Chemical engineering articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Water treatment processes mostly rely on the use of membranes and filters, which have high pumping costs and require periodic replacement. Here, the authors describe an efficient membraneless method that induces directed motion of suspended colloidal particles by exposing the suspension to CO2.

    • Sangwoo Shin
    • , Orest Shardt
    •  & Howard A. Stone

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Direct hydrogenation of CO2 into liquid fuels can mitigate CO2 emissions and reduce the rapid depletion of fossil fuels. Here, the authors show an iron-based multifunctional catalyst that converts CO2to gasoline with high selectivity due to synergistic cooperation of multiple catalytic active sites.

    • Jian Wei
    • , Qingjie Ge
    •  & Jian Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In order to fully utilize sulfur vacancies in MoS2 catalysts for industrial applications, a facile and general route for making sulfur vacancies in MoS2 is needed. Here, the authors introduce a scalable route towards generating sulfur vacancies on the MoS2basal plane using electrochemical desulfurization.

    • Charlie Tsai
    • , Hong Li
    •  & Frank Abild-Pedersen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Droplet manipulation is an essential task for designing microfluidic platforms such as lab-on-chip devices. Here Tanget al. develop a non-wettable mesh with reversible liquid adhesion controlled by mechanically inserting wettable pillars which allows for effective and rapid droplet manoeuvring.

    • Xin Tang
    • , Pingan Zhu
    •  & Liqiu Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Targeted delivery of microparticles is desirable for rapid, sensitive biological assays or self-assembly process. Here Daset al. use catalytic reactions on the surface of microfluidic chambers to generate unidirectional flows that carry and deposit microparticles to selective regions of the chamber.

    • Sambeeta Das
    • , Oleg E. Shklyaev
    •  & Ayusman Sen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithium-based batteries employing silicon anodes and sulfur cathodes are promising for combining low cost and high capacity, but have been limited in terms of cycling stability. Here authors present cycling and characterization data supporting beneficial synergies between a selenium disulfide cathode and a silicon anode.

    • KwangSup Eom
    • , Jung Tae Lee
    •  & Thomas F. Fuller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic resonance imaging combined with molecular reporters can visualise cellular functions in intact organisms. Here Mukherjeeet al. present a cellular imaging approach based on intracellular changes in water diffusion using human aquaporin 1 gene as a genetically encoded reporter for MRI.

    • Arnab Mukherjee
    • , Di Wu
    •  & Mikhail G. Shapiro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Given the scarcity and cost of platinum, it is important to develop sustainable processes for its recycling. Here, the authors report the dissolution of metallic platinum using reductive and oxidative gases to repetitively change its surface oxidation state, in the absence of an external electric current.

    • Nejc Hodnik
    • , Claudio Baldizzone
    •  & Karl J. J. Mayrhofer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vapour-deposited glasses show high stability compared to that of aged glasses, but a structural understanding remains elusive. Here, Reid et al. find that vapour deposited and liquid-cooled glasses show identical structures, suggesting these two classes of films lie on the same path to equilibrium.

    • Daniel R. Reid
    • , Ivan Lyubimov
    •  & Juan J. de Pablo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiral compounds are extremely important as they can be used in medicine, agriculture and biotechnology. Here, Kuhn and co-workers use a mesoporous metal structure encoded with chiral information in order to induce asymmetry in electrochemical synthesis of mandelic acid.

    • Thittaya Yutthalekha
    • , Chularat Wattanakit
    •  & Alexander Kuhn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventional metal extraction processes rely on energy intensive pyro- or hydrometallurgical methods which generate pollutants. Here, the authors reveal a high-throughput electro-desulfurization process to convert molten stibnite to pure antimony in a single step, reducing emissions and energy consumption.

    • Huayi Yin
    • , Brice Chung
    •  & Donald R. Sadoway

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The control over the motion and deformation of liquid droplets is essential to many microfluidic and actuation systems. Zavabeti et al. demonstrate that applying a pH or ionic gradient across a droplet of liquid metal alloy of gallium results in its motion due to a breaking of the surface charge symmetry.

    • Ali Zavabeti
    • , Torben Daeneke
    •  & Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphitic carbon nitride is a promising hydrogen evolution photocatalyst, although there is limited understanding of its mechanistic operation. Here, the authors employ molecular heptazine-based model catalysts to identify catalytically relevant defects and to rationally design a highly active carbon nitride photocatalyst.

    • Vincent Wing-hei Lau
    • , Igor Moudrakovski
    •  & Bettina V. Lotsch

  • Article |

    There is a great need for inexpensive and sensitive tests to measure HIV viral load in patients’ samples. Here, Zhao et al. describe a cost-effective colorimetric method based on synthetic peptide nucleic acids that quantifies HIV RNA molecules from infected patients’ plasma.

    • Chao Zhao
    • , Travis Hoppe
    •  & Daniel H. Appella

  • Article |

    Catenanes are structures composed of interlocked supramolecular rings, and they have possible applications as molecular switches and nanomotors. Here, the authors present a catenane formed of interlocked DNA rings, and show how each ring can display independent functionalities.

    • Zai-Sheng Wu
    • , Zhifa Shen
    •  & Yingfu Li

  • Article |

    The expression of specific genes can be controlled by the combination of DNA-binding proteins, which determines their binding site selectivity. Here, simplified synthetic basic region leucine zipper-based peptides are induced to dimerize either through their C- or N-terminus, and thus are targeted to different DNA sequences.

    • Jesús Mosquera
    • , Adrián Jiménez-Balsa
    •  & José L Mascareñas

  • Article |

    Strain engineering has been proposed as a promising strategy for manipulating the electronic properties of graphene. This scanning tunnelling microscopy study demonstrates the feasibility of controlling strain patterns in graphene down to the nanoscale.

    • Jiong Lu
    • , A.H. Castro Neto
    •  & Kian Ping Loh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Covalent organic frameworks form a porous skeleton with a precise pore size and geometry, but control of the pore surface is challenging. Here, a protocol is introduced for pore surface engineering of covalent organic frameworks, allowing the control of composition and density of organic groups in the pores.

    • Atsushi Nagai
    • , Zhaoqi Guo
    •  & Donglin Jiang

  • Article |

    The assembly of nanoparticles into stoichiometry-controlled structures could lead to materials with novel properties and functions. Here, reaction systems are developed, which allow the rational assembly of differently functionalized gold nanoparticles (A and B) to give AB, AB2, AB3 and AB4nanoclusters.

    • Yong Wang
    • , Gang Chen
    •  & Hongyu Chen

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