Materials science articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    The introduction of chain entanglements into protein-based hydrogels yields hydrogels with high stiffness, high toughness, fast recovery and ultrahigh compressive strength, with mechanical properties close to those of cartilage.

    • Linglan Fu
    • , Lan Li
    •  & Hongbin Li

  • Article |

    The black phase of formamidinium lead iodide perovskite is used to make highly efficient solar cells, and a technique to improve its purity and stability by controlling crystal nucleation could make them even better.

    • Pengju Shi
    • , Yong Ding
    •  & Rui Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Entropic repulsion caused by interfacial orientational fluctuations of cholesterol layers restricts protein adsorption and bacterial adhesion, providing a conceptually new physicochemical perspective on biointerfaces that may guide future material design in regulation of adhesion.

    • Jens Friedrichs
    • , Ralf Helbig
    •  & Carsten Werner

  • Article |

    We discovered that liquid metal endowing negative mixing enthalpy with other elements could provide a stable thermodynamic condition and act as a desirable dynamic mixing reservoir, realizing the synthesis of high-entropy alloy nanoparticles.

    • Guanghui Cao
    • , Jingjing Liang
    •  & Lei Fu

  • News & Views |

    The development of a promising type of battery has been plagued by an issue that causes these devices to fail — lithium filaments grow in the electrolyte. An investigation of this failure mechanism could help to solve the problem.

    • Kelsey B. Hatzell
    •  & Maha Yusuf

  • Research Briefing |

    Hybrid molecules containing organic and inorganic components were assembled through bottom-up synthesis into a continuous network of interpenetrating molecular-scale organic and inorganic ionic domains. The resulting material, called elastic ceramic plastic, shows ceramic-like hardness and strength, rubber-like deformability and resilience, and plastic-like mouldability.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Our experimental proof of chiral phonons demonstrates a degree of freedom in condensed matter that is of fundamental importance and opens the door to exploration of emergent phenomena based on chiral bosons.

    • Hiroki Ueda
    • , Mirian García-Fernández
    •  & Urs Staub

  • Article |

    A study shows that water can control macroscopic properties of biological materials through the hydration force, giving rise to a distinct class of solid matter with unusual properties.

    • Steven G. Harrellson
    • , Michael S. DeLay
    •  & Ozgur Sahin

  • Article |

    Analysis of dendrite initiation, owing to filling of pores with lithium by means of microcracks, and propagation, caused by wedge opening, shows that there are two separate processes during dendrite failure of lithium metal solid-state batteries.

    • Ziyang Ning
    • , Guanchen Li
    •  & Peter G. Bruce

  • Research Briefing |

    An original class of strong, ductile titanium alloy containing the inexpensive and abundant oxygen and iron as principal alloying elements has been created using 3D printing. The research findings offer promise for turning low‑quality titanium sponge — a waste product of the energy-intensive production of titanium — into high‑performance titanium alloys, and for innovative alloy engineering.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Combining alloy design with additive manufacturing process design creates α–β titanium–oxygen–iron alloys that are both strong and ductile, with the potential to revitalize off-grade sponge titanium and thereby reduce the carbon footprint of the titanium industry.

    • Tingting Song
    • , Zibin Chen
    •  & Ma Qian

  • Article |

    The cycles of laser light have been used to advance transmission electron microscopy to attosecond time resolution, revealing the interactions between light and matter in terms of their fundamental dimensions in space and time.

    • David Nabben
    • , Joel Kuttruff
    •  & Peter Baum

  • Outlook |

    A nature-inspired adhesive offers hope for wound healing and haemorrhage control.

    • Elie Dolgin

  • Research Briefing |

    Although crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells were developed nearly 70 years ago, their use is still limited. Tailoring the structural symmetry on the edges of textured c-Si wafers changes their fracture mechanism such that they can be used to fabricate flexible solar cells with a bending radius of about 8 millimetres.

  • Perspective |

    An analysis of chemical processes to immobilize lead from perovskite solar cells is presented, highlighting the need for a standard lead-leakage test and mathematical model to reliably evaluate the potential environmental risk of perovskite optoelectronics.

    • Hui Zhang
    • , Jin-Wook Lee
    •  & Nam-Gyu Park

  • Article |

    A dimethylacridine-based molecular doping process is used to construct a well-matched p-perovskite/indium tin oxide contact, along with all-round passivation of grain boundaries, achieving a certified power conversion efficiency of 25.39%.

    • Qin Tan
    • , Zhaoning Li
    •  & Zhubing He

  • News & Views |

    Light-sensitive particles have been shown to stratify in solution in a way that changes the colour of the whole suspension. The system forms a colour-changing ink that could make electronic paper a viable technology.

    • Hector Lopez-Rios
    •  & Monica Olvera de la Cruz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A simple spectral selective active colloidal system is designed in which TiO2 colloidal species are coded with dyes to form a photochromic swarm that adapts the appearance of incident light due to layered phase segregation.

    • Jing Zheng
    • , Jingyuan Chen
    •  & Jinyao Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nitrogen-doped lutetium hydrides LuH2±xNy synthesized using a high-pressure and high-temperature synthesis technique did not show near-ambient superconductivity at pressures below 40.1 GPa.

    • Xue Ming
    • , Ying-Jie Zhang
    •  & Hai-Hu Wen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithographically patterned perovskite nanocrystal arrays were used to determine radiation vectors from X-rays to visible light and the emission colours of the nanoparticles was used to create images of three-dimensional objects and for phase-contrast imaging.

    • Luying Yi
    • , Bo Hou
    •  & Xiaogang Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors report a high-throughput combinatorial printing method capable of fabricating materials with compositional gradients at microscale spatial resolution, demonstrating a variety of high-throughput printing strategies and applications in combinatorial doping, functional grading and chemical reaction.

    • Minxiang Zeng
    • , Yipu Du
    •  & Yanliang Zhang

  • Article |

    We report a simple method to fabricate chiroptical flexible layers via supramolecular helical ordering of conjugated polymer chains, providing direct, scalable realization of on-chip detection of the spin degree of freedom of photons.

    • Inho Song
    • , Jaeyong Ahn
    •  & Joon Hak Oh

  • News & Views |

    Waste plastics contain immiscible polymers, making recycling challenging. A new additive enables the thermal reprocessing of mixed plastics into recyclable, high-performance materials.

    • Mathieu L. Lepage
    •  & Jeremy E. Wulff

  • Article |

    The authors develop a strategy that allows the diffusion limit of ions in water to be approached for large-area, free-standing, synthetic membranes using covalently bonded polymer frameworks with rigidity-confined ion channels.

    • Peipei Zuo
    • , Chunchun Ye
    •  & Tongwen Xu

  • Article |

    A new compatibilization strategy installs dynamic crosslinkers into several classes of binary, ternary and postconsumer immiscible polymer mixtures in situ, with the resulting compatibilized dynamic thermosets exhibiting intrinsic reprocessability and enhanced tensile strength and creep resistance.

    • Ryan W. Clarke
    • , Tobias Sandmeier
    •  & Eugene Y.-X. Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors develop a new oxide-dispersion-strengthened NiCoCr-based alloy using a model-driven alloy design approach and laser-based additive manufacturing, showing how such designs can provide superior compositions using far fewer resources than previous methods.

    • Timothy M. Smith
    • , Christopher A. Kantzos
    •  & John W. Lawson

  • Research Briefing |

    An innovative approach has been developed to break down plastic polymers into their monomer building blocks. It uses a continuous melting, wicking, vaporization and reaction process in a porous carbon-bilayer structure, and can convert two model plastic polymers to their monomers at high yields without a catalyst.

  • Article |

    A depolymerization method is described that uses electrified spatiotemporal heating to selectively generate monomers from the commodity plastics polypropylene and poly(ethylene terephthalate), allowing control over the pyrolysis of plastic waste and reducing the formation of side products.

    • Qi Dong
    • , Aditya Dilip Lele
    •  & Liangbing Hu

  • Research Briefing |

    Quantum materials can host exotic phases of matter in which electrons form unusual collective states. Scientists have struggled to observe the quantization that these electronic states are expected to show, but this phenomenon has now been detected in heavy states at the surface of a superconducting quantum material.

  • News & Views |

    A molecular process called singlet fission might boost solar-cell efficiency, but the mechanism must first be determined. A technique that probes molecules undergoing this process finally reveals the excited states involved.

    • Andrew J. Musser
    •  & Hannah Stern

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy is used to observe the primary step of singlet fission with orbital resolution indicating a charge-transfer mediated mechanism with a hybridization of states in the lowest bright singlet exciton.

    • Alexander Neef
    • , Samuel Beaulieu
    •  & Ralph Ernstorfer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A porous organic crystal readily and reversibly adsorbs water, with dehydration occurring well below the freezing point of water, which could be seen by a change in colour.

    • Alan C. Eaby
    • , Dirkie C. Myburgh
    •  & Leonard J. Barbour

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A Dirac plasma in high-mobility graphene shows anomalous magnetotransport and giant magnetoresistance that reaches more than 100 per cent in a low magnetic field at room temperature.

    • Na Xin
    • , James Lourembam
    •  & Alexey I. Berdyugin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A single-element ferroelectric state is observed in a black phosphorus-like bismuth layer, in which the ordered charge transfer and the regular atom distortion between sublattices happen simultaneously and ferroelectric switching is further visualized experimentally.

    • Jian Gou
    • , Hua Bai
    •  & Andrew Thye Shen Wee

  • Article |

    By creating nanosized grains and defects in lanthanum trihydride, its electronic conductivity can be suppressed, transforming it into a superionic conductor at −40 °C with a record high H− conductivity.

    • Weijin Zhang
    • , Jirong Cui
    •  & Ping Chen

  • Article |

    Suppression of shallow traps responsible for dark count rates in polycrystalline methylammonium lead triiodide using diphenyl sulfide enables the production of metal-halide perovskite photon-counting detectors that allow sensitive detection of γ-ray spectra.

    • Ying Zhou
    • , Chengbin Fei
    •  & Jinsong Huang

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