Chemistry articles within Communications Materials

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The tetragonal tungsten bronzes are promising for high-temperature energy storage applications but the mechanisms for their broad dielectric responses are unclear. Here, a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of Sr2NaNb5O15 explains its two large dielectric anomalies in terms of structural transitions.

    • Jeremiah P. Tidey
    • , Urmimala Dey
    •  & Mark S. Senn

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Ammonia production from dinitrogen is challenging due to the harsh reaction conditions required and significant energy consumption. Here, this Review discusses how plasmonic materials can offer an energetically and ecologically desirable solution to dinitrogen reduction.

    • Arsha Choudhary
    • , Anubhab Halder
    •  & Vishal Govind Rao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Commercial adiabatic demagnetisation refrigerators are typically based on hydrated salts that are subject to corrosion and have poor thermal conductivity and low entropy at sub-Kelvin temperatures. Here, YbNi1.6Sn is identified as a metallic magnetocaloric which retains high entropy into the 100 mK regime, providing an economical and durable alternative to magnetic refrigeration.

    • Thomas Gruner
    • , Jiasheng Chen
    •  & F. Malte Grosche

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polyimides are attractive dielectrics for communication devices, but there is a need to reduce their high-frequency dissipation factor. Here, a series of polyimides are fabricated and characterized, finding that those that contain ester groups and ether bonds in their molecular structure have low dissipation factors.

    • Chenggang Zhang
    • , Xiaojie He
    •  & Qinghua Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structural transformations offer a route to control functional properties but it is difficult to design metal-organic frameworks with multiple and fast transformations. Here, a 2D metal-organic framework was designed with continuous structural transformations driven by light and used for optical modulation.

    • Yuliya A. Kenzhebayeva
    • , Nikita K. Kulachenkov
    •  & Valentin A. Milichko

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Biomedicinal applications of metal-organic frameworks have mainly focused on nanoscale drug delivery. This Perspective provides an overview of reproducibility issues faced when applying metal-organic framework in nanomedicine, specifically covering their preparation and in vitro analysis.

    • Ross S. Forgan

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Sulfide-based solid electrolyte films with high room-temperature ionic conductivity will boost the energy density of all-solid-state batteries. This Review covers the preparation methods and properties of sulfide-based composite electrolytes, while guiding future development.

    • Shenghao Li
    • , Zhihua Yang
    •  & Shuo Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Poly-nitrogen units are useful for next-generation high energy density materials but often have poor thermal stability. Here, cyclopentazolate anions are stabilized in a hydrogen-bonded organic framework through self assembly, displaying a decomposition temperature of 153 °C.

    • Yuangang Xu
    • , Jianxin Zhou
    •  & Ming Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gas-responsive polymers are unconventional smart materials that utilizes specific gases. Here, polydimethylsiloxane elastomers appended with amine groups react with CO2 leading to gas-induced mechanical reinforcement.

    • Yohei Miwa
    • , Hanako Yoneda
    •  & Shoichi Kutsumizu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Doped carbon nanotubes are essential for molecular electronic and energy devices. Here, protonic acids and lithium salts are employed as hole dopants and stabilizers, respectively, to induce thermally stable p-doped states in carbon nanotubes.

    • Kaho Kawasaki
    • , Ikuyo Harada
    •  & Kenji Ishida

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metallic surfaces are often coated with corrosion inhibitors to prevent damage but these are typically toxic to the environment. Here, a recombinant adhesive cement protein from barnacles is shown to effectively protect steel against corrosion under marine environment conditions.

    • My Hanh Bui
    • , Shu Hui Hiew
    •  & Ali Miserez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Materials with a chiral crystal structure are of great interest due to potentially non-trivial structure-property relations. Here, electron microscopy and crystallographic analysis, supported by quantum chemical calculations, shed light on the conversion of the crystal structure of CoSi accompanying a change in handedness.

    • Wilder Carrillo-Cabrera
    • , Paul Simon
    •  & Yuri Grin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The epitaxial growth of large-scale single-crystalline 2D materials requires precise control over crystallographic orientation and morphology during the initial stages of nucleation. Here, noncontact atomic force microscopy and density functional theory provide atomic-scale mechanistic insights into the nucleation of hexagonal boron nitride on Ir(111).

    • Jinliang Pan
    • , Tongwei Wu
    •  & Xiaohui Qiu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Representing crystal structures is crucial for enabling the inverse design of materials with desired properties via machine learning. Here, the authors propose a versatile crystal structure representation based on continuous fields rather than grid-based discretization, overcoming the tradeoff between spatial resolution and computational complexity.

    • Naoya Chiba
    • , Yuta Suzuki
    •  & Kanta Ono

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Copper sulfidation in the rubber/brass interface of tires during aging is still not well understood. Here, the 3D spatial location and chemical states of copper species in a rubber/brass composite are visualized and tracked by 3D X-ray spectroimaging with data-driven machine learning analysis.

    • Hirosuke Matsui
    • , Yuta Muramoto
    •  & Mizuki Tada

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The amorphous regions of π-conjugated polymers typically show lower functionality than the crystalline regions with high π–π stacking order. Here, a benzodithiophene–thiazolothiazole copolymer shows a greater coplanar backbone structure when the π–π stacking order is absent compared to the crystalline state.

    • Masahiko Saito
    • , Hiroya Yamada
    •  & Itaru Osaka

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Transmembrane signaling systems are present in living cells which receive cues from the environment and produce a cellular response. Here, recent advances in the design of bioinspired systems that mimic transmembrane signaling in synthetic and living cells are reviewed.

    • Ke Shi
    • , Chuwen Song
    •  & Yiyang Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using machine learning to construct interatomic potentials when materials are not in their electronic ground state is challenging. Here, a neural network interatomic potential is constructed for laser-excited silicon, which extends first-principles accuracy to ultra-large length and time scales.

    • Pascal Plettenberg
    • , Bernd Bauerhenne
    •  & Martin E. Garcia

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Aqueous batteries are emerging as a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries. In this Review, the challenges and recent strategies for various aqueous battery systems are discussed with key factors needing the most improvement highlighted.

    • Heeju Ahn
    • , Daye Kim
    •  & Kwan Woo Nam

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The melt growth of ice - crystallization from supercooled water - has complex anisotropic kinetics, closely related to the rich variety of snowflake crystals. Here, molecular dynamics simulations shed light on its microscopic mechanism, identifying a layer of ultralow density water at the growth interface.

    • Kenji Mochizuki
    • , Ken-ichiro Murata
    •  & Xuan Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bi-phasic O3/P2 sodium layered oxides are leading candidates for next-generation batteries but rational control of the O3/P2 ratio remains challenging. Here, the O3/P2 ratio is tuned by using the average ionic radius of the transition metal layer, leading to materials with different characteristics.

    • P. A. Maughan
    • , A. B. Naden
    •  & A. R. Armstrong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates are promising replacements for non-degradable plastics. Here, neural network property predictors are applied to a search space of approximately 1.4 million candidates, identifying 14 polyhydroxyalkanoates that could replace widely used petroleum-based plastics.

    • Christopher Kuenneth
    • , Jessica Lalonde
    •  & Ghanshyam Pilania

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Graph neural networks are machine learning models that directly access the structural representation of molecules and materials. This Review discusses state-of-the-art architectures and applications of graph neural networks in materials science and chemistry, indicating a possible road-map for their further development.

    • Patrick Reiser
    • , Marlen Neubert
    •  & Pascal Friederich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Short-range chemical ordering has emerged as a key feature for controlling the properties of high-entropy alloys. Here, ab initio calculations reveal that two types of short-range ordering exist in Si–Ge–Sn medium-entropy alloys, suggesting that multiple types of ordering could exist in a single alloy.

    • Xiaochen Jin
    • , Shunda Chen
    •  & Tianshu Li

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    3D perovskites are widely researched for their use in optoelectronic devices, yet suffer from issues with environmental stability. Here, the improved stability of 2D and quasi-2D perovskites under a range of environmental factors, as compared to their 3D counterparts, is discussed.

    • Tik Lun Leung
    • , Ishaq Ahmad
    •  & Aleksandra B. Djurišić

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quadruple perovskites are characterized by competing long-range spin interactions that result in complex magnetic structures. Here, the authors synthesize and characterize the magnetic behaviour of CaCo3Ti4O12, suggesting that the observed magnetic structures arise from different ways to avoid frustration in underlying kagome lattices.

    • Midori Amano Patino
    • , Fabio Denis Romero
    •  & Yuichi Shimakawa

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Battery research is often focused on candidate materials that result in the most promising battery performance numbers, which makes it vital that findings are accurately reported. This paper discusses a number of errors that often occur in the battery literature, which impact reproducibility.

    • Kang Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal halide to perovskite phase conversion is a facile approach for synthesizing high-quality perovskite semiconductors for optoelectronic applications. Here, these reactions are investigated at the nanoscale via in-situ x-ray scattering, revealing links between reaction kinetics, structure and composition.

    • Neha Arora
    • , Alessandro Greco
    •  & M. Ibrahim Dar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Characterizing fission products in uranium dioxide nuclear fuel is important for predicting its long-term properties. Here, machine learning is used to mine microscopy images of precipitates and nanoscale gas bubbles in high-burn-up fuels, providing detailed structural insight of nanoscale fission products.

    • Keyou S. Mao
    • , Tyler J. Gerczak
    •  & Philip D. Edmondson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrafast low-energy electron diffraction allows the direct observation of atomic motions in structural transitions, but is accompanied by a strong photoinduced emission resulting in surface field effects. Here, these effects are quantified, enabling the isolation of the structural dynamics of interest.

    • Chiwon Lee
    • , Alexander Marx
    •  & R. J. Dwayne Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical vapor deposition of diamond typically results in the faster growth of the (110) facet, but achieving large-area and high-quality surfaces is challenging and requires post-growth processing. Here, the authors present a systematic characterization of the structure and stability of oxygen-terminated diamond (110) surfaces.

    • Shayantan Chaudhuri
    • , Samuel J. Hall
    •  & Reinhard J. Maurer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Slide-ring hydrogels possess good mechanical properties but face synthesis challenges. Here, a slide-ring hydrogel is created via photo-initiated polymerization, with its good mechanical and electrical properties allows it to be used as a flexible strain sensor.

    • Shuaipeng Wang
    • , Yong Chen
    •  & Yu Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is an ongoing drive for new additive manufacturing processes that produce complex parts. Here, cavity vat polymerisation is introduced, in which cavities are filled with a dual-curing resin that forms an elastomer/thermoset covalently bonded interface, creating hard-shell/soft-core parts.

    • Joel Bachmann
    • , Philip Obst
    •  & Olaf Hinrichsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Shielding materials are crucial in protecting devices against electromagnetic radiation but are often heavyweight and operate in narrow frequency ranges. Here, highly conductive, lightweight, ultrathin, and flexible membranes based on Ag-WO3-coated polymeric nanofibers provide multispectral shielding from microwaves to X-rays.

    • Dayong He
    • , Nan Zhang
    •  & Ce Wang

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