Materials science articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is a general consensus that the structural defects are the plasticity carriers in amorphous solids, but its microscopic view remains largely unknown. Cao et a. show that highly distorted coplanar tetrahedra act as defects in granular packings, which flip under shear to carry local plasticity.

    • Yixin Cao
    • , Jindong Li
    •  & Yujie Wang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extreme static pressures exceeding a million atmospheres exist in a variety of natural environments, but obtaining such pressures in a laboratory is still a challenge. Here, the authors develop a toroidal diamond anvil design that allows for the generation of 600 GPa (6 million atmospheres) in routinely used diamond anvil cells.

    • Agnès Dewaele
    • , Paul Loubeyre
    •  & Mohamed Mezouar
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mixed ionic–electronic conductors are limited by material decomposition. Here the authors reveal the mechanism for atom migration and deposition in Cu2–δ(S,Se) materials based on a critical chemical potential difference and propose electronically conducting, ion-blocking interfaces to enhance stability.

    • Pengfei Qiu
    • , Matthias T. Agne
    •  & G. Jeffrey Snyder
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The synthesis of polyethylene furanoate, a promising renewable resource-based bioplastic, still has challenges. Here the authors show that bottle-grade polyethylene furanoate can be obtained within minutes from ring-opening polymerisation of its cyclic oligomers, thereby avoiding degradation and discolouration.

    • Jan-Georg Rosenboom
    • , Diana Kay Hohl
    •  & Massimo Morbidelli
  • Article
    | Open Access

    While splitting water could provide a renewable way to produce fuel, highly active catalysts are needed to overcome water oxidation’s sluggish kinetics. Here, authors gain atomic-level insight on metal ion synergetic interactions that boost water oxidation performances in co-doped nickel hydroxide.

    • Jian Jiang
    • , Fanfei Sun
    •  & Mei Wang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulation at the atomic scale comes with a trade-off between simplicity and thermal stability. Here, Achal et al. demonstrate improved automated hydrogen lithography and repassivation, enabling error-corrected atomic writing of large-scale structures/memories that are stable at room temperature.

    • Roshan Achal
    • , Mohammad Rashidi
    •  & Robert A. Wolkow
  • 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

    Superconductor–semiconductor hybrid systems can bring together physical properties that are promising for fast and coherent quantum technology. Here, Hendrickx et al. realize such a system in planar germanium heterostructures demonstrating excellent quantum dots and tunable Josephson supercurrents.

    • N. W. Hendrickx
    • , D. P. Franke
    •  & M. Veldhorst
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Suspensions appear in a wide range of industrial settings, and dispersing particles in a uniform manner throughout a fluid remains challenging for applications. Wang et al. obtain hyperuniform mixtures without fine tuning by harnessing self-organized criticality due to slow sedimentation and shear.

    • Jikai Wang
    • , J. M. Schwarz
    •  & Joseph D. Paulsen
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecules can change their electronic properties when they are adsorbed on substrates, which can be useful for sensing and catalysis. Here, the authors use atomic force microscopy to show that the spin state of an iron complex can be changed upon displacing the molecule to different sites of a nitrogen-doped graphene

    • Bruno de la Torre
    • , Martin Švec
    •  & Pavel Jelínek
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polymers cross-linked with dynamic bonds can switch the phase from solid to fluid upon stimulus but return quickly to the solid state once the stimulus is removed. Here the authors report a light triggered permanent solid to fluid transition at room temperature with inherent spatiotemporal control in either direction

    • Brady T. Worrell
    • , Matthew K. McBride
    •  & Christopher N. Bowman
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites are emerging materials for efficient photovoltaics; however understanding how charge/heat dissipates inside the material remains a challenge. Here, the authors use a spectroscopic approach to observe unusually slow thermal equilibration between the organic and inorganic components.

    • Peijun Guo
    • , Jue Gong
    •  & Richard D. Schaller
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interplay between superconductivity and charge density wave (CDW) in 2H-NbSe2 is still not fully understood. Here, Cho et al. use controlled disorder to probe the interplay between these two phases in 2H-NbSe2 and find that superconductivity initially competes with CDW but eventually long-range CDW order assists superconductivity.

    • Kyuil Cho
    • , M. Kończykowski
    •  & R. Prozorov
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystal facet orientations of the polycrystalline hybrid lead halide perovskite thin films play a crucial role in determining the device performance. Here Zheng et al. demonstrate effective control of the crystal stacking mode by cation cascade doping, which promotes the charge transport in the photovoltaic device.

    • Guanhaojie Zheng
    • , Cheng Zhu
    •  & Huanping Zhou
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hydrogen atoms in water ices, under pressures at which they might exist in ocean exoplanets and icy moons, exhibit dynamics that are still poorly understood. Here, 1H-NMR experiments approaching the Mbar range shed light on the symmetrisation of hydrogen bonds preceding and accompanying the transformation of ice VII into ice X.

    • Thomas Meier
    • , Sylvain Petitgirard
    •  & Leonid Dubrovinsky
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Subtractive manufacturing of microstructures is important for many applications, yet photoresists for 3D laser lithography allow only removal after development under harsh cleavage conditions. Here, the authors introduce a set of chemoselective cleavable photoresists allowing the orthogonal cleavage of microstructures under mild conditions.

    • David Gräfe
    • , Andreas Wickberg
    •  & Christopher Barner-Kowollik
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stretchable conductors are important for further developments in the electronics industry, but improving the deformability when maintaining the high-level conductivity is still challenging. Here the authors demonstrate a ternary self-healing silver nanowire/polymer network as high-performance stretchable conductor.

    • Pin Song
    • , Haili Qin
    •  & Shu-Hong Yu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spin-polarized carriers could show an extra Hall component when moving through certain real-space topological spin textures. Here, He et al. report an exchange bias experienced by the topological spin textures living at the interface between a topological insulator and an adjacent antiferromagnet, suggesting a chiral spin texture is induced.

    • Qing Lin He
    • , Gen Yin
    •  & Kang L. Wang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Classifying crystal structures using their space group is important to understand material properties, but the process currently requires user input. Here, the authors use machine learning to automatically classify more than 100,000 simulated perfect and defective crystal structures.

    • Angelo Ziletti
    • , Devinder Kumar
    •  & Luca M. Ghiringhelli
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding of ordered phases of interacting electrons in 2D systems is a fundamental many-body physics problem. Here, the authors report unconventional fractional quantum Hall phases in graphene Corbino devices originating from residual interactions of composite fermions in partially filled higher Landau levels. They also demonstrate the exceptional strength of the Coulomb interactions in suspended graphene by reaching the field-induced Wigner crystal state.

    • Manohar Kumar
    • , Antti Laitinen
    •  & Pertti Hakonen
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Persistent spin texture (PST) can generate fascinating physics that is promising for spintronics applications but requires non-trivial sample design. Here the authors alternatively propose that a class of materials has intrinsic PST enforced by the nonsymmorphic space group symmetry of the crystal.

    • L. L. Tao
    •  & Evgeny Y. Tsymbal
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystals with multiple structures often perform special functions in nature, inspiring the creation of synthetic analogues. Here, the authors subject polyhedral nanoparticles to two self-assembly micro-environments to realize supercrystals with dual structures, in which the order of the surface layer differs from the bulk structure.

    • Yih Hong Lee
    • , Chee Leng Lay
    •  & Xing Yi Ling
  • Article
    | Open Access

    To improve trauma survival and surgical outcomes, hemostatic agents are needed. Here, the authors report on the development of injectable, biocompatible carbon nanotube reinforced quaternized chitosan cryogels with shape memory, conductivity and antibacterial properties for hemostatic control.

    • Xin Zhao
    • , Baolin Guo
    •  & Peter X. Ma
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The performance of energy materials is affected by structural defects, as well as physicochemical heterogeneity over different length scales. Here the authors map nanoscale correlations between morphological and functional heterogeneity, quantifying the trap states limiting electronic transport in bismuth vanadate thin films.

    • Johanna Eichhorn
    • , Christoph Kastl
    •  & Francesca M. Toma
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detailed knowledge of how strain influences catalytic reactions remains elusive. Here, the authors experimentally measure the strain in supported Pt nanoparticles on alumina and ceria with atomic resolution and computationally explore how the strain affects the CO oxidation reaction.

    • Torben Nilsson Pingel
    • , Mikkel Jørgensen
    •  & Eva Olsson
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metals deformed at very high rates experience a rapid increase in flow stress due to dislocation drag. Here, the authors stabilise a nanocrystalline microstructure to suppress dislocation velocity and limit drag effects, conserving low strain-rate deformation mechanisms up to higher strain rates and temperatures.

    • S. A. Turnage
    • , M. Rajagopalan
    •  & K. N. Solanki
  • 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

    Semiconductor heterostructures hosting two-dimensional electron gases are widely used today in high-electron-mobility transistors. Here, the authors probe the electronic structure in GaN/AlGaN, heterostructures, discovering planar anisotropy of the electron Fermi surface, offering new insights into transport properties.

    • L. L. Lev
    • , I. O. Maiboroda
    •  & V. N. Strocov
  • Article
    | Open Access

    While renewable energy production is a terrestrial concern, far less attention is devoted to solar-to-fuel conversion for long-term space missions. Here, the authors explore photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation in microgravity and overcome microgravity’s limitations by electrode nanostructuring.

    • Katharina Brinkert
    • , Matthias H. Richter
    •  & Hans-Joachim Lewerenz
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conductive elastomers are often made of composite materials and realization of high transparency and high elasticity at the same time is therefore hard to achieve. Here the authors use a salt in polymer strategy to fabricate ionic conducting elastomers (ICE), which show good elasticity and transparency and simultaneously high conductivity.

    • Lei Shi
    • , Tianxiang Zhu
    •  & Shujiang Ding
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Autocatalysis is common in chemistry, biophysics and material science, but existing approaches are unable to fully capture the physical mechanisms behind it. Here, the authors exploit a limited valence patchy particle model and reveal a novel kinetic effect crucially related to the presence of activation barriers.

    • Silvia Corezzi
    • , Francesco Sciortino
    •  & Cristiano De Michele
  • 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

    Perylene bisimides (PBI) exhibit interesting photophysical and self-assembly properties but detailed understanding of the correlation between packing motif and spectroscopic properties is lacking. Here the authors report on self-assembling of PBIs in liquid crystalline phases to give aggregates with J- and H-type coupling contribution between the chromophores.

    • Stefanie Herbst
    • , Bartolome Soberats
    •  & Frank Würthner
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nitrogen is a model system still presenting unknown behaviors at the pressures and temperatures typical of deep planets’ interiors. Here the authors explore, by pulsed laser heating in a diamond anvil cell and optical measurements, the metallization and non-molecular states of nitrogen in a previously unexplored domain above 1 Mbar and at 2000-7000K.

    • Shuqing Jiang
    • , Nicholas Holtgrewe
    •  & Alexander F. Goncharov
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Uptake and release of glucose is regulated by glucose-sensitive ion channels, but complexity of the system impedes investigation of the gating behavior under physiological conditions. Here the authors use a pillararene based artificial ion channel to mimic and investigate chirality driven switching of a glucose ion channel.

    • Yue Sun
    • , Fan Zhang
    •  & Haibing Li
  • 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

    The commercialization of light-emitting diodes based on emissive quantum dots (e.g. QLEDs) is hindered by their inherent poor operational lifetime. Using an intelligent energy-level design strategy, Qian et al. demonstrate QLEDs with operational lifetime that meets industrial display standards.

    • Weiran Cao
    • , Chaoyu Xiang
    •  & Lei Qian