Featured
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News & Views |
Elusive photonic crystals come a step closer
Researchers have long sought materials in which light behaves the way electrons do in semiconductors. A workable approach for growing such materials in bulk now seems at hand, and could lead to advances in computing.
- John C. Crocker
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Article |
Colloidal diamond
Self-assembly of cubic diamond crystals is demonstrated, by using precursor clusters of particles with carefully placed ‘sticky’ patches that attract and bind adjacent clusters in specific geometries.
- Mingxin He
- , Johnathon P. Gales
- & David J. Pine
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Nature Podcast |
After decades of trying, scientists coax plastic particles into a diamond-like structure
Coaxing tiny colloid particles into a diamond structure, and manipulating cell death and homeostasis in neurodegenerative disease.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Howe
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Article |
Fractional antiferromagnetic skyrmion lattice induced by anisotropic couplings
Theoretically predicted fractional antiferromagnetic skyrmions are experimentally realized in MnSc2S4 and are found to originate from anisotropic couplings over nearest neighbours in the crystal lattice.
- Shang Gao
- , H. Diego Rosales
- & Oksana Zaharko
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Article |
Near-perfect photon utilization in an air-bridge thermophotovoltaic cell
An air gap embedded within the structure of a thermophotovoltaic device acts as a near-perfect reflector of low-energy photons, resulting in their recovery and recycling by the thermal source, enabling excellent power-conversion efficiency.
- Dejiu Fan
- , Tobias Burger
- & Stephen R. Forrest
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Matters Arising |
Slow compression of crystalline ice at low temperature
- R. Bauer
- , J. S. Tse
- & T. Hattori
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Article |
Reverse and forward engineering of Drosophila corneal nanocoatings
The building blocks of the nanostructures observed on Drosophila corneas are determined, and then used to create artificial nanostructures with anti-reflective and anti-adhesive properties.
- Mikhail Kryuchkov
- , Oleksii Bilousov
- & Vladimir L. Katanaev
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Article |
Homeostatic mini-intestines through scaffold-guided organoid morphogenesis
Miniature gut tubes grown in vitro from mouse intestinal stem cells are perfusable, can be colonized with microorganisms and exhibit a similar arrangement and diversity of specialized cell types to intestines in vivo.
- Mikhail Nikolaev
- , Olga Mitrofanova
- & Matthias P. Lutolf
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Article |
Evidence for supercritical behaviour of high-pressure liquid hydrogen
Simulations using machine-learning-based interatomic potentials in dense hydrogen overcome system size and timescale limitations, providing evidence of a supercritical behaviour of high-pressure liquid hydrogen and reconciling theoretical and experimental discrepancies.
- Bingqing Cheng
- , Guglielmo Mazzola
- & Michele Ceriotti
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Article |
Filling metal–organic framework mesopores with TiO2 for CO2 photoreduction
Investigation of a chromium-based metal–organic framework shows that the location of added TiO2 inside specific mesopores strongly affects the ability of the material to catalyse photoreduction of CO2.
- Zhuo Jiang
- , Xiaohui Xu
- & Hexiang Deng
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Where I Work |
Putting the charge back into face-mask filters
Peter Tsai, inventor of the electrostatically charged filter used in face masks, emerges from retirement to help boost filter production and reuse.
- Amber Dance
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Article |
Stable room-temperature continuous-wave lasing in quasi-2D perovskite films
Lead halide-based quasi-two-dimensional perovskite films with different organic cations are used to create stable green lasers under continuous-wave optical pumping in air at room temperature.
- Chuanjiang Qin
- , Atula S. D. Sandanayaka
- & Chihaya Adachi
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Article |
A disordered rock salt anode for fast-charging lithium-ion batteries
A vanadium-based lithium-rich disordered rock salt oxide is shown to work as a low-potential anode with rapid intercalation kinetics for lithium-ion batteries.
- Haodong Liu
- , Zhuoying Zhu
- & Ping Liu
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Article |
Additive manufacturing of silica aerogels
A direct ink writing protocol for silica aerogels enables 3D printing of lightweight, miniaturized objects with complex shapes, with the possibility to easily add functionality by incorporating nanoparticles.
- Shanyu Zhao
- , Gilberto Siqueira
- & Wim J. Malfait
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News & Views |
One-way supercurrent achieved in an electrically polar film
Diodes are devices that conduct electric current mainly in one direction. An electrically polar film that acts as a diode for superconducting current could lead to electronic devices that have ultralow power consumption.
- Toshiya Ideue
- & Yoshihiro Iwasa
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Article |
Observation of superconducting diode effect
A superconducting diode that has zero resistance in only one direction is realized in an artificially engineered superlattice without inversion symmetry, enabling directional charge transport without energy loss.
- Fuyuki Ando
- , Yuta Miyasaka
- & Teruo Ono
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Article |
Liquid–liquid transition and critical point in sulfur
Under high pressure, elemental sulfur shows a sharp density discontinuity that evolves with pressure and temperature and terminates at a critical point, indicating a first-order liquid–liquid phase transition.
- Laura Henry
- , Mohamed Mezouar
- & Frédéric Datchi
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Nature Podcast |
3D printing some of the world’s lightest materials
A new way to shape aerogels opens up their use, and understanding how sulfur can change state between two liquids.
- Nick Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Article |
Piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects induced by interface polar symmetry
A built-in electric field at the interface of metals and centrosymmetric semiconductors is shown to induce polar structures in the semiconductors and generate substantial piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects.
- Ming-Min Yang
- , Zheng-Dong Luo
- & Marin Alexe
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Research Highlight |
Ultra-fluorescent dyes give objects an eye-popping glow
Crystals of physically distanced dye molecules fluoresce brilliantly in a rainbow of colours.
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Research Highlight |
This super ‘sponge’ releases steam when the Sun shines
A curious gel can soak up water vapour from the air and swell to enormous size without bursting.
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Editorial |
The quantum Hall effect continues to reveal its secrets to mathematicians and physicists
A transformative experiment is yielding fresh insights 40 years after the effect’s discovery — and energizing transdisciplinary collaborations.
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Article |
Deep strong light–matter coupling in plasmonic nanoparticle crystals
Photons and plasmons hybridize into polaritons in three-dimensional crystals of plasmonic nanoparticles, leading to deep strong light–matter coupling and the breakdown of the Purcell effect.
- Niclas S. Mueller
- , Yu Okamura
- & Stephanie Reich
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Article |
Cleavable comonomers enable degradable, recyclable thermoset plastics
A method of endowing thermoset plastics with a degree of recyclability and reprocessability by incorporating cleavable chemical linkages in the strands of the polymer, rather than in the crosslinks, is presented.
- Peyton Shieh
- , Wenxu Zhang
- & Jeremiah A. Johnson
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Article |
Coherent many-body exciton in van der Waals antiferromagnet NiPS3
A spin–orbit-entangled exciton state in the van der Waals material NiPS3 is observed, and found to arise from many-body states of a Zhang–Rice singlet.
- Soonmin Kang
- , Kangwon Kim
- & Je-Geun Park
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News & Views |
Electronics tuned in twisted bilayer graphene
The strength of the interactions between electrons in a structure called twisted bilayer graphene has been tuned by adjusting the immediate environment — a major advance for tunable electronic quantum matter.
- Ronny Thomale
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Article |
Vacancy-enabled N2 activation for ammonia synthesis on an Ni-loaded catalyst
Ammonia is synthesized using a dual-site approach, whereby nitrogen vacancies on LaN activate N2, which then reacts with hydrogen atoms produced over the Ni metal to give ammonia.
- Tian-Nan Ye
- , Sang-Won Park
- & Hideo Hosono
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Research Highlight |
This material is almost as hard as diamond — but as light as graphite
A theoretical form of carbon called pentadiamond becomes thicker when stretched.
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Article |
A mobile robotic chemist
A mobile robot autonomously operates analytical instruments in a wet chemistry laboratory, performing a photocatalyst optimization task much faster than a human would be able to.
- Benjamin Burger
- , Phillip M. Maffettone
- & Andrew I. Cooper
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Nature Podcast |
What the atomic structure of enamel tells us about tooth decay
On this week’s podcast, how the molecular structure of tooth enamel may impact decay, and a mysterious planetary core from a half-formed gas giant.
- Shamini Bundell
- & Nick Howe
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Article |
Chemical gradients in human enamel crystallites
Hydroxylapatite crystallites in human dental enamel show gradients in chemical composition, with a layer of magnesium enrichment on each side of a core rich in sodium, fluoride and carbonate ions.
- Karen A. DeRocher
- , Paul J. M. Smeets
- & Derk Joester
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Outlook |
CageCapture: designing a molecule to filter out pollutants
The start-up that developed the ‘cage’ molecule is one of the finalists of The Spinoff Prize.
- Neil Savage
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Article |
High-strength Damascus steel by additive manufacturing
A Damascus-like steel consisting of alternating hard and soft layers is created by using a laser additive manufacturing technique and digital control of the processing parameters.
- Philipp Kürnsteiner
- , Markus Benjamin Wilms
- & Dierk Raabe
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Article |
Optical Fourier surfaces
Combining thermal scanning-probe lithography with templating enables the production of high-quality gratings that manipulate light through Fourier-spectrum engineering in ways that are not achievable with conventional gratings.
- Nolan Lassaline
- , Raphael Brechbühler
- & David J. Norris
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Article |
Ultralow-dielectric-constant amorphous boron nitride
Thin films of amorphous boron nitride are mechanically and electrically robust, prevent diffusion of metal atoms into semiconductors and have ultralow dielectric constants that exceed current recommendations for high-performance electronics.
- Seokmo Hong
- , Chang-Seok Lee
- & Hyeon Suk Shin
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Research Highlight |
An artificial skin oozes ‘sweat’ through tiny pores
A coating made of liquid crystals perspires a drug-laced liquid.
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Article |
Hierarchically structured diamond composite with exceptional toughness
A diamond composite with a hierarchical microstructure possesses a combination of hardness and toughness surpassing that of all known materials.
- Yonghai Yue
- , Yufei Gao
- & Yongjun Tian
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Article |
Self-templating assembly of soft microparticles into complex tessellations
A hexagonal self-assembled monolayer of soft microparticles acts as the template for a second layer of the same particles, forcing the formation of patterns with unexpected structural symmetries and complexities.
- Fabio Grillo
- , Miguel Angel Fernandez-Rodriguez
- & Lucio Isa
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Article |
Controlling free electrons with optical whispering-gallery modes
The coupling between light and relativistic free electrons is enhanced through phase matching of electrons with optical whispering-gallery modes in dielectric microspheres and through extended modal lifetimes.
- Ofer Kfir
- , Hugo Lourenço-Martins
- & Claus Ropers
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Article |
Design of robust superhydrophobic surfaces
Water-repellent nanostructures are housed within an interconnected microstructure frame to yield mechanically robust superhydrophobic surfaces.
- Dehui Wang
- , Qiangqiang Sun
- & Xu Deng
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News & Views |
An almost perfectly efficient light-activated catalyst for producing hydrogen from water
Efforts to make hydrogen from water directly using sunlight have been hampered by the inefficiency of the catalysts that promote the process. A model system demonstrates that almost perfectly efficient catalysts can be made.
- Simone Pokrant
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Super-efficient catalyst boosts hopes for hydrogen fuel
Hear the latest from the world of science, with Nick Howe and Shamini Bundell.
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Article |
Seeded growth of large single-crystal copper foils with high-index facets
Large-area single-crystal high-index copper and nickel foils with several types of facet are fabricated using mild pre-oxidation of the metal foil surface followed by annealing in a reducing atmosphere.
- Muhong Wu
- , Zhibin Zhang
- & Kaihui Liu
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Article |
Stable, high-performance sodium-based plasmonic devices in the near infrared
A thermo-assisted spin-coating process followed by packaging is used to fabricate sodium films that are stable for several months, enabling the realization of plasmonic devices with state-of-the-art performance at near-infrared wavelengths.
- Yang Wang
- , Jianyu Yu
- & Jia Zhu
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Article |
Photocatalytic water splitting with a quantum efficiency of almost unity
Water splitting with an internal quantum efficiency of almost unity is achieved using a modified semiconductor photocatalyst that selectively promotes the hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions on separate crystal facets.
- Tsuyoshi Takata
- , Junzhe Jiang
- & Kazunari Domen
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Research Highlight |
Saving The Scream with science
Storing Edvard Munch’s masterpiece at low humidity will help to preserve its colours, analysis shows.
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Article |
Short-range order and its impact on the CrCoNi medium-entropy alloy
Metal alloys consisting of three or more major elemental components show enhanced mechanical properties, which are now shown to be correlated with short-range order observed with electron microscopy.
- Ruopeng Zhang
- , Shiteng Zhao
- & Andrew M. Minor
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Article |
Accelerated discovery of CO2 electrocatalysts using active machine learning
Machine learning predicts Cu-Al electrocatalysts provide better efficiency and productivity than copper when using intermittent renewable electricity to convert carbon dioxide to useful chemicals and fuels.
- Miao Zhong
- , Kevin Tran
- & Edward H. Sargent
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Article |
Engineering covalently bonded 2D layered materials by self-intercalation
The intercalation of native atoms into bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides during growth generates ultrathin, covalently bonded materials into which ferromagnetic ordering can be introduced.
- Xiaoxu Zhao
- , Peng Song
- & Kian Ping Loh