Nanoscience and technology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Large-scale growth of single crystals on graphene can be useful for the development of 3D/2D or 2D/2D heterostructures. Here, through careful control of growth kinetics, the authors perform multiple cycles of direct growth/transfer of high-quality single-crystal GaN, using a single graphene/SiC substrate.

    • Jeehwan Kim
    • , Can Bayram
    •  & Devendra K. Sadana

  • Article |

    The efficient and selective reduction of carbon dioxide is a major challenge in artificial photosynthesis. Here, the authors study gold–copper bimetallic nanoparticles and attempt to resolve the electronic and geometric factors that lead to high activity carbon dioxide reduction catalysis.

    • Dohyung Kim
    • , Joaquin Resasco
    •  & Peidong Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cell therapy requires sufficient amounts of therapeutic cells to be delivered to the injured tissue. Here the authors use magnetic iron nanoparticles conjugated with antibodies that bind therapeutic cells and cardiomyocytes to treat myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats and show that targeting to the heart is enhanced upon local application of a magnetic field.

    • Ke Cheng
    • , Deliang Shen
    •  & Eduardo Marbán

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detecting many-body correlations is a long-standing challenge in many-body physics. By studying their effects on the decoherence of the central spin under dynamical decoupling, Ma et al.provide an experimental demonstration of detection of many-body correlations in nanoscale nuclear spin bath.

    • Wen-Long Ma
    • , Gary Wolfowicz
    •  & Ren-Bao Liu

  • Article |

    Field-effect transistor biomolecule sensors have numerous advantages including sensitivity and label-free operation. Here, the authors fabricate field-effect transistor arrays from graphene, which represent steps towards multiplexed DNA arrays, where graphene acts as both a sensor and electrophoretic electrode.

    • Guangyu Xu
    • , Jeffrey Abbott
    •  & Donhee Ham

  • Article |

    The subwavelength scale of plasmonics is attractive for optical nanodevices, if greater control over such systems can be achieved. Here, the authors show the independent control of hotspot-mediated Kerr nonlinearities in a nanoantenna array, enabling individual tuning of optical pathways in the medium.

    • Martina Abb
    • , Yudong Wang
    •  & Otto L. Muskens

  • Article |

    Defects in graphene strongly influence the material's physical properties, leading to the suggestion that defects might be tuned to improve performance. Here, via atomic layer deposition, the authors selectively deposit Pt at graphene line defects and yield a superior platform for sensing applications.

    • Kwanpyo Kim
    • , Han-Bo-Ram Lee
    •  & Zhenan Bao

  • Article |

    Surface plasmon and phonon polaritons are useful for sub-diffraction limit waveguiding of light, but phonon polaritons are advantageous in the mid-infrared. Xu et al.show that one-dimensional boron nitride nanotubes can support propagating phonon polaritons, making them a suitable platform for further study.

    • Xiaoji G. Xu
    • , Behnood G. Ghamsari
    •  & Gilbert C. Walker

  • Article |

    Nanoparticles can be used for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. Here, the authors report that nanoparticles made of a single chemical building block, called nanoporphyrins, incorporate eight different functionalities, including various types of imaging, drug delivery and cancer therapy.

    • Yuanpei Li
    • , Tzu-yin Lin
    •  & Kit S. Lam

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oxide-based resistive switching memory is known to depend on the formation and rupture of a conducting filament, although the mechanism behind this remains debated. Here, the authors measure the Seebeck effect to understand the intrinsic electronic transport mechanism in the conducting filament.

    • Ming Wang
    • , Chong Bi
    •  & Ming Liu

  • Article |

    Light can cool and control the motion of nanoscale resonators to the point that they oscillate with only a single quantum of vibrational energy. Hosseini et al. now demonstrate a technique for optically cooling four mechanical modes of a nanowire that enables highly sensitive force measurements.

    • Mahdi Hosseini
    • , Giovanni Guccione
    •  & Ping Koy Lam

  • Article |

    In magnets and ferroelectrics, domains of regions with different ferroic orientation play an important role for the performance of devices based on these materials. Here, the authors create and control ultrafine domains in a ferroelectric that are only 10 nm wide and extend for tens of micrometres.

    • Ludwig Feigl
    • , Petr Yudin
    •  & Nava Setter

  • Article |

    Metal nanoparticles are widely used as heterogeneous catalysis, but the possibility of simultaneous homogeneous pathway via metal ion leaching also exists. Here, the authors use single-molecule spectroscopy to observe catalytic events directly on the surface of the nanoparticles, supporting a purely heterogeneous pathway.

    • Matthew R. Decan
    • , Stefania Impellizzeri
    •  & Juan C. Scaiano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photosensitisers are used in cancer therapy to promote the formation of reactive oxygen species on irradiation with light. Here, the authors present a graphene quantum dot photosensitiser with a singlet oxygen quantum yield of approximately 1.3, and investigate its in vitro and in vivoapplications

    • Jiechao Ge
    • , Minhuan Lan
    •  & Xiaodong Han

  • Article |

    Carbon-based materials are promising supercapacitor electrodes, but suffer from limited energy densities. Here, the authors report a holey graphene framework with hierarchical porous structures and fully accessible surface areas, leading to high energy densities comparable to lead-acid batteries.

    • Yuxi Xu
    • , Zhaoyang Lin
    •  & Xiangfeng Duan

  • Article |

    Molecular-beam epitaxy is famous for creating heterostructures with atomic-layer precision. Here, the authors show that rather than following the stoichiometry suggested by the crystal structure of a layered oxide, the desired layering is obtained utilizing deliberate non-stoichiometric growth conditions.

    • Y. F. Nie
    • , Y. Zhu
    •  & D. G. Schlom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The confinement of electrical charges in quantum dots makes them of interest for applications in imaging and photovoltaics. Here, the authors demonstrate that based on optical absorption measurements and theoretical modelling it is possible to derive the charge carrier distribution in quantum dots.

    • Andrew M. Smith
    • , Lucas A. Lane
    •  & Shuming Nie

  • Article |

    Reproducing complex surface geometries for high-performance composite materials is very desirable, although current synthesis methods are limited. Here, the authors present a technique to produce large-area freeform microstructures via strain-engineered growth of patterned vertically aligned carbon nanotubes.

    • M. De Volder
    • , S. Park
    •  & A. J. Hart

  • Article |

    Steam generation from solar energy is currently inefficient because of costly high optical concentration and large heat losses involved. Ghasemi et al. develop an efficient approach with internal efficiency up to 85% at low water temperature using a carbon-based material with a double-layer structure.

    • Hadi Ghasemi
    • , George Ni
    •  & Gang Chen

  • Article |

    Cavity optomechanics connects light to the mechanical degrees of freedom of a resonator and has great potential for sensing applications. Here, the authors realize a one-dimensional optomechanical crystal with a complete phononic bandgap containing high Q-factor modes and limited clamping losses.

    • J. Gomis-Bresco
    • , D. Navarro-Urrios
    •  & C.M. Sotomayor Torres

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional (2D) materials with a large electronic bandgap in addition to high carrier mobility are required for future nanoelectronics. Here, the authors present a theoretical investigation of black phosphorous, a new category of 2D semiconductor with high potential for nanoelectronic applications.

    • Jingsi Qiao
    • , Xianghua Kong
    •  & Wei Ji

  • Article |

    The organization of ions at solid–liquid interfaces is of interest in many fields, but little information at the nanoscale is available. Here, the authors report atomic-level observations of ordering of ions at surfaces in solutions, which is driven by water instead of the conventional electrostatic correlations.

    • Maria Ricci
    • , Peter Spijker
    •  & Kislon Voïtchovsky

  • Article |

    In ferroelectrics, domains of different polarization determine the switching behaviour and are therefore crucial to their practical use. Here, Matzen et al. observe the formation and control of superdomain arrangements of nanoscale domains in thin films that mimic the single-domain ground state.

    • S. Matzen
    • , O. Nesterov
    •  & B. Noheda

  • Article |

    Raising plasmonic nanoantennas on pillars enhances their performance for sensor devices. Here, the authors show that the proximity of such pillar structures can be dynamically tuned by electron beams, offering an additional mechanical degree of freedom to alter their optical properties.

    • Brian J. Roxworthy
    • , Abdul M. Bhuiya
    •  & Kimani C. Toussaint Jr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The term mesocrystal describes three-dimensional crystals formed by oriented assembly and that exhibit nanoparticle substructures. Here, the authors perform detailed structural analyses on synthetic calcium carbonate/polymer crystals, and show that common signatures used to assign mesocrystals may be unreliable.

    • Yi-Yeoun Kim
    • , Anna S. Schenk
    •  & Fiona C. Meldrum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atoms experience large and typically undesirable forces near dielectric surfaces due to quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic vacuum. The work of Chang et al.proposes a scheme in which these forces can be exploited to create strong atomic traps at nanoscale distances from surfaces.

    • D. E. Chang
    • , K. Sinha
    •  & H. J. Kimble

  • Article |

    Nanoelectronic gas sensors allow highly sensitive detection, but are often limited by slow response times due to the dynamics of the charge detection mechanism. Here, the authors show a graphene nanoelectronic heterodyne-sensing mechanism based on the detection of molecular dipoles, allowing rapid and highly sensitive detection of vapours.

    • Girish S. Kulkarni
    • , Karthik Reddy
    •  & Xudong Fan

  • Article |

    Phase change materials play a key role in information technology. Here, the authors measure the crystal growth velocity in doped Ge2Sb2Te5up to the melting temperature, exploiting the nanoscale dimensions and the fast thermal dynamics of a phase change memory cell.

    • Abu Sebastian
    • , Manuel Le Gallo
    •  & Daniel Krebs

  • Article |

    Obtaining efficient transduction in nanomechanical beam resonators is challenging. Here, the authors describe a mechanism for enhanced piezoresistive transduction in silicon beams, based on asymmetry in the beam shape, removing the need for large piezoresistive coefficients.

    • Marc Sansa
    • , Marta Fernández-Regúlez
    •  & Francesc Pérez-Murano

  • Article |

    The thiol–gold interaction is a fundamental one for the functionalization of nanoparticles and surfaces. Here, the authors use AFM to study individual thiol–gold contacts, showing that oxidized gold surfaces enhance the stability, in addition to monitoring shifts from coordinated to covalent bonding.

    • Yurui Xue
    • , Xun Li
    •  & Wenke Zhang

  • Article |

    Nucleic acids possess a number of properties that can be beneficial for the fabrication of nanomaterials. Here, the authors present an enzymatically synthesised RNA membrane, and show how its physical properties can be controlled by changes to base-pairing.

    • Daehoon Han
    • , Yongkuk Park
    •  & Jong Bum Lee

  • Article |

    The electrical conductance across quantum point contacts shows quantum steps that are well understood except for some anomalies. Here, the authors are able to explain their origin in terms of spontaneously localized electron states by tuning the potential landscape of the contact with a scanning gate microscope.

    • B. Brun
    • , F. Martins
    •  & H. Sellier

  • Article |

    In piezoelectric materials, mechanical strain and electrical polarization are interlinked. Here, the authors find piezoelectricity in carbon nitride nanosheets, arising from the presence of holes in the two-dimensional sheets.

    • Matthew Zelisko
    • , Yuranan Hanlumyuang
    •  & Pradeep Sharma

  • Article |

    Catenanes are structures composed of interlocked supramolecular rings, and they have possible applications as molecular switches and nanomotors. Here, the authors present a catenane formed of interlocked DNA rings, and show how each ring can display independent functionalities.

    • Zai-Sheng Wu
    • , Zhifa Shen
    •  & Yingfu Li

  • Article |

    Future quantum technologies will need to be integrated with existing fibre networks, so compatible sources of photons are needed. Towards this aim, Jayakumar et al. present a source of time-bin entangled photons using biexciton–exciton cascade in quantum dots.

    • Harishankar Jayakumar
    • , Ana Predojević
    •  & Gregor Weihs

  • Article |

    The preparation of mesoporous zeolites is important for their incorporation into industrially relevant applications. Here, the authors design a single quaternary ammonium head amphiphilic template, which directs the formation of mesostructured crystalline zeolites due to π-stacking supramolecular interactions.

    • Dongdong Xu
    • , Yanhang Ma
    •  & Shunai Che

  • Article |

    Reliable detection and identification of explosives is difficult due to the large numbers of compounds and the trace amount of material with which to work. Here, the authors show a nanosensor array capable of fingerprinting individual explosives and detecting them down to the parts-per-quadrillion concentration range.

    • Amir Lichtenstein
    • , Ehud Havivi
    •  & Fernando Patolsky

  • Article |

    Nanoscale metal inclusions play an important role in solid-state dielectric devices. Here, the authors demonstrate that these inclusions can change their shape, size and position in response to an applied electric field, and that electrochemical processes can lead to metal cluster nucleation and growth.

    • Yuchao Yang
    • , Peng Gao
    •  & Wei D. Lu

  • Article |

    The formation of a nano-crystalline pathway between the crystalline domains of conjugated polymers is crucial for their charge transport properties. Kwon et al. report a template-mediated crystallization approach at room temperature to improve charge mobility for printable electronics applications.

    • Sooncheol Kwon
    • , Kilho Yu
    •  & Kwanghee Lee

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