Materials chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tailoring MOFs to allow access of complex and large molecules is a challenging task due to their inherent microporous nature. Here the authors engineer meso- and macroporous MOF patterns and membranes via a mild decarboxylation applicable to different substrates, demonstrating their potential in macromolecule separations.

    • Guan-Young Jeong
    • , Ajay K. Singh
    •  & Dong-Pyo Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Constructing nanoparticle assemblies with atomic precision remains a major challenge in nanoscience. Here, the authors realize atomic‐level control over the 1D, 2D and hierarchical 3D assembly of Au nanoparticles by modulating the site‐specific surface ligands and associated counterions.

    • Qi Li
    • , Jake C. Russell
    •  & Rongchao Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multimetallic clusters are difficult to synthesize with control over elemental composition and organization. Here, the authors use dendrimers to precisely template the formation of five-element sub-nanoclusters, providing an elegant route to otherwise-inaccessible multinary compounds.

    • Takamasa Tsukamoto
    • , Tetsuya Kambe
    •  & Kimihisa Yamamoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) find increasing application as sensor material, but fast switching solvatochromism was not realized. Here the authors demonstrate that combination of electron-rich and -deficient building blocks leads to COFs which fast and reversibly change of their electronic structure depending on the surrounding atmosphere.

    • Laura Ascherl
    • , Emrys W. Evans
    •  & Florian Auras

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multi-compartmentalised soft micro-systems are used as models of synthetic protocells. Here, the authors developed nested host–guest protocell constructs capable of self-reconfiguration in response to changes in pH generated by antagonistic modes of enzyme-mediated coupling.

    • Nicolas Martin
    • , Jean-Paul Douliez
    •  & Stephen Mann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The separation of high molecular weight polymers composed of the same number of monomeric units remains highly challenging. Here, the authors show that efficient separation and purification of mixtures of polymers that differ only by their terminal groups can be achieved through polymer threading in metal-organic framework channels.

    • Benjamin Le Ouay
    • , Chikara Watanabe
    •  & Takashi Uemura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High-performance stretchable conductive fibers are desired for the development of stretchable electronic devices but preparation of conductive hydrogel fibers is challenging. Inspired by spider silk the authors demonstrate here a spinning method to prepare stretchable conductive hydrogel fibers with ordered polymer chain alignment.

    • Xue Zhao
    • , Fang Chen
    •  & Mingming Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optimizing luminescence from quantum dots benefits various optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications. Here the authors drive high-efficiency, tunable upconversion luminescence in perovskite quantum dots by energy transfer from lanthanide-doped nanoparticles excited by near-infrared light, to produce full-color emission with low driving power.

    • Wei Zheng
    • , Ping Huang
    •  & Xueyuan Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Angle-resolved monitoring of structure parameters during crystal growth is often slow owing to mechanical movements. Here, the authors use second harmonic scattering and Fourier-plane imaging to dynamically monitor size, shape and concentration of ZIF-8 in situ during the growth process.

    • Stijn Van Cleuvenbergen
    • , Zachary J. Smith
    •  & Monique A. van der Veen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solar-to-chemical CO2 reduction provides a means to use light’s energy for CO2 removal and upgrading to useful products, although this photochemical conversion is challenging. Here, authors construct a Europium-containing metal-organic framework that selectively converts CO2 to formate with light.

    • Zhi-Hao Yan
    • , Ming-Hao Du
    •  & Lan-Sun Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanically interlocked molecules are extensively applied as artificial molecular machines but rotaxane-branched dendrimers are rarely explored because of synthetic challenges. Here the authors present the construction of dual stimuli-responsive rotaxane-branched dendrimer which can be stimulated by DMSO or acetate ions.

    • Xu-Qing Wang
    • , Wei Wang
    •  & Hai-Bo Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nature and stability of carbon dioxide under extreme conditions relevant to the Earth’s mantle is still under debate, in view of its possible role within the deep carbon cycle. Here, the authors perform high-pressure experiments providing evidence that polymeric crystalline CO2 is stable under megabaric conditions.

    • Kamil F. Dziubek
    • , Martin Ende
    •  & Ronald Miletich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stimuli-responsive porous materials are attractive for a range of applications, but each material typically exhibits only one type of transformation. Here, the authors report on a metal–organic material that exhibits six distinct phases as a result of four types of structural transformation in response to different stimuli.

    • Mohana Shivanna
    • , Qing-Yuan Yang
    •  & Michael J. Zaworotko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nonlinear optical crystals suitable for the UV spectral region could simplify short-wavelength generation and make it more efficient. Here, the authors design and demonstrate that one of two asymmetric borate polymorphs exhibits promising optical and mechanical properties for generating UV light.

    • Miriding Mutailipu
    • , Min Zhang
    •  & Shilie Pan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of intelligent materials, in particular those showing the highly sensitive mechanoresponsive luminescence (MRL), remains challenging. Here the authors report a strategy for constructing high performance On-Off MRL materials by introducing nitrophenyl groups to molecules with aggregation-induced emission characteristic.

    • Weijun Zhao
    • , Zikai He
    •  & Ben Zhong Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In block copolymer vesicles, crystallization often leads to defects and renders the structures leaky that undermines their potential biomedical application. Here the authors use an emulsion solution method to control the crystallization of an amphiphilic block copolymer at the curved liquid/liquid interface to improve the blood circulation time.

    • Hao Qi
    • , Hao Zhou
    •  & Christopher Y. Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electronic phase separation is an important feature of many correlated perovskite compounds but hasn’t been seen in other complex oxides with similar physical behaviour such as magnetite. Hong et al. find phase separation between a magnetite-like charge ordered phase and a charge averaged phase in CaFe3O5.

    • Ka. H. Hong
    • , Angel M. Arevalo-Lopez
    •  & J. Paul Attfield

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spin-crossover molecules offer a potential route towards molecular spintronics, but retaining the bistability of the spin state upon surface deposition is challenging. Here, the authors study the spin-crossover behaviours of an Fe(II) complex deposited on graphite, determining the scale limit at which cooperative spin switching becomes effective.

    • Lalminthang Kipgen
    • , Matthias Bernien
    •  & Wolfgang Kuch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemotherapy agents are prone to producing severe side-effects, and their sequestration prior to their entering of the circulatory system is thus highly desirable. Here, the authors functionalize iron oxide nanoparticles with genomic DNA and achieve sequestration of doxorubicin, cisplatin, and epirubicin from biological solutions.

    • Carl M. Blumenfeld
    • , Michael D. Schulz
    •  & Robert H. Grubbs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Porosity in metal–organic materials typically relies on highly ordered crystalline networks, which hinders material processing and morphological control. Here, the authors use metal–organic polyhedra as porous monomers in supramolecular polymerization to produce colloidal spheres and gels with intrinsic microporosity.

    • Arnau Carné-Sánchez
    • , Gavin A. Craig
    •  & Shuhei Furukawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene shows great promise for gas separation applications, but obtaining large membranes that are free of cracks and tears remains highly challenging. Here, the authors realize monolayer, crack-free, millimeter-scale graphene membranes that exhibit selective gas permeation solely thanks to their intrinsic defects

    • Shiqi Huang
    • , Mostapha Dakhchoune
    •  & Kumar Varoon Agrawal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Endowing metal–organic frameworks with both high electrical conductivity and magnetic ordering could make such materials useful for spintronics. Here the authors design a layer-stacking coronene-based 2D MOF that exhibits a semiconducting feature with an electrical conductivity of ~10 S cm−1 at 300 K, as well as ferromagnetism below ~20 K.

    • Renhao Dong
    • , Zhitao Zhang
    •  & Xinliang Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The family of pyrochlore complex oxides includes many materials of fundamental or practical interest, such as spin ices and dielectrics. Trump et al. show that flexibility of the pyrochlores’ structure leads to local displacements that explain some of their unusual physical properties.

    • B. A. Trump
    • , S. M. Koohpayeh
    •  & T. M. McQueen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transition metal complexes that display slow magnetic relaxation show promise for information storage, but our mechanistic understanding of the magnetic relaxation of such compounds remains limited. Here, the authors spectroscopically and computationally characterize the strength of spin–phonon couplings, which play an important role in the relaxation process.

    • Duncan H. Moseley
    • , Shelby E. Stavretis
    •  & Zi-Ling Xue

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stabilization of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) by post-synthetic locking is a powerful tool to push the limits of COF utilization. Here the authors demonstrate a sulfur-assisted conversion of an imine-linked COF into a thiazole-linked COF, with retention of crystallinity and porosity, allowing for direct imaging of defects in COFs.

    • Frederik Haase
    • , Erik Troschke
    •  & Bettina V. Lotsch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fabrication of porous nanoparticles is often hampered by low efficiency production methods, challenging isolation of the material and poor control over the fabrication process. Here the authors demonstrate a facile ice-template vapor-phase synthesis which allows for production of porous poly-para-xylylene particles on a large scale.

    • Hsing-Ying Tung
    • , Zhen-Yu Guan
    •  & Hsien-Yeh Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Minor variations in synthesis conditions can redirect crystallization pathways through different nonequilibrium intermediates. Here, the authors present a theoretical framework to predict which polymorphs appear during MnO2 precipitation, which is validated by in situ X-ray scattering of reaction progression.

    • Bor-Rong Chen
    • , Wenhao Sun
    •  & Laura T. Schelhas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Water splitting by nanostructured, abundant catalysts provides a renewable means to make carbon neutral fuels, but the ideal material morphology and composition remain uncertain. Here, the authors prepare superaerophobic, multi-metallic sulfide nanotube arrays as bifunctional water splitting catalysts.

    • Haoyi Li
    • , Shuangming Chen
    •  & Xun Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two dimensional (2D) metal-organic frameworks have demonstrated unique photophysical properties compared to their bulk analogs. Here, the authors demonstrate that exfoliation of 2D MOFs can suppress interlayer exciton-related emission, allowing for modulation of the overall emission color and switching of optical memory states.

    • Wei-Ming Liao
    • , Jian-Hua Zhang
    •  & Cheng-Yong Su

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generating artificial cells able to carry out metabolic activities out-of-equilibrium is a current challenge in synthetic biology. Here the authors use a microfluidic platform for integration and analysis of minimal metabolic reactions in artificial microcompartments formed of water-in-oil droplets.

    • Thomas Beneyton
    • , Dorothee Krafft
    •  & Jean-Christophe Baret

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In layered inorganic materials lattice distortions can couple to break inversion symmetry and drive improper ferroelectricity, but in perovskites, symmetry prohibits such an effect. Here, the authors use group-theoretical analysis to provide crystal engineering design principles for improper ferroelectricity in molecular perovskites.

    • Hanna L. B. Boström
    • , Mark S. Senn
    •  & Andrew L. Goodwin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The recently introduced glass and liquid states of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) provide opportunities to design and explore new properties for this class of material. Here, the authors show that a MOF liquid can be blended with another MOF component to produce domain-structured MOF glasses with single, tailorable glass transitions.

    • Louis Longley
    • , Sean M. Collins
    •  & Thomas D. Bennett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Peptoids are promising crystallization agents, as they offer the molecular recognition capabilities of proteins and peptides but with higher stability and synthetic tunability. Here, the authors show that sequence-defined peptoids can controllably template the formation and shape evolution of gold nanostructures with defined morphologies.

    • Feng Yan
    • , Lili Liu
    •  & Chun-Long Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diffusion of molecules in crowded environment is important for various living systems, but the dynamics of charged molecules in charged matrices remains still unexplored. Here the authors report a dynamics of DNA and polyelectrolytes in a charged hydrogel where the guest molecules do not diffuse but experience topologically frustrated dynamics.

    • Di Jia
    •  & Murugappan Muthukumar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unlike synthetic hydrogels, biological gels are made of fibrous networks which give rise to unique properties, such as high porosity and mechanical responsiveness. Here the authors use polyisocyanide-based gels and selectively crosslink inside the bundles to lock the fibrous network and thus control the architecture and the mechanics.

    • Daniël C. Schoenmakers
    • , Alan E. Rowan
    •  & Paul H. J. Kouwer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While zeolites are industrially relevant as molecular sieves and catalysts, their growth mechanisms remain widely debated. Here, Rimer and colleagues probe the crystallization pathway of zeolite LTA with spatiotemporal resolution, identifying a distinctive nonclassical pathway, and demonstrating that growth is highly dependent on synthetic conditions.

    • Manjesh Kumar
    • , Madhuresh K. Choudhary
    •  & Jeffrey D. Rimer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional, organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have sustained research interest due to attractive optoelectronic and excitonic properties. Here, Guo et al. systematically investigate coherent acoustic phonon transport versus layer thickness in these materials with strong acoustic impedance mismatch

    • Peijun Guo
    • , Constantinos C. Stoumpos
    •  & Richard D. Schaller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanofiltration membranes are important for water desalination technologies, but designing membranes that achieve both high permeance and high salt rejection remains challenging. Here, the authors use sacrificial nanoparticles in the membrane fabrication process, leading to crumpled structures with ultrahigh permeance.

    • Zhenyi Wang
    • , Zhangxin Wang
    •  & Jian Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    DNA and RNA G-quadruplexes can stack to form higher-order structures called G-wires. Here the authors report high-resolution AFM images of higher-order DNA G-quadruplexes in aqueous solution that could impact the design of G-wire based nanodevices and the understanding of G-wires in biology.

    • Krishnashish Bose
    • , Christopher J. Lech
    •  & Anh Tuân Phan

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