can serve as basis for quantum information processing, but this requires a detailed understanding of the ligand field of the molecule that forms the SMM. Here, Taran et al use a combination of two experimental techniques, µSQUID and EPR, to precisely measure the higher-order ligand field parameters.

    • Gheorghe Taran
    • , Eufemio Moreno-Pineda
    •  & Wolfgang Wernsdorfer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Catalytic CO2 dissociation pathways are selectively determined by surface geometry in heterogeneous catalysis. The authors find that the stepped Cu surfaces effectively affect CO2 activation in elementary reaction steps at the atomic level

    • Jeongjin Kim
    • , Youngseok Yu
    •  & Jeong Young Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A light-driven, chemical looping approach to CH3COOH synthesis from methane using a Pd/PdO–WO3 nanocomposite is reported. Methane is converted to methyl and carbonyl intermediates at the Pd and PdO sites, respectively, to produce CH3COOH.

    • Wenqing Zhang
    • , Dawei Xi
    •  & Yujie Xiong

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