Materials science articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    A study demonstrates that a range of different behaviours—from reversible, through weeping, to explosive—can be exhibited by a chemically homogeneous ceramic system by manipulating conditions of compatibility in unusual ways.

    • Hanlin Gu
    • , Jascha Rohmer
    •  & Richard D. James

  • Nature Podcast |

    Spineless sea squirts shed light on vertebrate evolution, and an iodine-fuelled engine powering a satellite in space.

    • Shamini Bundell
    •  & Benjamin Thompson

  • Article |

    An all-in-one methodology for fabricating soft robotics reported here uses interfacial flows in elastomers that cure to produce actuators that can be tailored to suit applications from artificial muscles to grippers.

    • Trevor J. Jones
    • , Etienne Jambon-Puillet
    •  & P.-T. Brun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Propene is obtained through propane dehydrogenation using catalysts that are toxic, expensive or demanding to regenerate with ecologically harmful compounds, but the ZnO-based alternative reported here is cheap, clean and scalable.

    • Dan Zhao
    • , Xinxin Tian
    •  & Evgenii V. Kondratenko

  • Article |

    Amorphous–amorphous phase transitions in silicon dioxide are shown to proceed through a sequence of percolation transitions, a process that has relevance to a range of important liquid and glassy systems.

    • A. Hasmy
    • , S. Ispas
    •  & B. Hehlen

  • Article |

    By coordinating copper ions with the oxygen-containing groups of cellulose nanofibrils, the molecular spacing in the nanofibrils is increased, allowing fast transport of lithium ions and offering hopes for solid-state batteries.

    • Chunpeng Yang
    • , Qisheng Wu
    •  & Liangbing Hu

  • Perspective |

    Computing approaches based on mechanical mechanisms are discussed, with a view towards a framework in which adaptable materials and structures act as a distributed information processing network.

    • Hiromi Yasuda
    • , Philip R. Buskohl
    •  & Jordan R. Raney

  • News & Views |

    The distance between the surface atoms of noble metals, such as platinum, affects the catalytic activity of these elements. An experimental approach using nanoparticles enables this effect to be systematically controlled and measured.

    • Sylvain Brimaud

  • News & Views |

    The misalignment of crystal lattices in stacked monolayers of materials has been shown to prevent heat flow between the layers, while retaining flow within them. This finding opens up an inventive way to control heat at the nanoscale.

    • Mariusz Zdrojek

  • News & Views |

    In 2D materials, electrons at low densities can freeze into well-defined positions and form exotic structures called Wigner crystals. A non-invasive technique has been developed to image these crystals directly.

    • Carmen Rubio-Verdú

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extremely anisotropic thermal conductors based on large-area van der Waals thin films with random interlayer rotations are reported here.

    • Shi En Kim
    • , Fauzia Mujid
    •  & Jiwoong Park

  • News & Views |

    Layered perovskites are useful materials that contain sheets of a perovskite semiconductor enclosed by organic molecules. Crystals of layered perovskites that include sheets of a second inorganic lattice can now be grown from solution.

    • Roman Krahne
    •  & Milena P. Arciniegas

  • Article |

    Hollow colloidal capsules, each with a single micropore, act as artificial cell-like structures that can capture and release payloads such as solid particles or bacteria from the external environment.

    • Zhe Xu
    • , Theodore Hueckel
    •  & Stefano Sacanna

  • Review Article |

    This Review discusses the state of the art of interface optics—including refractive optics, meta-optics and moiré engineering—for the control of van der Waals polaritons.

    • Qing Zhang
    • , Guangwei Hu
    •  & Cheng-Wei Qiu

  • Article |

    Gold nanoflake pairs form by self-assembly in an aqueous ligand solution and offer stable and tunable microcavities by virtue of equilibrium between attractive Casimir forces and repulsive electrostatic forces.

    • Battulga Munkhbat
    • , Adriana Canales
    •  & Timur O. Shegai

  • News & Views |

    Future progress in computing calls for innovative ways to map the physical characteristics of materials to the logic functions needed by computing architectures. An electronic device called a molecular memristor provides a way forward.

    • Matthew J. Marinella
    •  & A. Alec Talin

  • Article |

    Multiple redox transitions in a molecular memristor can be harnessed as ‘decision trees’ to undertake complex and reconfigurable logic operations in a single time step.

    • Sreetosh Goswami
    • , Rajib Pramanick
    •  & R. Stanley Williams

  • Article |

    Restricting the initial growth temperatures used for chemical vapour deposition of graphene on metal foils produces optimum conditions for growing large areas of fold-free, single-crystal graphene.

    • Meihui Wang
    • , Ming Huang
    •  & Rodney S. Ruoff

  • Article |

    Rechargeable Na/Cl2 and Li/Cl2 batteries are produced with a microporous carbon positive electrode, aluminium chloride in thionyl chloride as the electrolyte, and either sodium or lithium as the negative electrode.

    • Guanzhou Zhu
    • , Xin Tian
    •  & Hongjie Dai

  • Article |

    Surface enhancements in glass mobility are complicated in polymers by the interplay of the surface mobile layer thickness with a second length scale (the size of the polymer chains), giving rise to a transient rubbery surface even in polymers with short chains.

    • Zhiwei Hao
    • , Asieh Ghanekarade
    •  & Biao Zuo

  • Article |

    Model patchy colloids with directional bonding are designed that assemble into icosahedral quasicrystals through the propagation of an icosahedral network of bonds and may be realized using DNA origami particles.

    • Eva G. Noya
    • , Chak Kui Wong
    •  & Jonathan P. K. Doye

  • News & Views |

    The mechanical properties of chain mail have been revisited. The findings reveal that, under confining pressure, chain-mail-inspired materials can switch from pliable to stiff structures that have outstanding load-bearing capacities.

    • Laurent Orgéas

  • Article |

    A structured fabric constructed of linked hollow polyhedral particles (resembling chain mail) can be simply and reversibly tuned between flexible and rigid states; when it is compressed, its linked particles become jammed.

    • Yifan Wang
    • , Liuchi Li
    •  & Chiara Daraio

  • Article |

    High-performance optoelectronic devices that operate in the infrared regime at room temperature exhibit wide-range, active and reversible tunability of the operating wavelengths with black phosphorus.

    • Hyungjin Kim
    • , Shiekh Zia Uddin
    •  & Ali Javey

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