Environmental, health and safety issues articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  09 January 2024 | Open Access

  Overcoming the permeability-selectivity challenge in water purification using two-dimensional cobalt-functionalized vermiculite membrane

  Clean water and sanitation are major global challenges. Here, Prof. Zhang’s group developed a two-dimensional cobalt-functionalized vermiculite membrane, which overcame the persistent membrane permeability-selectivity trade-off in water purification.

  • Mengtao Tian
  • , Yi Liu
  •  & Zhenghua Zhang

• Article
  11 November 2023 | Open Access

  Diatomic iron nanozyme with lipoxidase-like activity for efficient inactivation of enveloped virus

  Enveloped viruses encased within a lipid bilayer membrane are highly contagious and cause diseases like influenza and COVID-19, so strategies for their prevention and inactivation are needed. Here, the authors develop a diatomic iron nanozyme with lipoxidase-like activity for the inactivation of enveloped viruses, where the diatomic iron sites destroy the viral envelope via lipid peroxidation.

  • Beibei Li
  • , Ruonan Ma
  •  & Yadong Li

• Article
  15 September 2023 | Open Access

  Hydrodynamic tearing of bacteria on nanotips for sustainable water disinfection

  Common methods for water disinfection involve oxidation or irradiation, and are often associated with a high carbon footprint and formation of toxic byproducts. Here, the authors describe a nano-structured material that is highly effective at killing bacteria in water through a hydrodynamic mechanism driven by mild water flow, in the absence of additional energy supply.

  • Lu Peng
  • , Haojie Zhu
  •  & Hong-Ying Hu

• Article
  25 November 2020 | Open Access

  Intelligent non-colorimetric indicators for the perishable supply chain by non-wovens with photo-programmed thermal response

  High-performance and low-cost indicators are important in food and cosmetics industry but market uptake is low due to several challenges such as toxicity, cost and unclear reading. Here, the authors report on optically-programmed, non-colorimetric indicators based on nanotextured organic non-wovens, encoded by controlling their cross-linking degree.

  • Luigi Romano
  • , Alberto Portone
  •  & Luana Persano

• Article
  19 June 2020 | Open Access

  Heterogeneously integrated flexible microwave amplifiers on a cellulose nanofibril substrate

  Though flexible microwave integrated circuits (MICs) are desirable for the construction of functional microwave amplifier circuits, realizing low cost III-V-based MMICs remains a challenge. Here, the authors report a heterogeneous integration strategy for the fabrication of flexible low-cost MICs.

  • Huilong Zhang
  • , Jinghao Li
  •  & Zhenqiang Ma

• Article
  08 April 2019 | Open Access

  Distinguishing the sources of silica nanoparticles by dual isotopic fingerprinting and machine learning

  Determining the source of nanoparticles is critical for nanotechnology risk assessment. Here, the authors develop an approach that, by taking into account the isotopic signatures of both Si and O, may be able to distinguish between natural and engineered SiO2 nanoparticles, and even those synthesized by different manufacturers.

  • Xuezhi Yang
  • , Xian Liu
  •  & Guibin Jiang

• Article
  28 November 2017 | Open Access

  A Co₃O₄-CDots-C₃N₄ three component electrocatalyst design concept for efficient and tunable CO₂ reduction to syngas

  Simultaneous electrochemical reduction of CO₂ and H⁺/H₂O is an attractive renewable route to produce syngas mixtures. Here, the authors introduce a ternary Co₃O₄-CDots-C₃N₄ electrocatalyst that couples hydrogen evolution and CO₂ reduction catalysts and achieves cheap, stable and tunable production of syngas.

  • Sijie Guo
  • , Siqi Zhao
  •  & Zhenhui Kang