Physical chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The electronic properties of organic molecules are sensitive to structural dynamics, but device control through this phenomenon has not been attained. Bakulinet al. show that the photoconductivity can be modulated by selective excitation of molecular vibrations in an organic optoelectronic device.

    • Artem A. Bakulin
    • , Robert Lovrincic
    •  & David Cahen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aluminium offers an attractive alternative anode for lithium-ion batteries, but its practical performance falls far short of the theoretical promise. Here, the authors present a yolk-shell structured nanocomposite anode of aluminium core and titanium oxide shell which displays outstanding electrochemical properties.

    • Sa Li
    • , Junjie Niu
    •  & Ju Li

  • Article |

    The development of methane oxidation catalysts made of earth-abundant elements is an important challenge. Here, the authors report a cost-effective nickel-cobalt oxide which outperforms precious-metal-based alternatives, due to the combination of transition metal cations and surface oxygen vacancies.

    • Franklin Feng Tao
    • , Jun-jun Shan
    •  & P. Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Flexible energy storage systems usually have limited energy densities. Here the authors report a flexible lithium–oxygen battery with the cathode consisting of titanium dioxide nanowire arrays grown on carbon textiles, which displays high mechanical strength as well as promising electrochemical performance.

    • Qing-Chao Liu
    • , Ji-Jing Xu
    •  & Xin-Bo Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanonization of battery electrode particles is a usual way to enhance their conductivity, but the decreased tap density is detrimental to battery performance. Here, the authors coat micron-sized lithium iron phosphate with a conducting polymer layer and demonstrate some excellent electrochemical properties.

    • Limin Guo
    • , Yelong Zhang
    •  & Zhangquan Peng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultracold reactions can give insights into reactions dynamics in the quantum regime. Here, the authors show that the geometric phase can have a dramatic effect on ultracold reactions, enhancing or suppressing rates by nearly two orders of magnitude in the reaction studied.

    • B. K. Kendrick
    • , Jisha Hazra
    •  & N. Balakrishnan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Separation and analysis of enantiomers is a difficult task due to the normally identical physical properties they display. Here, the authors show how chiral molecules with non-zero dipoles can be propelled in opposite directions under the influence of a rotating electric field.

    • Jonathon B. Clemens
    • , Osman Kibar
    •  & Mirianas Chachisvilis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The main challenges in lithium-oxygen batteries are the low round-trip efficiency and decaying cycle life. Here, the authors present that a trace amount of water in electrolytes facilitates oxygen cathode reactions, enabling the batteries to be operated with small overpotential and good cycling stability.

    • Fujun Li
    • , Shichao Wu
    •  & Haoshen Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studying the spectra of molecules typically requires large samples, which can be difficult to achieve for hard-to-generate ions. Here, the authors obtain spectra from single CaH+molecules in a three-ion Columbic crystal, observing new molecular transitions.

    • Ncamiso B. Khanyile
    • , Gang Shu
    •  & Kenneth R. Brown

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is intensive research underway into the cathode development of lithium–sulphur batteries. Here, the authors report a lithium–sulphur battery using nitrogen/sulphur codoped graphene structure which displays excellent electrochemical performance with high sulphur loading.

    • Guangmin Zhou
    • , Eunsu Paek
    •  & Arumugam Manthiram

  • Article |

    An optically excited electrical current flows through an organic solar cell by charge transfer between electron donors and acceptors. Here, the authors use terahertz photoconductivity measurements to show that any energy in excess of that needed to create these carriers can influence charge mobility

    • P. A. Lane
    • , P. D. Cunningham
    •  & E. J. Heilweil

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During the transient adsorption of a binary mixture in a nanoporous host, the concentration of one component may temporarily exceed its equilibrium value, with molecules diffusing in the direction of increasing concentration. Here, the authors use microimaging to examine this process in a real system.

    • Alexander Lauerer
    • , Tomas Binder
    •  & Jörg Kärger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A linear energy–momentum relation of graphene results in a high direct-current electron mobility, but this is not necessarily true at terahertz frequencies. Here, the authors show that its ultrafast conductivity is dependent on a highly nonlinear interplay between heating and cooling of the electron gas.

    • Zoltán Mics
    • , Klaas-Jan Tielrooij
    •  & Dmitry Turchinovich

  • Article |

    Two-dimensional materials can be used to construct nanofluidic channels to study molecular transport. Here the authors report a lamellar membrane constructed from exfoliated layers of a clay mineral, which exhibits high proton conductivity and extraordinary thermal stability.

    • Jiao-Jing Shao
    • , Kalyan Raidongia
    •  & Jiaxing Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Super-rotors are fast rotating molecules whose rotational–translational energy transfer is suppressed. Here the authors study the equilibration of super-rotor gases through molecular dynamics simulations, showing the emergence and explosive termination of an anisotropy in the molecular angular distribution.

    • Yuri Khodorkovsky
    • , Uri Steinitz
    •  & Ilya Sh. Averbukh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal-free semiconductors with appropriate bandgaps create photocatalytic routes to water splitting and CO2reduction. Here the authors dope hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets with carbon via a simple method to synthesize a ternary B–C–N alloy capable of performing just this function.

    • Caijin Huang
    • , Cheng Chen
    •  & Xinchen Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Irreversible computation cannot be performed without a work cost, and energy dissipation imposes limitations on devices' performances. Here the authors show that the minimal work requirement of logical operations is given by the amount of discarded information, measured by entropy.

    • Philippe Faist
    • , Frédéric Dupuis
    •  & Renato Renner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular wires with high conductivity and conformable flexibility are desirable in nanoelectronics. Here, Nacci et al.grow flexible molecular wires, composed of alternating donor and acceptor units, on a metal surface, and show that high conductance can be achieved without electronic delocalization.

    • Christophe Nacci
    • , Francisco Ample
    •  & Leonhard Grill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the topology of matter offers an alternative way to make functional materials, among which liquid crystals hold promise due to their spontaneously occurring defects. Here Orlova et al. demonstrate the formation and remote control of topological structures in frustrated cholesteric droplets.

    • Tetiana Orlova
    • , Sarah Jane Aßhoff
    •  & Etienne Brasselet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermal operations, a model of thermodynamic processes for small quantum systems out of equilibrium, are well-understood in absence of coherence. Here the authors introduce cooling processes, a generalization of thermal operations and find necessary and sufficient conditions for coherent state transitions via cooling processes.

    • Varun Narasimhachar
    •  & Gilad Gour

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The intimate mixing of immiscible polymers is desirable both to aid understanding of the fundamental science and for the development of new materials. Here, the authors successfully compatibilize polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) using a porous coordination polymer as a removable template.

    • Takashi Uemura
    • , Tetsuya Kaseda
    •  & Susumu Kitagawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding of electrolyte-electrode interfaces is limited due to the lack of suitable probing techniques. Here, the authors present a vibrational spectroscopy based on graphene gratings, which enables sensitive and interface-specific detection of molecular vibrations at electrolyte-electrode interfaces.

    • Ya-Qing Bie
    • , Jason Horng
    •  & Feng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is imperative to understand how individual Si nanostructures interact in battery operations. Here, the authors design well-defined crystalline Si nanopillars and show how mechanical interactions of neighbouring Si structures affect their reaction kinetics and fracture resistance during electrochemical lithiation.

    • Seok Woo Lee
    • , Hyun-Wook Lee
    •  & Yi Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Copper-exchanged zeolites with mordenite structure can mimic the active sites in particulate methane monooxygenase. Here, the authors show that mordenite micropores can stabilize trinuclear copper-oxo clusters that exhibit a high reactivity towards activation of carbon–hydrogen bonds in methane.

    • Sebastian Grundner
    • , Monica A.C. Markovits
    •  & Johannes A. Lercher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detecting enantiomers in dilute mixtures of volatile organic compounds is a challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate a method to identify enantiomers and enantiomeric excess in a multi-component mixture containing two chiral species using laser mass spectrometry and photoelectron circular dichroism.

    • Mohammad M Rafiee Fanood
    • , N. Bhargava Ram
    •  & Maurice H. M. Janssen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the mechanism of ionic transport in organic–inorganic halide perovskites is crucial for the design of future solar cells. Here, Eames et al.undertake a combined experimental and computational study to elucidate the ion conducting species and help rationalize the unusual behaviour observed in these perovskite-based devices.

    • Christopher Eames
    • , Jarvist M. Frost
    •  & M. Saiful Islam

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The connection between information and thermodynamics is embodied in the figure of Maxwell’s demon, a feedback controller. Here, the authors apply thermodynamics of information to signal transduction in chemotaxis of E. coli, predicting that its robustness is quantified by transfer entropy.

    • Sosuke Ito
    •  & Takahiro Sagawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The properties of 2D materials such as graphene can vary according to the quality and, for vertical devices, the interfaces between materials. Here, the authors report a method using TOF-SIMS, micro-Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy to give high levels of detail of vertical 2D heterostructures.

    • Harry Chou
    • , Ariel Ismach
    •  & Andrei Dolocan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural dispersion forces acting between molecules and particles arise from electromagnetic fields generated by quantum and thermal fluctuations. Here, Brügger et al.show that isotropic dispersion forces between colloidal particles can be induced, controlled and tuned with artificial, fluctuating laser light fields.

    • Georges Brügger
    • , Luis S. Froufe-Pérez
    •  & Juan José Sáenz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Free, or solvated, electrons in a solution are known to form at the interface between a liquid and a gas. Here, the authors use absorption spectroscopy in a total internal reflection geometry to probe solvated electrons generated at a plasma in contact with the surface of an aqueous solution

    • Paul Rumbach
    • , David M. Bartels
    •  & David B. Go

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is intensive research underway into the development of hole transport layers for perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors report an inverted-type perovskite solar cell with low-temperature solution-processable conjugated polyelectrolyte as the hole transport layer, which exhibits an efficiency of over 12%.

    • Hyosung Choi
    • , Cheng-Kang Mai
    •  & Alan J. Heeger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The preparation of fully proton-ordered ice phases remains challenging and residual entropy usually remains even at the absolute zero. Here, the authors achieve a transition from disordered ice XII to fully ordered ice XIV triggered by HCl doping, which enhances proton transfer dynamics by five orders of magnitude.

    • K. W. Köster
    • , V. Fuentes-Landete
    •  & R. Böhmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum critical behaviour emerges when quantum fluctuations perturb the balance between electronic states of a material having the same energy, and can lead to novel phenomena. Here, the authors discover quantum criticality in the ferroelectric behaviour of organic molecular solids.

    • Sachio Horiuchi
    • , Kensuke Kobayashi
    •  & Yoshinori Tokura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Well-defined, large surface area nanostructures are promising functional materials but can be difficult to fabricate. Here the authors show how to prepare ultrahigh-surface-area hollow carbon nanospheres, via a controlled carbonization route, and assess their organic vapour adsorption and electrochemical performance.

    • Fei Xu
    • , Zhiwei Tang
    •  & Dingcai Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hygroinduced motion is fundamental for applications that require actuation in response to changes in atmospheric humidity. Here, the authors report an actuating material that is capable of fast and perpetual motion driven by humidity gradient incorporating a photoactive dopant that can be controlled by light.

    • Lidong Zhang
    • , Haoran Liang
    •  & Panče Naumov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Obtaining activation entropies and enthalpies of a reaction is important for distinguishing between alternative reaction mechanisms. Here the authors use computational methods to accurately obtain the enthalpic/entropic components of the activation free energy for hydrolytic deamination reactions.

    • Masoud Kazemi
    •  & Johan Åqvist

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The strength and stability of silk proteins is thought to be related to the high content of β-sheets within their structures. Here, the authors show that when heated at high temperature, and above that of thermal degradation, these β-sheets are transformed into an ordered hexagonal graphitic structure.

    • Se Youn Cho
    • , Young Soo Yun
    •  & Hyoung-Joon Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The equivalency of stress and temperature as driving force for the relaxation in metallic glasses is widely accepted. Here, Yu et al.examine this assumption in simulations and find that stress induces a fragile-to-strong transition in addition to accelerated relaxation dynamics as temperature does.

    • Hai-Bin Yu
    • , Ranko Richert
    •  & Konrad Samwer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Materials that can store and release heat on demand are of use for energy storage applications. Here, the authors discover a ceramic material that can reversibly store energy from heat, light or electricity and release this energy as heat through the application of pressure.

    • Hiroko Tokoro
    • , Marie Yoshikiyo
    •  & Shin-ichi Ohkoshi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The transfer of chirality from surfaces to molecular species may have implications in areas from the origin of homochirality to heterogeneous catalysis. Here, the authors show that a chiral gold cluster can transfer its inherent chirality to adsorbed, achiral molecules, causing them to adopt chiral conformations.

    • Igor Dolamic
    • , Birte Varnholt
    •  & Thomas Bürgi

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