Materials chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coacervate droplets have potential as components for cell-like materials, but are limited by complex molecular structure and control of the internal microenvironment. Here, the authors report stable dipeptide-based coacervates with a microenvironment for the encapsulation of hydrophobic species.

    • Shoupeng Cao
    • , Tsvetomir Ivanov
    •  & Lucas Caire da Silva

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Assembly is an interesting strategy to build chiral hierarchies with premade properties and functionalities. Here, the authors present assembled chiral hydrogen-bonded organic-inorganic frameworks with dynamical chiroptical activities and employ them as powerful and recoverable platforms for enantioselective recognition of chiral aliphatic substrates.

    • Jun Guo
    • , Yulong Duan
    •  & Yi Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of multifunctional platforms with tunable spectroscopic and fluorescent properties that span the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared spectral regions remains challenging. Here, the authors report an actuator-type system that leverages a readily-prepared, easily-processable, and exceptionally-stable nonacene-like molecule to achieve multiple complementary dynamic operating modes.

    • Preeta Pratakshya
    • , Chengyi Xu
    •  & Alon A. Gorodetsky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical approaches to improve aqueous dispersions of conjugated polymers are limited by the feasibility of modifying the backbone or lead to poor performance. Here, Liu et al. show that ground-state electron transfer in donor:acceptor blends aids aqueous dispersion, for high conductivity and solubility.

    • Tiefeng Liu
    • , Johanna Heimonen
    •  & Simone Fabiano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aerogels attract considerable attention in various emerging fields in recent decades, but low density and weak mechanical performance make their configuration-editing capability challenging. Here the authors establish an efficient twice-coagulated strategy to fabricate configuration-editable tough aerogels enabled by transformable gel precursors.

    • Lishan Li
    • , Guandu Yang
    •  & Xuetong Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The scalable production of polyimide aerogel fibers, promising intelligent thermal management fabrics, is limited by the slow gelation kinetics and the weak backbone. Here, the authors present a UV-enhanced dynamic gelation strategy for fast and scalable preparation of cross-linked polyimide aerogel fibers by wet spinning and cost-effective ambient pressure drying.

    • Tiantian Xue
    • , Chenyu Zhu
    •  & Tianxi Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Processing of conventional infrared-transparent materials limits their applicability. The authors demonstrate 3D printing of thiol-ene optical components with mid- and long-wave infrared transparency with applications such as reaction temperature monitoring.

    • Piaoran Ye
    • , Zhihan Hong
    •  & Rongguang Liang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mineralization is common in biological materials for selective strengthening, but similar toughening in polymer composites is challenging. Here, the authors report a mechanically-mediated reaction for formation of mineralized microrods within a synthetic material.

    • Jorge Ayarza
    • , Jun Wang
    •  & Aaron P. Esser-Kahn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling site-selectivity and reactivity in chemical reactions continues to be a key challenge in modern synthetic chemistry. Here, the authors demonstrate the assembly of amino-substituted porphyrins on a water surface into J-aggregate structures in the presence of charged surfactants.

    • Anupam Prasoon
    • , Xiaoqing Yu
    •  & Xinliang Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Responsive hydrogels containing multichannel information have potential in miniature devices, but their fabrication can be challenging. Here, the authors report the creation of hydrogel materials with each pixel containing three-channel information for printing of distinct images in one location.

    • Mingchao Zhang
    • , Yohan Lee
    •  & Metin Sitti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting properties at the interface of materials is crucial for advanced materials design. Here, the authors introduce a high-throughput computational framework, InterMatch, for predicting several properties of an interface by using the databases of individual bulk materials.

    • Eli Gerber
    • , Steven B. Torrisi
    •  & Eun-Ah Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This work introduces a 2D porphyrinic metal-organic framework based on DCS origami tessellation, displaying unique folding behavior inspired by origami mechanics. This breakthrough paves the way for MOFs toward mechanical metamaterials.

    • Eunji Jin
    • , In Seong Lee
    •  & Wonyoung Choe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Few studies have investigated the structural properties of organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors in relation to the transient device characteristics. Here, Kim et al. show that backbone-dependent molecular orientation affects ion injection directionality, which determines ion mobility and transient response.

    • Ji Hwan Kim
    • , Roman Halaksa
    •  & Myung-Han Yoon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    “The combination of stimuli responsive nanomaterials and 3D printing leads interesting applications in the fields of soft robots and actuators. Here, the authors present a 3D printing approach for the fabrication of liquid metal nanoparticles-polymer composites acting as light controlled soft robots which can lift weights, grasp and release items”.

    • Liwen Zhang
    • , Xumin Huang
    •  & Ruirui Qiao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Underwater soft robots made of stimuli-responsive shape-changing hydrogels generally present low actuation speed which is limited by the water diffusion between hydrogels and their surrounding environment. Here, the authors develop dynamic hydrogel robots with a fast and switchable actuation based on a thermally driven chain conformation change after mechanical programming.

    • Chujun Ni
    • , Di Chen
    •  & Qian Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing high performance organic neuromorphic devices remains a challenge. Here, Liu et al. report the development of an organic synapse based on a semicrystalline polymer PBFCL10 with device dimension of 50 nm and integration size of 1 Kb and a mixed‐signal neuromorphic hardware system based on the organic neuromatrix and FPGA controller for decision‐making tasks.

    • Shuzhi Liu
    • , Jianmin Zeng
    •  & Gang Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of highly permeable polyamide (PA) membrane capable of precise ionic sieving remains challenging. Here, the authors report an anhydrous interfacial polymerization on the solid-liquid interface to eliminate water-caused side reactions, leading to a PA layer with an ionic sieving accuracy of 0.5 Å.

    • Guangjin Zhao
    • , Haiqi Gao
    •  & Hong Meng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The entanglement of fibrous elements produces flexible structures with enhanced strength and resilience to abrasion. Here, the authors report the weaving of organic crystals into flexible and robust patches with plain, twill, and satin topologies of arbitrary porosity, expanding one-dimensional crystals into flexible, two-dimensional planar structures with potential for future applications in flexible electronics.

    • Linfeng Lan
    • , Liang Li
    •  & Hongyu Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rapid switching between discrete states in the solid state is a cornerstone for the technological development of devices based on stimuli-responsive materials. Here authors break the speed limit of common classes of photochromic molecules through tailoring framework environments.

    • Grace C. Thaggard
    • , Kyoung Chul Park
    •  & Natalia B. Shustova

  • 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

    The application of chiral metamaterials is limited by the fabrication of large-area chiral plasmonic structures with high dissymmetry factors. Here, the authors overcome this limitation imparting extrinsic chirality to hierarchical nanostructured polymer substrates with application in quantum and security enhanced optical communications.

    • Yoon Ho Lee
    • , Yousang Won
    •  & Joon Hak Oh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The stimuli responsive color-shifting properties of fluorescent materials have been used for 2D encoding for information encryption applications but possessing a risk of information leakage. Here, the authors develop shape-memory fluorescent films with reversible fluorescence-shifting and thermadapt shape-memory properties for integrating rewritable 2D/3D encoding in one system.

    • Jinhui Huang
    • , Yue Jiang
    •  & Shaobing Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The photoelectrochemical performance of carbon nitride is still insufficient for organic transformations. Here, the authors introduce a spin coating strategy for the synthesis of carbon nitride photoelectrodes, enabling high yields in C-H functionalization.

    • Junfang Zhang
    • , Yuntao Zhu
    •  & Felix F. Loeffler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Accurate end-to-end deep learning models for adsorption prediction in porous materials would help its discovery. Here, the authors present DeepSorption, a spatial atom interaction learning network to predict structure-adsorption from atomic coordinates and chemical element types.

    • Jiyu Cui
    • , Fang Wu
    •  & Huabin Xing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The large-scale production of crystalline porous materials remains a challenge. Here the authors report a general approach of high-pressure homogenization that can realize large-scale synthesis of crystalline porous materials under benign conditions.

    • Xiongli Liu
    • , An Wang
    •  & Shengqian Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular electron spins are promising qubit candidates, however physical implementation of quantum gates is challenging. Little et al. explore the implementation of two-qubit entangling gates between nitroxide spin centres by pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance, building on NMR quantum computing protocols.

    • Edmund J. Little
    • , Jacob Mrozek
    •  & Richard E. P. Winpenny

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The dense stroma of desmoplastic tumor limits nanotherapeutic penetration and hampers the antitumor immune response. Here the authors use tin monosulfide nanoparticles as nano-sonosensitizers to overcome the stromal barrier in triple negative breast cancer and improve the efficacy of sonodynamic therapy and boost antitumor immunity.

    • Yongjiang Li
    • , Wei Chen
    •  & Wei Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ability to control defects offers the opportunity to design porous materials with desired properties. Here the authors present a strategy to control the generation and growth of periodic missing cluster vacancies in UiO-66 frameworks and analyze their impact on the physical properties and catalytic activity.

    • Sergio Tatay
    • , Sonia Martínez-Giménez
    •  & Carlos Martí-Gastaldo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light-responsive polymers with polarization-dependent deformation are promising material to develop tunable devices usually limited by irreversible dynamic control. Here, the authors use controlled polarization of visible light to produce arbitrary deformations into amorphous composites containing azopolymer microdomains to unlock the next level of complex actuation in soft lightdriven robots.

    • David Urban
    • , Niccolò Marcucci
    •  & Emiliano Descrovi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hollow inorganic spheres (HISs) hold potential in various technological areas including biocatalysis and biomedicine, but the harsh synthetic conditions have precluded the use of HISs in biological fields. Here, the authors report a biocompatible strategy for synthesizing metal hydroxide HISs that can function as tandem-biocatalytic reactors.

    • Sang Yeong Han
    • , Nayoung Kim
    •  & Insung S. Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The synergetic regulation of the electronic structure and interfacial reaction of covalent organic frameworks (COF) for water purification remains a challenge. Here the authors propose that COFs materials possessing molecular interfaces with ordered π skeletons, suitable pore size, and hydrophilic/hydrophobic channels synergically break through the adsorption energy barrier achieving high removal rates for micropollutants.

    • Chencheng Qin
    • , Yi Yang
    •  & Hou Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stimuli-responsive emulsions are useful for long-term storage combined with controlled release, but the fundamental mechanism behind this release is not established. Here, the authors report a study into the effect of individual microgel morphology on the destabilisation of responsive emulsions.

    • Marcel Rey
    • , Jannis Kolker
    •  & Paul S. Clegg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Co-crystals of donor-acceptor functional material pairs give switchable optical properties despite challenging aggregation-caused quenching effects. Here, the authors report several organic co-crystals with thermally-activated delayed fluorescence, waveguiding and bio-imaging application.

    • Debasish Barman
    • , Mari Annadhasan
    •  & Parameswar Krishnan Iyer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of liposome-based drug delivery systems has been hindered by the systemic toxicity and limited duration of effect due to insufficient drug loading and leakage of payload. Here the authors address these issues by designing aromatized liposomes that feature increased drug loading and slowed release compared to conventional liposomes.

    • Yang Li
    • , Tianjiao Ji
    •  & Daniel S. Kohane

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