Nanoscience and technology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing stable water oxidation catalysts is of great importance for proton-exchange membrane water electrolyzers. Here the authors report a bicontinuous nanoreactor composed of multiscale defected RuO2 nanocrystals for robust acidic water oxidation reactivity.

    • Ding Chen
    • , Ruohan Yu
    •  & Shichun Mu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of subcellular thermogenesis during neuronal differentiation remains poorly understood. Here, the authors employ methods to monitor local intracellular temperature, and they investigate the effects of non-invasive temperature changes on cell differentiation using neuron-like cells.

    • Shunsuke Chuma
    • , Kazuyuki Kiyosue
    •  & Yoshie Harada

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Physicochemical heterogeneity poses a significant constraint in photocatalyst advancement. Here the authors introduce a multimodal optical microscopy platform to assess activity and defects concurrently in photoelectrocatalysts, revealing that disorder can unexpectedly enhance local photoelectrocatalytic performance in certain instances.

    • Camilo A. Mesa
    • , Michael Sachs
    •  & Raj Pandya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The self-assembly of nanocrystals into checkerboard lattice patterns is difficult to control. Here, the authors investigate the formation of such patterns from hydrophilic/hydrophobic bifunctionalized Ag nanocubes and use multiscale simulations to understand the effects of physical forces.

    • Yufei Wang
    • , Yilong Zhou
    •  & Andrea R. Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystal facets are known to be important in traditional heterogeneous catalysis, yet this effect has not been studied in plasmon-assisted catalysis. Here, the authors investigate the impact facets have on CO2 reduction using plasmonic Au NPs.

    • Yicui Kang
    • , Simão M. João
    •  & Emiliano Cortés

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    The knowledge gained from industrial catalysis benefits advancements of nanocatalytic medicines. Here the authors review the similarities, differences and connections in catalytic reactions between industrial and medical applications to support deep understanding and rational design of nanocatalytic medicines.

    • Zhaokui Jin
    • , Lingdong Jiang
    •  & Qianjun He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Terminal hydroxyl groups on γ-Al2O3 surfaces serve as anchoring sites for Ag. Based on the surface energy of different crystal planes of γ-Al2O3 at various temperatures, the authors propose a high-temperature-induced crystal plane transformation method to construct terminal hydroxyl anchoring sites.

    • Jiaxin Li
    • , Kai Li
    •  & Hong He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Improving mass transfer through hierarchically porous synthetic materials is a great challenge. Here the authors address this by expanding the original Murray’s law, a biomimetic principle defining the branching of veins in living structures.

    • Binghan Zhou
    • , Qian Cheng
    •  & Tawfique Hasan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular switches are ubiquitous in the biochemistry regulatory network. Here, the authors construct synthetic molecular switches controlled by DNA-modifying enzymes such as DNA polymerase and nicking endonuclease to control and cascade assembly and disassembly.

    • Hong Kang
    • , Yuexuan Yang
    •  & Bryan Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A promising strategy for scaling trapped-ion-based quantum technologies is to use fully integrated optical waveguides to deliver light to numerous ions at multiple sites. Here, the authors. optically address three ions using on-chip waveguides to deliver three distinct wavelengths per ion, and perform Rabi flopping on each ion simultaneously.

    • Joonhyuk Kwon
    • , William J. Setzer
    •  & Hayden J. McGuinness

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic tunnel junctions consist of two magnetic layers, separated by a thin insulator. The simplicity belies the industrial importance: magnetic tunnel junctions have a very wide variety of applications in contemporary society. Here, Fu et al present a magnetic tunnel junction composed of single van der Waals magnetic insulator, CrI3, exhibiting remarkably low power consumption.

    • ZhuangEn Fu
    • , Piumi I. Samarawickrama
    •  & Jifa Tian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiplexed spiking data coding schemes could enable artificial visual neurons to emulate the human visual system in a more biologically plausible way. Here, Li et al. present an artificial neuron device capable of encoding visual analog signals into spike trains using multiplexed rate and temporal fusion coding. Reviewer recognition:

    • Fanfan Li
    • , Dingwei Li
    •  & Bowen Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plastic pollution severely threatens the resilience of nature. Here, the authors utilize the spore-forming, polymer-degrading bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, as a living filler to develop biocomposite thermoplastic polyurethane with improved mechanical properties and biodegradation.

    • Han Sol Kim
    • , Myung Hyun Noh
    •  & Jonathan K. Pokorski

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report the ledge-guided epitaxial growth of high-density 2D Bi2O2Se fin arrays and their application for the realization of 2D multi-channel fin field-effect transistors, showing improved on-state currents as the number of integrated channels is increased.

    • Mengshi Yu
    • , Congwei Tan
    •  & Hailin Peng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of synthetic systems that can sense chemical gradients and respond with directional motility and chemical activity is of interest. Here, the authors realize and control such behaviors in a synthetic system by tailoring multivalent interactions of adenosine nucleotides with catalytic microbeads.

    • Ekta Shandilya
    • , Bhargav Rallabandi
    •  & Subhabrata Maiti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Researchers report a sustainable nanofluidic osmotic energy harvester made from natural montmorillonite clay nanosheets and recycled cellulose. Scaled-up films of 700 cm2 show power output of 8 W m−2 with stability over 30 days

    • Jiadong Tang
    • , Yun Wang
    •  & Tieyong Zuo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, authors demonstrate the electrohydrodynamic printing of alkylated 3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine functionalized MXene (AD-MXene) ink. The AD-MXene outperforms vacuum-deposited Au and Al electrodes, providing thin film transistors with good environmental stability due to its hydrophobicity.

    • Tae Yun Ko
    • , Heqing Ye
    •  & Insik In

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors experimentally study a chain of superconducting islands (SI) and quantum dots (QD), where a Bogoliubov quasiparticle occupies each SI. They demonstrate correlations between the quasiparticles in each SI mediated by a single spin on the QD, known as an “over-screened" doublet state of the QD.

    • Juan Carlos Estrada Saldaña
    • , Alexandros Vekris
    •  & Jesper Nygård

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrating self-healing capabilities into skin-like stretchable transistors presents a persistent challenge. Here, by using a supramolecular polymer matrix, the authors develop autonomous self-healing transistors and skin-like logic circuits.

    • Ngoc Thanh Phuong Vo
    • , Tae Uk Nam
    •  & Jin Young Oh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystalline materials’ properties are highly dependent on their size. Here authors report a general synthesis of ultrasmall (4–6 nm) and highly defective Zr/Hf-Metal Organic Frameworks nanoparticles that present enhanced peptide hydrolysis performance.

    • Shan Dai
    • , Charlotte Simms
    •  & Christian Serre

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical interference filters are multilayer structures for controlling the propagation of electromagnetic waves. Jin et al. have developed a method of via inkjet printing to fabricate optical interference filters with commercially relevant quality with remarkable A4 paper size (29.7 × 21.0 cm²) in ambient conditions.

    • Qihao Jin
    • , Qiaoshuang Zhang
    •  & Uli Lemmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An efficient way of realising a large number of telecom single-photon emitters for quantum communication is still missing. Here, the authors use a wide-field imaging technique for fast localization of single InAs/InP quantum dots, which are then integrated into circular Bragg grating cavities featuring high single-photon purity and indistinguishability.

    • Paweł Holewa
    • , Daniel A. Vajner
    •  & Elizaveta Semenova

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oscillating neural networks promise ultralow power consumption and rapid computation for tackling complex optimization problems. Here, the authors demonstrate VO2 oscillators to solve NP-complete problems with projected power consumption of 13 µW/oscillator.

    • Olivier Maher
    • , Manuel Jiménez
    •  & Siegfried Karg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bound states in continuum have attracted attention in various platforms, and recently condensation of bound states in continuum polariton modes was demonstrated at low temperatures. Here the authors report the observation of such a state in a periodic air-hole perovskite-based photonic crystal at room temperature.

    • Xianxin Wu
    • , Shuai Zhang
    •  & Xinfeng Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Various methods, using DNA, have been reported for the recording of biomolecular interactions, but most are either destructive in nature or are limited to reporting pairwise interactions. Here the authors develop DNA-based motors, termed ‘crawlers’, that roam around and record their trajectories to allow the examination of molecular environments.

    • Sungwook Woo
    • , Sinem K. Saka
    •  & Peng Yin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Defects in materials are well known to suppress thermal transport. Here, the authors demonstrate that introducing defects in nanoscale heating zone enhances thermal conductance by up to 75% through reducing directional phonon nonequilibrium.

    • Yue Hu
    • , Jiaxuan Xu
    •  & Hua Bao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Correlated insulator states of moire excitons in transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures have attracted significant attention recently. Here the authors use time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy to demonstrate the effects of non-equilibrium correlations of moire excitons in WSe2/WS2 heterobilayers.

    • Jinjae Kim
    • , Jiwon Park
    •  & Hyunyong Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Continuous-flow biocatalysis with immobilized enzymes is a sustainable route for chemical synthesis, but inadequate biocatalytic efficiency caused by non-productive enzyme immobilization or enzyme-carrier mismatches presents a challenge for its application. Here, the authors report an approach for the fabrication of a high-performance enzymatic continuous-flow reactor via integrating scalable isoporous block copolymer membranes as carriers with an oriented one-step enzyme immobilization via a genetically fused material binding peptide.

    • Zhenzhen Zhang
    • , Liang Gao
    •  & Volker Abetz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrating security, computing and memory capabilities in ion-migration-driven memristors is challenging. Here, Woo et al. experimentally demonstrates a single system that performs cryptographic key generation, universal Boolean logic operations, and encryption/decryption.

    • Kyung Seok Woo
    • , Janguk Han
    •  & Cheol Seong Hwang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report the growth of millimetre-scale 2D PbI2 single crystals via the spontaneous accumulation and in-plane arrangement of iodide ions at the water-air interface. The metal iodide crystals could be thinned down to a single monolayer via water etching, and subsequently converted into perovskite optoelectronic devices.

    • Jingxian Zhong
    • , Dawei Zhou
    •  & Lin Wang

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