Nanoscience and technology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic DNA nanomachines have been designed to perform a variety of tasksin vitro. Here, the authors build a nanomotor system that integrates a DNAzyme and DNA track on a gold nanoparticle, to facilitate cellular uptake, and apply it as a real-time miRNA imaging tool in living cells.

    • Hanyong Peng
    • , Xing-Fang Li
    •  & X. Chris Le

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Losses of bandwidth are inevitable when interfacing between optical and electronic components. Here the authors present a switching device consisting of a two-dimensional disordered array of nanoholes that can potentially transfer information about 40 times faster than conventional switching devices.

    • Wonjun Choi
    • , Yonghyeon Jo
    •  & Wonshik Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single electrons of solid-state defects can be used to detect nearby nuclear spins, but so far only a few at a time have been resolved. Here the authors propose an approach based on delayed entanglement echo that demonstrates improved detection and manipulation capabilities of nuclear spins by an NV centre.

    • Zhen-Yu Wang
    • , Jorge Casanova
    •  & Martin B. Plenio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optomechanical systems could form logic gates, but key requirements are two stable static states and the ability to switch between them. Here, the authors observe radiation-pressure induced buckling transitions in an optomechanical system, and control this transition by varying laser power and detuning.

    • H. Xu
    • , U. Kemiktarak
    •  & J. M. Taylor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How quantum size effects affect superconductivity has been predicted, but it has never been verified. Here, Vlaicet al. report superconducting parity effect as a function of lead nanocrystal volume, unambiguously validating the Anderson criterion.

    • Sergio Vlaic
    • , Stéphane Pons
    •  & Hervé Aubin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultraclean and damage-free transfer of graphene over large areas is crucial for the future development of flexible electronics and optoelectronics. Using a rosin-assisted method, the authors transfer graphene with an ultraclean surface and uniform small sheet resistance—a 4-inch monolithic organic light-emitting diode is demonstrated.

    • Zhikun Zhang
    • , Jinhong Du
    •  & Wencai Ren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here Duanet al. demonstrate dynamic plasmonic colour displays using catalytic magnesium metasurfaces. Controlled hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of the constituent nanoparticles, which serve as dynamic pixels, allow plasmonic colour printing, tuning, erasing, restoration of colour and encoding of information.

    • Xiaoyang Duan
    • , Simon Kamin
    •  & Na Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    DNA circuits hold promise for advancing information-based molecular technologies, yet it is challenging to design and construct them in practice. Thubagereet al. build DNA strand displacement circuits using unpurified strands whose sequences are automatically generated from a user-friendly compiler.

    • Anupama J. Thubagere
    • , Chris Thachuk
    •  & Lulu Qian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atmospheric CO2 can be transformed into valuable hydrocarbons by reaction with H2, but CO is the favoured kinetic product. Here, Liu and co-workers show that plasmonic rhodium nanoparticles not only reduce the activation energy for CO2hydrogenation, but also photo-selectively produce methane.

    • Xiao Zhang
    • , Xueqian Li
    •  & Jie Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron relaxation, which is the dominant release channel of electronic heat in nanostructures, occurs with characteristic times of several picoseconds. Here, the authors predict that an ultrafast (femtosecond) radiative cooling regime takes place in plasmonically active neighboring graphene nanodisks prior to electron relaxation.

    • Renwen Yu
    • , Alejandro Manjavacas
    •  & F. Javier García de Abajo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Materials that show twinning-induced plasticity can offer unusual combinations of strength and ductility. Here, authors study deformation twinning and dislocation behaviour in a medium-entropy alloy CrCoNi and find a three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical twin network that forms from the activation of three twinning systems.

    • Zijiao Zhang
    • , Hongwei Sheng
    •  & Robert O. Ritchie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thanks to its base stacking structure, DNA can behave as an electric wire, but external control of its electronic properties has not been achieved yet. Here, the authors show that DNA conductance can be switched electrochemically when a DNA base is replaced by the redox molecule anthraquinone.

    • Limin Xiang
    • , Julio L. Palma
    •  & Nongjian Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The absence of a bandgap in the electronic spectrum of graphene can be overcome by breaking its lattice symmetry. The authors show that the insulating state of gapped graphene is electrically shorted by narrow edge channels exhibiting high conductivity.

    • M. J. Zhu
    • , A. V. Kretinin
    •  & M. Ben Shalom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing DNA based circuits, designed to perform logic operations and signal processing, are generally responsive to DNA or RNA inputs. Here, the authors show that antibodies can actuate DNA logic gates, opening the way to applications of DNA computing in diagnostics and biomedicine.

    • Wouter Engelen
    • , Lenny H. H. Meijer
    •  & Maarten Merkx

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kloppstechet al. report experimental observations of the heat transfer between a gold tip and an atomically flat gold sample in the 0.2–7 nm regime. The observed flux rates are four orders of magnitude larger than expected from theory, suggesting the possibility of additional heat transfer mechanisms.

    • Konstantin Kloppstech
    • , Nils Könne
    •  & Achim Kittel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, Cuiet al. report radiative heat transfer in few Ångström to 5 nm gap sizes, between a gold-coated probe and a heated planar gold substrate subjected to various surface cleaning procedures. They found that insufficiently cleaned probes and substrates led to unexpectedly large radiative thermal conductances.

    • Longji Cui
    • , Wonho Jeong
    •  & Pramod Reddy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether and under what circumstances chemical bonds could be imaged via force microscopy is a controversial topic. Here authors develop a particular combination of model surface, imaging procedures and simulation approach and discuss possible indications of chemical contrast in imaging data they obtain.

    • Hatem Labidi
    • , Mohammad Koleini
    •  & Robert A. Wolkow

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The atomic mechanisms of reversible phase transitions are challenging to probe experimentally. Here, the authors induce melting and freezing processes in bismuth nanoparticles inside a high-resolution electron microscope, observing the atom-level stages of this phase transition pathway in real time.

    • Yingxuan Li
    • , Ling Zang
    •  & Chuanyi Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Van der Waals heterostructures have been so far mostly assembled by artificial stacking of individual 2D layers with diverse functionalities. Here, the authors shift the focus demonstrating the exfoliation of a naturally occurring franckeite heterostructure, a p-type narrow band-gap semiconductor.

    • Aday J. Molina-Mendoza
    • , Emerson Giovanelli
    •  & Andres Castellanos-Gomez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In metal-based molecular motors, the motion is generally triggered by changes in the ligand coordination around the metal centre. Here, the authors synthesize a molecular gear that switches between states through photo- and thermally driven geometrical isomerization around a platinum ion.

    • Hitoshi Ube
    • , Yoshihiro Yasuda
    •  & Mitsuhiko Shionoya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Harvesting excess energy from above-band gap photons could lead to solar cells which exceed conventional efficiency limits. Liet al., study hot carrier cooling in hybrid perovskite materials with reduced dimensionality using transient absorption spectroscopy and demonstrate efficient hot-electron extraction in such systems.

    • Mingjie Li
    • , Saikat Bhaumik
    •  & Tze Chien Sum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Attractive, non-covalent interactions between aromatic rings—termedπ−πstacking—is common in chemistry but difficult to model. Here the authors report a quantum-mechanical model to show the importance of collective charge fluctuations for understanding pi-stacked supramolecular systems.

    • Jan Hermann
    • , Dario Alfè
    •  & Alexandre Tkatchenko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    C–H bond functionalization has become an important tool for many organic transformations, however such reactions typically require stoichiometric amounts of external oxidants. Here the authors report the photo-driven decarboxylative C–H trifluoromethylation of arenes using only low amounts of oxidant.

    • Jin Lin
    • , Zhi Li
    •  & Yadong Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite much progress, nanoscale light sources suitable for photonic integration are lacking. Here, the authors present a metal-cavity nanopillar LED on a silicon substrate working at telecommunications wavelengths, which demonstrates compatibility with membrane-on-Si photonic integration platforms.

    • V. Dolores-Calzadilla
    • , B. Romeira
    •  & D. Heiss

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cooperative chirality is common in organic and biomolecular systems but is rarely explored in inorganic materials. Here, the authors combine synthesis and theory to uncover cooperative chirality in inorganic nanocrystals, arising from the interplay of independently-controlled crystallographic and morphological chirality.

    • Peng-peng Wang
    • , Shang-Jie Yu
    •  & Min Ouyang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is emerging interest in photodetectors in the mid-infrared driven by increasing need to monitor the environment for security and healthcare purposes. Sassiet al. show a thermal photodetector, based on the coupling between graphene and a pyroelectric crystal, which shows high temperature sensitivity.

    • U. Sassi
    • , R. Parret
    •  & A. Colli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ostwald ripening is thermodynamically favoured in many liquid and gas systems, where small particles tend to dissolve into large ones. Against this effect, Huanget al. use patterned microstructures to guide the evolution of two-dimensional liquid foams as a platform for the assembly of nanoparticles.

    • Zhandong Huang
    • , Meng Su
    •  & Yanlin Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-ordered heterogeneous nanostructures are of broad interest for both fundamental studies and technological applications. Here authors show that segregation in a multicomponent system during growth can yield highly strained germanium nanowire arrays embedded within a ternary semiconductor matrix.

    • Daehwan Jung
    • , Joseph Faucher
    •  & Minjoo Larry Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Materials with spatially modulated nonlinear optical properties are used for quasi-phase matching. Here, Yanet al. exploit the nonlinearity of intermolecular charge transfer states together with oblique-angle deposition to achieve nanoscale modulation of the second-order susceptibility.

    • Yixin Yan
    • , Yakun Yuan
    •  & Noel C. Giebink

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthesis of nanostructured ceria on green deep eutectic solvent reline is one of the less energy-intensive routes to date. Here, the authors show that the reline solvent plays the role of a latent supramolecular catalyst driving the pre-organization of the reactants, allowing morphology and porosity control.

    • Oliver S. Hammond
    • , Karen J. Edler
    •  & Laura Torrente-Murciano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pulsed electron beams with ultrafast duration are desirable to study atomic processes occurring over the natural time scales of electronic motion. Here the authors demonstrate the generation of electron pulses down to attosecond time scales by using optical gating and streaking method.

    • M. Kozák
    • , J. McNeur
    •  & P. Hommelhoff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aligning the resonances of sets of optical cavities is necessary for advanced photonics and sensing applications. Here, the authors introduce resonant photoelectrochemical etching as a method to collectively and permanently tune the resonant wavelengths of ensembles of resonators on a photonic chip.

    • Eduardo Gil-Santos
    • , Christopher Baker
    •  & Ivan Favero

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A challenge of using 2D materials for nanoelectronic devices is the need for defect-free lattice supporting efficient carrier transport. Here, the authors show theoretically that 2D topological insulators enable high-performance, low-power field-effect transistors without requiring defect-free materials.

    • William G. Vandenberghe
    •  & Massimo V. Fischetti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A material with a deep melted zone (MZ) but small heat-affected zone (HAZ) is ideal for manufacturing, but improving one zone comes at the expense of the other. Here, the authors resolve this contradiction in metals by adding nanoparticles, which change the metals’ properties in such a way that both expands MZ and minimizes HAZ.

    • Chao Ma
    • , Lianyi Chen
    •  & Xiaochun Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How well the linear elastic fracture picture holds at small length scales and systems with reduced dimensionality remains an active area of inquiry. Here authors usein situ electron microscopy to study fracture in MoS2monolayers and report dislocation emission rates greater than expected accompanying crack propagation.

    • Thuc Hue Ly
    • , Jiong Zhao
    •  & Young Hee Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hybrid polariton states originating from the strong coupling of photonic and excitonic states hold promise for control of nonlinear light behaviour. Here, the authors fabricate a microcavity containing organic dye and WS2, featuring hybrid polaritons arising from both Frenkel and Wannier-Mott excitons.

    • Lucas C. Flatten
    • , David M. Coles
    •  & Jason M. Smith

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