Physical chemistry articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous studies have shown that cellular electrostatic interactions are influential. Here the authors use cryo-EM and steady-state kinetic studies to investigate electrostatic interactions between cytochrome (cyt.) c and the complex (C) III2-IV supercomplex from S.cerevisiae at low salinity.

    • Ana Paula Lobez
    • , Fei Wu
    •  & Agnes Moe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interfacial ion solvation is omnipresent in electrochemistry. Sarabia et al. now explore solvation kinetics with a millisecond time resolution and shine light on the critical role of the solvent during dynamic catalyst and electrosorption kinetics.

    • Francisco Sarabia
    • , Carlos Gomez Rodellar
    •  & Sebastian Z. Oener

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling ice formation is crucial for cryopreservation. Here, authors developed machine learning models to predict ice recrystallisation inhibition by small molecules, showcasing a data-driven approach for cryoprotectant discovery.

    • Matthew T. Warren
    • , Caroline I. Biggs
    •  & Gabriele C. Sosso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) detection is often limited by difficulties in preparing adequate tags – normally metallic nanoparticles (NPs) functionalised with Raman-active molecules. Here, the authors introduce LipoGold Tags, a platform where clusters of gold NPs self-assemble on lipid vesicles. These tags are used for SERS detection.

    • Jacopo Cardellini
    • , Caterina Dallari
    •  & Debora Berti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular dynamics is a common tool to study microscopic physicochemical systems, however, it is limited by the inhability to form and break chemical bonds. Here the authors present a method to modify traditional force-fields implementing bond dissociation and bond forming.

    • Jordan J. Winetrout
    • , Krishan Kanhaiya
    •  & Hendrik Heinz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular qubits have great potential as quantum sensors due to their ability to be in close proximity to target analytes, but design guidelines on how to make them respond to specific analytes remain unclear. Here authors show that hybrids of triplet qubits and flexible MOFs can change the coherence time of electron spins of photo-excited triplet state upon adsorption of guest.

    • Akio Yamauchi
    • , Saiya Fujiwara
    •  & Nobuhiro Yanai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A potential origin of homochirality in living organisms is the parity-violating energy difference between enantiomers. Here, the authors realize a technique to control rotational states of chiral molecules using microwave and ultraviolet radiation.

    • JuHyeon Lee
    • , Elahe Abdiha
    •  & Sandra Eibenberger-Arias

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present a theoretical treatment demonstrating that NMR experiments on chiral molecules can reveal enantioselective nuclear J-couplings due to bond polarization and spin-orbit interaction. This also aids in understanding chirality-induced phenomena more generally and their applications.

    • T. Georgiou
    • , J. L. Palma
    •  & L.-S. Bouchard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Effectively regulating monomer and excimer emission in a singular supramolecular luminous platform is challenging due to high difficulty of precise control over its aggregation and dispersion behavior when subjected to external stimuli. Here, the authors report a metallo-cage featuring a triple helical motif that displays a unique dual emission.

    • Zhe Zhang
    • , Qixia Bai
    •  & Tun Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors demonstrate selective excitation of atomic vibrations in a single molecule utilizing tip-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy, by precisely tuning the wavelength of the exciting laser to be resonant with the molecular vibronic transitions.

    • Yang Luo
    • , Shaoxiang Sheng
    •  & Manish Garg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    X-ray triggered non-local processes, such as Intermolecular Coulombic Decay, are shown here to selectively probe solvation-shell molecules in solution and provide new information on their electronic structure and on ion-pair formation.

    • Rémi Dupuy
    • , Tillmann Buttersack
    •  & Hendrik Bluhm

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors investigate fundamental interactions in low-valent uranium compounds using resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, providing insights into their complex electronic structures and contributing to our understanding of actinide chemistry.

    • C. L. Silva
    • , L. Amidani
    •  & K. O. Kvashnina

  • Article
    | Open Access

    SWCNTs are pivotal optical molecular sensors, but until now, the underlying mechanism how the binding of analytes affects the fluorescence remained elusive. This study has elucidated that coupling between exciton-coupled plasmon modes of SWCNTs and THz water modes is a significant factor.

    • Sanjana S. Nalige
    • , Phillip Galonska
    •  & Martina Havenith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The H2 roaming mechanism in organic molecules is involved in the formation of \({{{{{{{{\rm{H}}}}}}}}_{3}}^{+}\), one of the most abundant molecular ions in the universe, but its direct visualization has been challenging. Here the authors obtain direct insights into these complex dynamics by tracking the roaming H2 molecules in acetonitrile with time-resolved Coulomb explosion imaging.

    • Debadarshini Mishra
    • , Aaron C. LaForge
    •  & Nora Berrah

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Clusteroluminescence from nonconjugated luminogens relies on noncovalent through-space conjugation of electrons resulting in low luminescent efficiency and broad emission. Here the authors construct several nonconjugated luminogens to reveal the structure property relationship and demonstrate narrowband clusteroluminescence with high emission efficiency.

    • Yipu Wang
    • , Jianyu Zhang
    •  & Ben Zhong Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In a time-resolved Coulomb explosion imaging study using ultrafast extreme ultraviolet pulses, combined with theoretical simulations, authors reveal unexpected asymmetric rearrangement of carbon dioxide dimer ion, including a CO3 moiety formation.

    • Ester Livshits
    • , Dror M. Bittner
    •  & Daniel Strasser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Kondo effect usually refers to increased electrical resistance in metals due to spin-spin interactions between localized magnetic impurities and conduction electrons. Here the authors report a Kondo-like coupling between a light-induced exciton and localized impurity spins in Nd-doped hybrid perovskite.

    • Xudong Xiao
    • , Kyaw Zin Latt
    •  & Tao Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photo-cross-linking (PXL) with alkyl diazirines can provide stringent distance restraints and offer insights into protein structures, but unambiguous identification of cross-linked residues hinders data interpretation. Here, the authors report a quantitative analysis of alkyl diazirine photo-cross-linking reactions and reveal a two-step mechanism, enabling selective targeting of buried polar residues.

    • Yida Jiang
    • , Xinghe Zhang
    •  & Chun Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Accurate molecular dynamics of silicate reactivity in aqueous solution at large length and time scale is required to decipher silica condensation. Here, authors developed a potential with a new active learning method to capture silica-water interactions.

    • Swagata Roy
    • , Johannes P. Dürholt
    •  & Rafael Gómez-Bombarelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By combining single-molecule spectroscopy, nanophotonic enhancement, and molecular simulations, the authors reveal the extremely rapid chain dynamics of single-stranded nucleic acids.

    • Mark F. Nüesch
    • , Lisa Pietrek
    •  & Benjamin Schuler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sulfur allotropes are proposed to be an important sulfur reservoir in molecular clouds, but spectroscopic data to test this hypothesis are limited. Here the authors measure laboratory far-infrared spectra of cold isolated S8 molecules, which show a near-perfect match with calculations, and examine their fragmentation pathways.

    • Piero Ferrari
    • , Giel Berden
    •  & Joost M. Bakker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study presents a 3D-printed cellular reactor enhancing liquid-liquid reactions by increasing contact area without extra additives. It securely contains two incompatible liquids, facilitating direct phase separation.

    • Jinzhe Cao
    •  & Shengyang Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atomic distribution in high-pressure water ice are directly observed, via neutron powder structure analysis, found hydrogen bonds become symmetric at pressures about 80 GPa, marking the transition from ice VII to ice X.

    • Kazuki Komatsu
    • , Takanori Hattori
    •  & Hiroyuki Kagi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors report a Raman scattering technique to measure vibrational spectrum of water inside living cells. A consistent population (~3%) of non-bulk-like water is seen, exhibiting a more disordered structure with a weakened hydrogen-bonded network.

    • Xiaoqi Lang
    • , Lixue Shi
    •  & Wei Min

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Titanium has a strong affinity to oxygen, resulting in an increase in the manufacturing cost and complexity of the processes. Here the authors introduce a high-throughput technique using yttrium that can reduce the oxygen content in molten titanium to the level suitable for structural applications.

    • Toru H. Okabe
    • , Gen Kamimura
    •  & Takanari Ouchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A radiation damage cycle in X-ray-ionized solvated Mg ions is reported by the authors leading to production of water radicals and low-energy electrons. The Mg ion ends in its initial state quickly and can restart the cycle, multiplying the local damage.

    • Dana Bloß
    • , Florian Trinter
    •  & Andreas Hans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By resonant pumping the organic cation in 2D perovskite, Fu et al. report the electronic and mechanical couplings between the organic and inorganic sublattices, evidenced by the reduced bandgap and modified lattice degree of freedom within the inorganic sublattice, and slow heat transfer process.

    • Jianhui Fu
    • , Tieyuan Bian
    •  & Tze Chien Sum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zero to ultralow-field NMR provides chemical information in the absence of a high magnetic field but it is difficult to measure molecules with quadrupolar nuclei due to their fast relaxation. This study examines zero-field J-spectra from isotopologues of ammonium cations, with quadrupolar nuclei, revealing the presence of a primary isotope effect of −58 mHz.

    • Román Picazo-Frutos
    • , Kirill F. Sheberstov
    •  & Danila A. Barskiy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron transfer in solids is a fundamental process in many functional nanomaterials. Here, the authors directly observe this process via x-ray crystallography for incorporating of electron-donor guest molecules in macrocyclic nanotube crystals.

    • Daiji Ogata
    • , Shota Koide
    •  & Junpei Yuasa

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Physical chemistry across other nature.com journals