Nanoscience and technology articles within Nature Communications

A nonreciprocal critical current is known as the superconducting diode effect (SDE). Here, the authors use SQUID-on-tip to study SDE in a EuS/Nb bilayer and find that the stray field from magnetized EuS creates screening currents in the Nb, which lead to SDE by affecting vortex flow dynamics.

Early detection of multiple cancers through a single method could be clinically important. Here the authors report the diagnostic performance for early detection for multiple cancers using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) profiles of exosomes from a single blood test and artificial intelligence in a retrospective study design.

A superconducting diode effect was recently reported in Nb/V/Ta superlattices, but the mechanism is not yet clear. Here, the authors study non-reciprocal critical current in Al/InAs nanowires and propose a generic extrinsic mechanism involving field-generated diamagnetic currents, which may explain the earlier Nb/V/Ta results.

Several strategies have been employed to enhance the tumor-targeting and anti-cancer properties of engineered bacteria. Here the authors describe the design of alternating magnetic field-manipulated bacteria engineered to release an anti-CD47 nanobody, promoting anti-tumor immune response in preclinical cancer models.

Structuring organic films is of scientific and technological interest. Here, the authors use partially fluorinated organic molecules exhibiting strong intermolecular interactions to form extended 2D molecular nanosheets and control their shape through growth and desorption kinetics.

Resolving the stoichiometry of membrane protein interactions is challenging but is vital to understand cell signalling. Using lipid-bound DNA receptors as a model for membrane proteins, the authors present a platform to achieve stoichiometric, spatial and temporal control over their interactions.

Sensitive and accurate approaches for protein detection have many potential applications. Here the authors show how engineered protein nanopore sensors, consisting of a monobody fused to a single-polypeptide nanopore, can be used for highly specific detection of proteins in complex biofluids.

The reaction efficiency of reactants near plasmonic nanostructures can be enhanced under illumination. Here, the authors show that the activity of a Co porphyrin molecular catalyst bound to Au nanoparticles is enhanced by plasmonic effects, yielding a high photocatalytic hydrogen generation rate.

The authors demonstrate the enhancement of nonlinear optomechanical measurement of mechanical motion by using pairs of coupled optical and mechanical modes in a 1D photonic crystal. The design harnesses the anisotropic mechanical elasticity to create strong coupling between mechanical modes.

Significant attention has been devoted to understanding the low-electric-field properties of carriers in moiré graphene, but high-electric-field transport has not been as well explored. Here, the authors find non-monotonic transport behavior at moiré minigaps due to competition between inter-band tunneling and coupling to out-of-equilibrium phonons.

Ideal anode materials for Li-ion capacitors must demonstrate safety and fast-charging properties. Here, the authors propose intercalated metal-organic frameworks for fast-charging Li-ion capacitors using a combined machine learning design and spray-dry synthesis.

Previous demonstrations of quantum interference in solids have mainly been limited to intra-layer transport within single conductors. Zhu et al. report a new type of inter-layer quantum interference in graphene-based double-layer devices, due to interference between carrier diffusion paths across the constituent layers.

Resolving the orbital structure of single atoms is challenging and of great importance for understanding basic chemistry. Here, the authors demonstrate that the orbital occupation difference of single Fe/Co atoms within molecules can be distinguished with high resolution AFM imaging and spectroscopy.

Nanomedicine proofed to be efficient in cancer therapy but rapid clearance from blood circulation by reticuloendothelial system (RES) severely limits the antitumor efficacy. Here, the authors design a series of nanogels with distinctive stiffness and investigate how nanogel mechanical properties could be leveraged to overcome RES.

A sustainable photocatalytic methane halogenation strategy is developed for methyl halide production using low-cost alkali halides over Cu-doped TiO2 nanostructures. Copper sites ultimately stabilize *CH3 to promote reaction with Cl− to form CH3Cl.

Spin-hall nano-oscillators have potential for use in neuromorphic computing applications. Normally they are based around combination platinum and permalloy. Here, the authors combine a permalloy ferromagnet with a low magnetic damping ferrimagnet, leading to significantly improved performance.

Autonomous exploration of materials design space is hindered by its high dimensionality and the scarcity of data. In this work, we present AlphaFlow, a self-driven lab guided by reinforcement learning that enables accelerated discovery and optimization of multi-step chemistries.

Molecular electronics represents an avenue to enrich conventional electronics, but its reproducibility and scalability are still challenging. Here, the authors report the realization of multifunctional hybrid molecular graphene field effect transistors enabling operando spectroscopy and the implementation of optoelectronic logic gates.

Doping is widely adopted to make organic semiconductors more conductive, yet the impact of molecular electronic properties on doping performance is still not fully understood. Armleder et al. compute host-dopant interactions and show that a short-range overscreening effect strongly affects conductivity.

Inspired by the multisensory cue integration in macaque’s brain for spatial perception, the authors develop a neuromorphic motion-cognition nerve that achieves cross-modal perceptual enhancement for robotics and wearable applications.

Building synthetic protocells and prototissues hinges on the formation of biomimetic skeletal frameworks. Here, the authors harness simplicity to create complexity by assembling DNA subunits into structural frameworks which support membrane-based protocells and prototissues.

mRNA delivery has shown great potential in the treatment of various diseases. Here, the authors develop a lantern-shaped flexible origami for nanolization of single mRNA molecules and demonstrate efficient delivery of Smad4 mRNA, achieving suppression of colorectal cancer tumour growth.

Characterization of the solid electrolyte interphase formed on Li-ion battery electrodes presents significant experimental challenges. Here the authors use atomic force microscopy-based force-spectroscopy techniques to depict the initial interphase formation in two different electrolyte classes.

Quantum sensors based on NV centers in diamond are well established, however the sensitivity of detection of high-frequency radio signals has been limited. Here the authors use nanoscale field-focusing to enhance sensitivity and demonstrate ranging for GHz radio signals in an interferometer set-up.

Controlling molecular motion at nanoscale is important for the design of nanomachines. Here the authors use ultrafast vibrational and electronic spectroscopy to characterize the mechanism of motion of a light driven molecular motor designed to support translational movement.

Well-defined metastable phase nanostructures are a core issue for catalyst design. Here, the authors report metastable monoclinic phase IrO2 nanoribbons obtained via a molten-alkali mechanochemical method, which exhibit intrinsic high performance towards the acidic oxygen evolution reaction.

The fabrication of freestanding 3D lattice structures with beam diameters less than 100 nm is a considerable challenge. Here, the authors report quasi-BCC nanolattices of gold and copper, featuring beam diameters as low as 34 nm, that demonstrate an exceptionally high capacity for energy absorption.

Long-term stability of organic solar cells is critical to promote practical applications. Here, the authors utilize iridium/iridium oxide nanoparticles as the electron-transporting material and realize enhanced device stabilities under thermal aging with T70 of over 10000 h.

Porous anisotropic nanohybrids have attracted attention because of their unique properties including high surface area, tunable pore structures and controllable compositions. Here, authors report a selective occupation strategy to achieve site-specific anisotropic growth of amorphous mesoporous subunits on crystalline MOFs.

More than a decade after the first demonstration of large-scale graphene synthesis by chemical vapor deposition, the commercialization of graphene products is limited not only by price, but also by consistency, reproducibility, and predictability. Here, the author discusses the reproducibility issues in the field and proposes possible solutions to improve the reliability of published results.

Microcavities concentrate light in tiny volumes and are important, e.g., for semiconductor lasers and nonlinear optics. In this paper, metasurfaces are introduced to realize microcavities with arbitrary mode profiles.

Twisted light in the form of orbital angular momentum (OAM) can provide an additional spatial dimension for information transmission. Here, the authors demonstrate a prescription for OAM generation using photonic crystal ring resonators, in which high cavity quality factors (up to 10⁶) are retained.

Fluorescence imaging in the near-infrared region yields high-quality images that overcome the current depth limitations. Here, the authors report a Tm3 + -based nanoprobe for NIR-IIb/c imaging, providing references to future bioimaging beyond 1700 nm.

Plateau’s law describes the configuration (joint angles ~120°) of soap bubbles, foams and cellular structures, but its applicability to solid films has not been explored. Here, the authors report the observation of a variant Plateau’s law in networks of nanobubbles made of 2D semiconductors, measuring largely varying joint angles due to the thickness-dependent effective surface tension.

Laminated van der Waals (vdW) metallic electrodes can improve the contact of 2D electronic devices, but their scalability is usually limited by the transfer process. Here, the authors report a strategy to deposit vdW contacts onto various 2D and 3D semiconductors at the wafer scale.

A new snake venom-controlled defined fibrin system with stable, reproducible, and independently tuned biophysical properties is established. Employing the system, the authors find fibrin architecture can precisely control fibroblast differentiation.

Nanochannels in laminated graphene oxide nanosheets featuring confined mass transport have attracted interest in multiple research fields. As an important aspect for efficient pressure-driven membrane processes, authors investigate the response and deformation behaviours of such nanochannels to different external conditions.

DNA origami may enable more versatile gene delivery applications through its ability to create custom nanoscale objects. Here the authors show that genes folded in DNA origami with custom scaffolds express efficiently when delivered to mammalian cells and can be assembled into multimeric arrays to deliver and express defined ratios of multiple genes simultaneously.

Twisted 2D materials have recently emerged as a controllable quantum simulator platform. Here, the authors apply the same approach to tune the edge states of zigzag graphene nanoribbons, showing a unique degree of freedom represented by the lateral stacking offset of the 1D nanostructures.

2D nonlayered materials exhibit interesting properties for catalysis, nanoelectronics and spintronics applications, but their growth is still challenging. Here, the authors report a theoretical model and an experimental strategy to synthesize various 2D nonlayered transition metal oxides with room-temperature magnetic properties.

Neutral helium microscopy is a completely nondestructive, surface-sensitive imaging technique. Here, the authors demonstrate sub-resolution contrast using an advanced facet scattering model to reconstruct the topography of technological thin films in the ångström range.

Understanding and controlling symmetry in nature is of paramount importance. In this work, the authors reveal an unexpected effect of the general duality relation between piezoelectricity and piezomagnetism on their symmetries, enabling novel phononic Chern insulators.

Layered 2D materials can be used for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membrane fabrication due to precise molecular sieving by the interlayer structure and stability in harsh conditions. Here authors synthesise sp²-enriched nanoporous graphene by microwave treatment and demonstrate its excellent OSN performance.

While porous graphene oxide with nm-sized pores can be of great interest to biofluidic and energy storage applications, achieving precisely controlled porosity remains a technical challenge. Here, the authors exploit swift heavy ions to create uniform nanoholes and ultralong straight nanochannels in GO films.

Spins defined in single-walled carbon nanotubes promise ultra-long spin relaxation times, but qubit implementations require confinement of isolated spins. Here the authors report highly confined long-lived electron spins in chemically functionalized nanotubes and demonstrate their coherent control.

3D fabrication via mechanically guided assembly has greatly progressed in the recent years, but has not been applicable for nanodevices. Here the authors suggest a configuration-designable 3D nanofabrication through a nanotransfer printing and design of the substrate’s mechanical characteristics.

The authors report a multi-ion co-sensitization strategy to achieve ultra-wideband-responsive photon conversion of lanthanide nanocrystals from UV to NIR. They demonstrate applications for white light-based bioimaging and information encryption.

Manipulating molecular self-assembly and disassembly in vivo may permit temporal control of drug delivery and release. Here, the authors report a fluorogenic cisplatin prodrug for cancer theranostics by leveraging stimuli-triggered in situ self-assembly and intracellular disassembly processes.

In situ studies of the spatio-temporal behavior of individual well-defined nanosized compartments are paramount in heterogeneous catalysis. Here, a transition from oscillating to chaotic behaviour was observed in catalytic hydrogen oxidation on a rhodium nanocrystal serving as a model of a single catalytic particle.