Physical sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ability to stabilise colloidal suspensions in solution against salt-induced aggregation is critical to many industrial applications, but it remains challenging at high salt concentration. To overcome this problem, Lan et al. introduce a raspberry-like colloidal particle with controllable morphology.

    • Yang Lan
    • , Alessio Caciagli
    •  & Erika Eiser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the composition and crystal phase of layered heterostructures is important. Here, the authors report the liquid-phase epitaxial growth of Sn0.5W0.5S2 nanosheets with 83% metallic phase on SnS2 nanoplates, which are used as 100 ppb level chemiresistive gas sensors at room temperature.

    • Xiaoshan Wang
    • , Zhiwei Wang
    •  & Wei Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Trapping air at the solid-liquid interface is a promising strategy for reducing frictional drag but could not be realized without perfluorinated coatings so-far. Here the authors demonstrate a biomimetic coating-free approach for entrapping air for long periods upon immersion in liquids.

    • Eddy M. Domingues
    • , Sankara Arunachalam
    •  & Himanshu Mishra

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although electro-and optomechanics has recently moved towards the quantum regime, the quantized energy spectrum of a mechanical oscillator has not been directly observed. Here Dellantonio et al. propose an electromechanical setup with a membrane resonator that could enable phonon number measurements.

    • Luca Dellantonio
    • , Oleksandr Kyriienko
    •  & Anders S. Sørensen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional piezoelectric materials hold promise for nano-electromechanical technologies, yet it is challenging to prepare them in large areas with high sample homogeneity. Syed et al. surface print GaPO4 sheets with unit cell thickness over centimetres using a liquid metal-based synthesis process.

    • Nitu Syed
    • , Ali Zavabeti
    •  & Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The deformation of soft materials under high rates remains challenging to be probed directly and thus understood. Huerre et al. examine the self-assembly of colloids confined at a fluid interface driven by ultrasound and show the formation of string-like microstructures caused by dynamic capillarity.

    • Axel Huerre
    • , Marco De Corato
    •  & Valeria Garbin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    All materials subjected to mechanical deformation form low energy interfaces known as twin boundaries. Here, the authors investigate a variety of structural features that form upon bending atomically thin 2D-crystals, and predict distinct classes of post deformation microstructure based on their atomic arrangement, bend angle and flake thickness.

    • A. P. Rooney
    • , Z. Li
    •  & S. J. Haigh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrophilic acylation of arenes is largely limited to electron rich systems, non-polar medium and often displays moderate selectivity. Here, the authors show a directed para-selective ketonisation of arenes, overriding electronic bias and structural congestion, and apply it to the synthesis of bioactive compounds.

    • Arun Maji
    • , Amit Dahiya
    •  & Debabrata Maiti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Observing the Peltier effect, e.g. cooling/heating at material junctions due to current flow, in organic thermoelectric films remains a challenge due the inherent properties of these materials. Here, the authors use IR imaging to experimentally observe the Peltier effect in poly(Ni-ett)-based films.

    • Wenlong Jin
    • , Liyao Liu
    •  & Daoben Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High-performance stretchable conductive fibers are desired for the development of stretchable electronic devices but preparation of conductive hydrogel fibers is challenging. Inspired by spider silk the authors demonstrate here a spinning method to prepare stretchable conductive hydrogel fibers with ordered polymer chain alignment.

    • Xue Zhao
    • , Fang Chen
    •  & Mingming Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The symmetry group and geometric phase of a system are responsible for many quantum properties related to non-trivial topology. Here the authors show non-Abelian geometric phase in laser-coupled ultracold strontium atoms by using a tripod scheme.

    • F. Leroux
    • , K. Pandey
    •  & D. Wilkowski

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A possible route to producing processable soft materials is by assembling metal organic cubes into hydrogels. Here the authors show charge-assisted H-bond driven self-assembly of Ga3+-based anionic metal organic cubes and suitable molecular binders towards multi-functional hydrogels.

    • Papri Sutar
    • , Venkata M. Suresh
    •  & Tapas Kumar Maji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atomic force microscopy is an indispensable method in characterizing soft materials but the complexity of biological samples makes reproducible measurements difficult. Here the authors use a 3-step method to investigate biological specimens in which vertical and lateral heterogeneity hinders a precise quantitative characterization.

    • Massimiliano Galluzzi
    • , Guanlin Tang
    •  & Florian J. Stadler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Static pressures exceeding 4 million atmospheres are extremely challenging to achieve, but are necessary for the study of matter that exists under these conditions in natural environments. Here, diamonds anvils with a toroidal design are demonstrated to sustain over 6 million atmospheres in a diamond anvil cell.

    • Zs. Jenei
    • , E. F. O’Bannon
    •  & W. J. Evans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Compounds containing stereocenters bearing -CF3 groups, especially in proximity of heteroatoms, are of great interest for drug and agrochemicals development. Here, the authors report a nickel-catalyzed Hiyama cross-coupling methodology for the asymmetric synthesis of valuable alpha-trifluoromethyl alcohols and ethers.

    • Andrii Varenikov
    •  & Mark Gandelman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Cassini spacecraft has provided an unprecedented characterisation of seasonal changes on Saturn. Here the authors describe the development of a warm polar vortex in Saturn’s northern summer, and show that the hexagon extends hundreds of kilometres from the troposphere into the stratosphere.

    • L. N. Fletcher
    • , G. S. Orton
    •  & S. B. Calcutt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In order to study the dynamics of solitons in microresonators, which underlie nonlinear phenomena like Kerr comb generation, both high temporal resolution and long record times are needed. Here, the authors develop a coherent sampling method to directly image the temporal behavior of solitons.

    • Xu Yi
    • , Qi-Fan Yang
    •  & Kerry Vahala

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Room-temperature spin-generation in 1D systems like semiconductor nanopillars is typically inefficient. Here, the authors demonstrate an approach to achieve efficient spin polarization, even in the absence of a magnetic field, by selectively enhancing the radiative efficiency of one spin direction.

    • Shula Chen
    • , Yuqing Huang
    •  & Weimin M. Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nonlinear interaction between terahertz frequency electric fields and atoms or molecules can be used to study fundamental and technical problems. Here the authors demonstrate a THz–driven phase transition, with a potential application as a THz sensor, using Rydberg atomic states in a cesium vapor.

    • C. G. Wade
    • , M. Marcuzzi
    •  & K. J. Weatherill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anharmonic ultrafast structural dynamics are expected in lead halide perovskites due to their soft nature. Here Rivett et al. show that these dynamics lead to picosecond-long polarization anisotropy of photo-carriers in several halide perovskites, orders of magnitude slower than in conventional semiconductors.

    • Jasmine P. H. Rivett
    • , Liang Z. Tan
    •  & Felix Deschler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tools from statistical physics can be used to investigate a large variety of fields ranging from economics to biology. Here the authors first adapt density-functional theory to predict the distributions of crowds in new environments and then validate their approach using groups of fruit flies.

    • J. Felipe Méndez-Valderrama
    • , Yunus A. Kinkhabwala
    •  & T. A. Arias

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The defining quantities of topological materials—the topological invariants—are often difficult to calculate. Here, Song et al. report a simplified method to calculate both the symmetry data and the topological invariants for arbitrary gapped band structure with time-reversal symmetry.

    • Zhida Song
    • , Tiantian Zhang
    •  & Chen Fang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Perovskite light-emitting diodes show promising color tunability and device performance but suffer from emission color shift at higher driving voltages. Here Xing et al. report color stable blue light-emitting diodes by drastically increasing the phase purity of the quasi-2D perovskite thin films.

    • Jun Xing
    • , Yongbiao Zhao
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) has been mostly employed in imaging applications. Here the authors use BRET to activate a ruthenium-based photocatalyst and perform a bioorthogonal chemical reaction, which can be used to uncage small molecule drugs in a cellular context.

    • Eric Lindberg
    • , Simona Angerani
    •  & Nicolas Winssinger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Control over mechanochemical polymer scission by external stimuli may offer an avenue to further advance the fields of polymer chemistry, mechanochemistry, and materials science. Here the authors show light regulating the mechanochemical behavior of a diarylethene-conjugated Diels–Alder adduct.

    • Jumpei Kida
    • , Keiichi Imato
    •  & Hideyuki Otsuka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Water uptake of natural polymers is accompanied by swelling and changes in the internal structure of the polymeric system but the exact mechanism of water-uptake and swelling remained unknown. Here the authors use atom-scale simulations to identify a molecular mechanism which is responsible for hysteresis in sorption-induced swelling in natural polymers.

    • Mingyang Chen
    • , Benoit Coasne
    •  & Jan Carmeliet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting and modelling the responses of free-from photonics devices remain challenging with conventional computational tools. Here, the authors propose an efficient algorithm based on conformal boundary optics and modified finite difference time-domain to calculate the electromagnetic fields across conformal metasurfaces.

    • Kedi Wu
    • , Philippe Coquet
    •  & Patrice Genevet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nuclear spins in solids can be implemented into quantum devices but their manipulation usually requires microwave irradiation. Here instead the authors show that they can shift the NMR frequency and drive the nuclear spins into the resolved-sideband regime by using the tunable phonon states from an electromechanical resonator.

    • Yuma Okazaki
    • , Imran Mahboob
    •  & Hiroshi Yamaguchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree rings retain information of sudden variations of ancient radiocarbon (14C) content, however the origin and exact timing of these events often remain uncertain. Here, the authors analyze a set of Arctic tree rings and link a rapid increase in 14C to a solar event that occurred during the spring of AD 774.

    • J. Uusitalo
    • , L. Arppe
    •  & M. Oinonen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventional coil arrays require complex decoupling technologies to reduce electromagnetic coupling between coil elements. Here, the authors report a self-decoupled RF coil design that achieves high inter-coil isolation between adjacent and non-adjacent elements and mixed arrays of loops and dipoles

    • Xinqiang Yan
    • , John C. Gore
    •  & William A. Grissom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The European X-ray free-electron laser (EuXFEL) in Hamburg is the first megahertz (MHz) repetition rate XFEL. Here the authors use lysozyme crystals and microcrystals from jack bean proteins and demonstrate that damage-free high quality data can be collected at a MHz repetition rate.

    • Marie Luise Grünbein
    • , Johan Bielecki
    •  & Ilme Schlichting

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active devices such as modulators made of silicon nitride still lack performance. Here, the authors demonstrate electro-optic modulators based on ferroelectric lead zirconate titanate films on silicon nitride, in both the O- and the C-band with a modulation bandwidth beyond 33 GHz and with data rates of 40 Gbps.

    • Koen Alexander
    • , John P. George
    •  & Jeroen Beeckman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Selective conversion of CO2 and H2 into aromatics remains challenging due to the high unsaturation degree and complex structure of aromatics. Here the authors report a composite catalyst of ZnAlOx and H-ZSM-5 which promotes the formation of aromatics with high selectivity while inhibiting CO and CH4 formation in CO2 hydrogenation reactions.

    • Youming Ni
    • , Zhiyang Chen
    •  & Zhongmin Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The optical properties of nanographenes can be engineered by designing their size, shape, and edges. Here, the authors show that graphene quantum dots are single photon emitters at room temperature, and their emission wavelength can be controlled by edge functionalization.

    • Shen Zhao
    • , Julien Lavie
    •  & Jean-Sébastien Lauret

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The existence of a crystalline precursor is key to perovskite film formation, but the precise chemistry of the precursor and its transformation into perovskite are poorly understood. Here, the authors identify the crystal structure and conversion chemistry of the precursor for PbCl2-derived methylammonium lead iodide perovskites.

    • Kevin H. Stone
    • , Aryeh Gold-Parker
    •  & Christopher J. Tassone

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optimizing luminescence from quantum dots benefits various optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications. Here the authors drive high-efficiency, tunable upconversion luminescence in perovskite quantum dots by energy transfer from lanthanide-doped nanoparticles excited by near-infrared light, to produce full-color emission with low driving power.

    • Wei Zheng
    • , Ping Huang
    •  & Xueyuan Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The application of spin based qubits requests understanding and control of spin relaxation time T1 which remains challenging. Here the authors experimentally demonstrate the spin relaxation mechanism via hyper fine interaction and long spin-relaxation time T1 ~ 57 s for a single electron spin in GaAs quantum dot.

    • Leon C. Camenzind
    • , Liuqi Yu
    •  & Dominik M. Zumbühl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quasicrystals possess long range order but no translational symmetry, and rotational symmetries that are forbidden in periodic crystals. Here, a fullerene overlayer deposited on a surface of an icosahedral intermetallic quasicrystal achieves a Fibonacci square grid structure, by selective adsorption at specific sites.

    • Sam Coates
    • , Joseph A. Smerdon
    •  & Hem Raj Sharma

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