Materials chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • 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

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Complex computerized geometries can be obtained by additive manufacturing. However, the printing of purely three-dimensional polymer shapes possesses inherent poor mechanical stability. Here, the authors overcome this drawback by the light-driven orientation of liquid crystals to guide the alignment of acrylate prepolymers along the direction parallel to UV light vibrations.

    • Xiaolu Sun
    • , Shaoyun Chen
    •  & Dongxian Zhuo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There are many potential applications for non-centrosymmetric molecular crystals, but due to their typical brittle nature, efficiency of applications declines on prolonged use. Here, the authors report an autonomous self-healing ability of dibenzoate derivative single crystals that can retain its non-linear optical response.

    • Saikat Mondal
    • , Pratap Tanari
    •  & C. Malla Reddy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The underwater adhesives developed so far usually show water adsorption and lack of spontaneity as major drawbacks. Herein, the authors develop a tough, flexible and autonomous underwater adhesive based on an amphiphilic polymeric matrix swollen by hydrophobic ionic liquid.

    • Le Yao
    • , Chengjiang Lin
    •  & Qi Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Smart monitoring devices with integrated mechanical protection and piezoelectric induction are limited. Here, the authors report a strategy to grow piezoelectric Rochelle salt crystals in 3D-printed cuttlebone-inspired structures to produce smart monitoring devices with integrated mechanical protection and electrical sensing capability.

    • Qingqing He
    • , Yushun Zeng
    •  & Yang Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The soft fluidic robots designed so far are lacking intelligent self-protection and present poor fluidic power source. Here, the authors report soft fluidic robots that integrate soft electrohydrodynamic pumps, healing electrofluids, actuators and E-skins endowing them with self-sensing, self-judgment, and self-heating behaviours for rapid self-healing.

    • Wei Tang
    • , Yiding Zhong
    •  & Jun Zou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors report Zn porphene, a member of a new organic metalloporphene family. Similar to graphene, these also are fully conjugated 2D polymers, but are composed of fused metalloporphyrin rings.

    • Thomas F. Magnera
    • , Paul I. Dron
    •  & Josef Michl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polymersomes, as analogues of liposomes, have interesting physical and chemical properties, but have not yet been translated into clinical or industrial applications. Here, the authors report the development of a continuous flow process for the production of polymersomes at scale.

    • Chin Ken Wong
    • , Rebecca Y. Lai
    •  & Martina H. Stenzel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Circularly polarized luminescence materials having simultaneously high dissymmetry factor and high luminescent quantum yield are desirable to improve applicability. Here, the authors report a soft photonic crystal film with chiral nanopores fulfilling these requirements when loaded with luminescent dyes.

    • Yonghong Shi
    • , Jianlei Han
    •  & Pengfei Duan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft robots made of hydrogels with anisotropic and shape-change properties offer interesting design opportunities. Here, the authors report zwitterionic hydrogels and anisotropic cellulose nanocrystals composites in which the shear-induced alignment of cellulose nanocrystals allows for the development of shape-change programmable miniature robots.

    • Rasool Nasseri
    • , Negin Bouzari
    •  & Hamed Shahsavan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The neurotoxicity of organophosphate compounds damages nerve system by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase (AChE) expression, but it is difficult to overcome the deactivation of AChE. Here, the authors report the design of Lewis acid sites in metal-organic frameworks as AChE mimics for effective neuroprotection.

    • Weiqing Xu
    • , Xiaoli Cai
    •  & Chengzhou Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of efficient adsorbents to capture iodine originating from radioactive wastes is of importance. Here, the authors synthesize hexacationic imidazolium organic cages and study the crucial role of the counter anions for iodine capture and the iodine binding modes at the molecular level on the solid state.

    • Jian Yang
    • , Shao-Jun Hu
    •  & Qing-Fu Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Due to the complexity of living systems, it is challenging to identify the factors influencing the formation of native heterogeneous structures. Here, the authors employ flexible polymer networks with embedded stiff cellulose nanocrystals to simulate heterogeneous core-sheath structures interrelated with the divergence of Deborah number.

    • Dan Xu
    • , Yang Yang
    •  & Kai Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    3D ionic covalent organic frameworks (iCOF) are used in the fabrication of membranes breaking the trade-off between ion conductivity and ion selectivity is challenging. Here, the authors report the fabrication of a 3D sulfonic acid-functionalized iCOF membrane for efficient and selective ion transport, using dual acid-mediated interfacial polymerization

    • Tianhao Zhu
    • , Yan Kong
    •  & Zhongyi Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Three-dimensional structures with micro-/nanoscale features can be produced by two-photon polymerization lithography but suffering from a non-uniform shrinkage. Here, the authors report a poly(vinyl alcohol)-assisted pick-and-place process to uniformly heat shrink three-dimensional micro-/nano-architected materials printed by two-photon polymerization lithography.

    • Tomohiro Mori
    • , Hao Wang
    •  & Joel K. W. Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanical and thermal properties of semicrystalline polymers are governed by the hierarchical structure comprising lamellar crystals, but the tilt angles of the molecular chains in the lamellae and their origin remains controversial. Here, the authors report a direct determination of molecular chain orientation in the lamellar crystals of high-density polyethylene using electron-diffraction based imaging with nanometre-scale positional resolution.

    • Shusuke Kanomi
    • , Hironori Marubayashi
    •  & Hiroshi Jinnai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing optoelectronic synapses having a multispectral color-discriminating ability is crucial for neuromorphic visual system. Here, the authors propose an strategy to introduce RGB color-discriminating synaptic functionality into a 2-terminals memristor regardless of switching medium and design a color image-recognizing CNN and light-programmable reservoir computing.

    • Jongmin Lee
    • , Bum Ho Jeong
    •  & Hui Joon Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dispersion of colloidal particles in water or oil is desired for industrial and environmental applications but it often strongly depends on indispensable assistance of chemical surfactants or introduction of nanoprotrusions onto the particle surface. Here, the authors demonstrate the omnidispersity of hydrophilic-hydrophobic heterostructure particles, synthesized by a surface heterogeneous nanostructuring strategy.

    • Yongyang Song
    • , Jiajia Zhou
    •  & Shutao Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The performance of membrane desalination of seawater is hampered by fouling. Here the authors develop smart gating hybrid membranes by surface coating with polymer-embedded thermosalient crystals. These membranes enhance pure water flux by over 40% in saltwater desalination by osmotic distillation.

    • Elvira Pantuso
    • , Ejaz Ahmed
    •  & Gianluca Di Profio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nanoparticle-polymer interface plays a key role in nanoparticle-polymer composites but understanding the structures and properties of the interfacial region remains challenging. Here, the authors directly observe the presence of two interfacial polymer layers around a nanoparticle in polar polymers with different polar molecular conformations from the bulk polymer leading to an enhancement in polarity-related properties of polymer nanocomposites

    • Xinhui Li
    • , Shan He
    •  & Ce-Wen Nan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiral receptors with an endo-functionalized cavity for chiral recognition are of interest in the field of molecular recognition. Here, the authors develop chiral naphthotubes containing a bis-thiourea endo-functionalized cavity to effectively recognize neutral chiral molecules with high enantioselectivity.

    • Song-Meng Wang
    • , Yan-Fang Wang
    •  & Liu-Pan Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Embolization is one of the most promising strategies for clinical disease treatments, however, the existing embolic materials normally have poor embolization effectiveness. Here, the authors report Janus particle-engineered structural lipiodol droplets by programming the self-assembly of Janus particles at the lipiodol-water interface to achieve highly efficient renal embolization.

    • Sijian Tao
    • , Bingquan Lin
    •  & Jun-Bing Fan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Effective energy transfer and suppressed dopant aggregation is critical for realizing efficient organic light-emitting diodes. Here, the authors report six host materials capable of exhibiting enhanced thermal stability and film-formation behavior, demonstrating efficiency of over 30% at 1000 cd/m2.

    • Dongmin Park
    • , Seokwoo Kang
    •  & Soo Young Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fibrous networks constructed from high aspect ratio protein building blocks are ubiquitous in nature, but the functional advantage of such building blocks over globular proteins is not understood. Here, using shear rheology and small-angle neutron scattering, the authors characterise the mechanical and structural properties of photochemically crosslinked protein L and fibrin networks and show that aspect ratio is a crucial property that defines network architecture and mechanics.

    • Matt D. G. Hughes
    • , Sophie Cussons
    •  & Lorna Dougan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The 3D/4D printing of shape memory polymers to create shape-morphing structures typically goes through a hot programming step possessing limited reconfigurability. Here the authors introduce a cold-programmed grayscale digital light processing-based 3D printing to encode different configurations during the 3D printing of shape-morphing structures.

    • Liang Yue
    • , Xiaohao Sun
    •  & H. Jerry Qi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Among additive manufacturing methods vat photopolymerization (VP) is desired owing to improved efficiency, excellent surface finish, and printing resolution at the micron-scale but the major portion of resins available for VP are based on systems with limited or negligible recyclability. Here, the authors describe an approach that enables the printing of a resin that is amenable to re-printing with retained properties and appearance.

    • Xabier Lopez de Pariza
    • , Oihane Varela
    •  & Haritz Sardon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving rapid, robust, and universal hydrogel adhesion poses challenges for nanoparticle-based glues. Here, the authors present nanohesives that can adhere to diverse surfaces without pre-treatment based on hydrogel mechanics design and interface chemistry modification.

    • Zhao Pan
    • , Qi-Qi Fu
    •  & Shu-Hong Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with adjustable porosity and tunable functionality have attracted considerable attention, but the directional control of intermolecular and intramolecular motion of TPE-based ligands in the non-interpenetrated flexible MOFs has not yet been studied. Here, the authors report a non-interpenetrated tetraphenylethylene-based MOF with anisotropic flexibility.

    • Sha-Sha Meng
    • , Ming Xu
    •  & Zhi-Yuan Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulating the internal interactions within biological fibers to tune macroscopic properties is important but challenging, and can limit applications. Here, the authors report the use of dynamic imine chemistry for engineering molecular interactions and forming strong and tough protein fibers.

    • Jing Sun
    • , Haonan He
    •  & Kai Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phase separation is driven by the component activity, elasticity, or composition of a homogeneous mixture. Here the authors, develop heterogeneous colloidal suspensions exhibiting both liquid-liquid phase separation of polymers and liquid crystal phase separation of nanoparticles controlled by the trade-off between thermodynamics and kinetics.

    • Han Tao
    • , Carlo Rigoni
    •  & Guang Chu

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