Nanocomposites articles from across Nature Portfolio

Metal-elastomer nanophases are critical for stretchable electronics but face mixing challenges. This study introduces a kinetic method for precise mixing, yielding gyrified nanophases with improved durability and strain-invariant conductivity, which holds promise for resilient stretchable devices.

Common stereolithography-based 3D printing relies on photopolymerization using photoinitiators. Here, the authors replace the conventional photoinitiators with low-cost, widely used thermal initiators to achieve 3D-printed objects.

Artificial molecular pumps are synthetic machines capable of performing complex tasks on a molecular scale. In this Primer, Zhang et al. discuss the design features and underlying fundamental physical principles of artificial molecular pumps.

Electrically conductive porous materials consisting of cellulose nanofiber (CNF) and graphene were prepared with postreduction processes. Porous CNF/graphene oxide (GO) composites were used as precursors and the reduction of the GO under dry conditions was carried out. Both thermal and chemical reduction processes successfully proceeded to obtain the porous CNF/reduced GO (rGO) composites, in which the conductive path was effectively fabricated owing to the good dispersibility of GO sheets. As a result, the porous CNF/rGO exhibited high electrical conductivity of up to 1.39 × 10^–3 S/m.

A floatable photocatalytic platform made from a porous elastomer–hydrogel nanocomposite has been developed for converting solar energy into hydrogen fuel. This platform enables efficient light delivery, a facile supply of reactant and rapid product separation to achieve high hydrogen-evolution rates. Large-scale and seawater experiments indicate the potential for scale-up and practical application.

A cation-selective membrane containing hydrous manganese oxide nanoparticles exhibits specific phosphate ion selectivity.

Isoporous block copolymer films have useful morphological features, but lack the conductivity necessary for chemiresistive sensing. Combining such films with carbon nanotubes affords new porous composites, whose conductivity is sensitive to guest molecules.

Macroscopic deformation can induce chirality in initially achiral nanoparticle composites, and reversibly modulate their chiroptical properties.

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.