Structure of solids and liquids articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fragility describes the sharpness of dynamical arrest of a melt at its glass transition, yet its structural origin remains elusive. Shi et al. show that fragility inversely correlates with the medium-range order structure characterized by a measurable parameter named the average medium-range distance.

    • Ying Shi
    • , Binghui Deng
    •  & Douglas C. Allan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In layered transition metal oxides as cathode active materials for Na-ion batteries, Na+ diffusion kinetics are impacted by Na+/vacancy ordering. Here, the authors suggest that the P2-type Na2/3Ni1/3Mn2/3O2 with large zigzag ordering exhibits high Na+ mobility and thus superior rate capability.

    • Yuansheng Shi
    • , Pengfeng Jiang
    •  & Xia Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The lanthanum-hydrogen system has attracted attention following the observation of superconductivity in LaH10 at near-ambient temperatures and high pressures. Here authors describe the high-pressure syntheses of seven La-H phases; they report crystal structures and remarkable regularities in rare-earth element hydrides.

    • Dominique Laniel
    • , Florian Trybel
    •  & Natalia Dubrovinskaia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Non-random chemical mixings that are intrinsic to medium- and high-entropy alloys are difficult to detect and quantify. Here the authors perform a diffraction data-mining analysis, revealing nanoclusters of short-range orders in a CrCoNi alloy, and their impacts on chemical homogeneity and dislocations slip.

    • Haw-Wen Hsiao
    • , Rui Feng
    •  & Jian-Min Zuo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fluid-solid interaction, long investigated, is mostly neglected in topological acoustics. Here the authors find that it can give rise to intriguing topological phenomena in simple phononic crystals due to intrinsic differences between sound in fluid and solid.

    • Xiaoxiao Wu
    • , Haiyan Fan
    •  & Xiang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the how silicon deforms under pressure is important for several fields, including planetary science and materials design. Laser-driven shock compression experiments now confirm that shear stress generated during compression is released via a high-pressure phase transition.

    • Silvia Pandolfi
    • , S. Brennan Brown
    •  & A. E. Gleason

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In classical nucleation theory, structural order in the liquid phase is not considered. But simulations of supercooled liquids now show that crystal-like liquid preordering play an essential role in nucleation and growth processes - calling for extensions of the classical theory.

    • Yuan-Chao Hu
    •  & Hajime Tanaka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The emergence of correlated and self-organized linear structures, known as force chains, is relevant for granular materials, foams, emulsions, and extreme active matter. The authors develop a machine learning-based approach to predict force chain formation in jammed disordered solids under deformation.

    • Rituparno Mandal
    • , Corneel Casert
    •  & Peter Sollich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A description of the vibrational properties of amorphous ice confined in graphene oxide membranes, as an exemplary nanoconfined material, is presented. Inelastic neutron scattering experiments and molecular dynamics simulations show anomalous deviations from standard bulk behavior.

    • Yuanxi Yu
    • , Chenxing Yang
    •  & Liang Hong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Helium isotopes are interesting platforms for testing the quantum properties of fluids. Here the authors demonstrate quantum one-dimensional behaviour of helium (4He) confined in nanopores by using neutron scattering.

    • Adrian Del Maestro
    • , Nathan S. Nichols
    •  & Paul E. Sokol

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding strain dynamics and their relationship with crystallographic facets have been largely unexplored. Here the authors demonstrate how the 3D lattice displacement and strain evolution depend on the crystallographic facets of Pt nanoparticles during CO oxidation reaction, providing new insights in the relationship between facet-related surface strain and chemistry.

    • Maxime Dupraz
    • , Ni Li
    •  & Marie-Ingrid Richard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The properties of materials can be drastically modified under extreme pressure. Here the authors investigate ramp-compressed sodium to 5 million atmospheres with in situ X-ray diffraction and optical reflectivity, revealing a complex temperature-driven polymorphism and suggesting the formation of a previously predicted electride phase.

    • Danae N. Polsin
    • , Amy Lazicki
    •  & J. Ryan Rygg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The rigidity of solid nanocontacts formed when metals touch is apparently lost liquidlike under large mechanical oscillations. As we show theoretically, there is no melting but oscillated nanocontacts undergo a remarkable reversible stick-slip rheology.

    • Ali Khosravi
    • , Antoine Lainé
    •  & Erio Tosatti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the structural origin of the anomalous properties of SiO2 liquid and glass at high pressures is fundamental in wide range of scientific fields. Here, the authors find experimental evidence of a bimodal behavior in the translational order of silicon’s second shell and breaking of local tetrahedral symmetry in SiO2 glass under pressure.

    • Yoshio Kono
    • , Koji Ohara
    •  & Makina Yabashi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Length scale dependence is important for understanding the collective relaxation dynamics in glass-forming liquids. Here, the authors find in liquid Ca0.4K0.6(NO3)1.4 a change in the dominant relaxation mechanisms around 2.6 Å, below which the relaxation process exhibits a temperature independent distribution and more Arrhenius-like behavior.

    • Peng Luo
    • , Yanqin Zhai
    •  & Y Z

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The current study explores by ab-initio molecular dynamics simuations the concept of hypervalency in amorphous chalcogenide materials, from which a unified conceptual framework for understanding chemical bonding, microscopic structures, and structure-property relationships is established.

    • T. H. Lee
    •  & S. R. Elliott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origin of the Fermi surface reconstruction that occurs in cuprate superconductors as hole doping increases remains unclear. Here, the authors observe long range charge density wave (CDW) order in the overdoped single-layer cuprate Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ, which then disappears above a hole concentration 0.265, suggesting a correlation between Fermi surface reconstruction and the emergence of the CDW.

    • C. C. Tam
    • , M. Zhu
    •  & S. M. Hayden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The iron-silicon phase diagram has been established at the conditions of Mercury’s core. The resulting phase diagram is remarkably complex, and presents an array of new mechanisms which may power Mercury’s inner dynamo.

    • E. Edmund
    • , G. Morard
    •  & D. Antonangeli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tailoring the macroscopic properties of deep eutectic solvents requires knowing how these depend on the local structure and microscopic dynamics. The authors, with computational and experimental tools spanning a wide range of space- and timescales, shed light into the relationship between micro and macroscopic properties in glyceline and ethaline.

    • Stephanie Spittle
    • , Derrick Poe
    •  & Joshua Sangoro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanism of crystal thickness selection in semi-crystalline polymers is unclear but intracrystalline chain diffusion has been shown to have a role. Here, the authors report on observations related to poly(oxymethylene) with slow intra-crystalline chain diffusion to fill the knowledge gaps between fast and absent diffusion systems

    • Martha Schulz
    • , Mareen Schäfer
    •  & Thomas Thurn-Albrecht

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding of the atomic-scale mechanisms of rejuvenation of bulk metallic glass still remains unclear. Here, using configurational entropy derived from X-ray experiments, authors show a clear picture of the relaxation process during annealing of a metallic glass.

    • Florian Spieckermann
    • , Daniel Şopu
    •  & Jürgen Eckert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unraveling the structural origin of liquid anomalies remains a challenging topic. Xu et al. propose a folded-network structural model for molten tin and provide insights into the observed second-order-like structural transition.

    • Liang Xu
    • , Zhigang Wang
    •  & Howard Sheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    ’Following up on the recent theoretical demonstration here the authors bring us a step closer to the real implementation of efficient ultrasonic chiral sources. They experimentally demonstrate the presence of elastic spin waves, Rayleigh and Lamb waves, generated by a chiral-meta source, characterizing their basic properties.

    • Weitao Yuan
    • , Chenwen Yang
    •  & Jie Ren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The present manuscript reports a Bayesian deep-learning approach for the automatic, robust classification of polycrystalline systems of both synthetic and experimental origin. The unsupervised analysis of the internal neural-network representations reveals physically understandable patterns.

    • Andreas Leitherer
    • , Angelo Ziletti
    •  & Luca M. Ghiringhelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quasicrystals exhibit long-range order without periodicity. The authors report an approach for quasicrystal fabrication and show through in situ imaging and corresponding simulations the formation of a single decagonal quasicrystal arising from coalescence of multiple quasicrystals in a liquid.

    • Insung Han
    • , Kelly L. Wang
    •  & Ashwin J. Shahani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The inverse design of the material for given target property is challenging for glasses due to their disordered non-prototypical structure. Wang and Zhang propose a data-driven property oriented inverse approach for design of glassy materials with desired functionalities.

    • Qi Wang
    •  & Longfei Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The orientation of polymer chains in the corona of polymer-grafted nanoparticles has never been measured. Here, the authors use polarized resonant soft X-ray scattering to measure local chain orientation in polystyrene grafted gold nanoparticles and quantify the thickness of the anisotropic region of the corona as well as the extent of chain orientation within it.

    • Subhrangsu Mukherjee
    • , Jason K. Streit
    •  & Dean M. DeLongchamp

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The detailed understanding of the structural variations during cycling in cathodes for Zn-ion aqueous rechargeable batteries is still limited. Here, the authors utilize atomic-column-resolved scanning transmission electron microscopy to elucidate multiphase evolution during hydrated Zn-Ion insertion in vanadium oxide.

    • Pilgyu Byeon
    • , Youngjae Hong
    •  & Sung-Yoon Chung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Laser-assisted electron scattering (LAES) is a commonly observed strong field process in gas phase systems. Here the authors use helium droplets with core atoms and molecules to observe increased electron energy due to multiple LAES events within the droplets.

    • Leonhard Treiber
    • , Bernhard Thaler
    •  & Markus Koch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Normally the diffusionless solid-to-solid transition between phases are driven by athermal processes, due to strain being overwhelmingly dominant. Here, the authors present a unique series of in-situ particle level observations of the solid-to-solid transition in colloidal particles suspended in a solvent, revealing new transition pathways.

    • Minhuan Li
    • , Zhengyuan Yue
    •  & Peng Tan

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Water ice exists in hugely different environments, artificially or naturally occurring ones across the universe. The phase diagram of crystalline phases of ice is still under construction: a high-pressure phase, ice XIX, has just been reported but its structure remains ambiguous.

    • Thomas C. Hansen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Water’s phase diagram exhibits several hydrogen-disordered phases which become ordered upon cooling, but the behavior of ice VI is still debated. The authors, using high-pressure neutron diffraction, identify structural distortions that transform ice VI into ice XIX, here identified as a hydrogen disordered phase.

    • Christoph G. Salzmann
    • , John S. Loveday
    •  & Craig L. Bull

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methane is abundant in the Universe, is an important energy carrier and a model system for fundamental studies. Here, the authors measure the self-diffusion coefficient of supercritical methane at ambient temperature up to the freezing pressure, and find a different behavior than expected based on previous models.

    • Umbertoluca Ranieri
    • , Stefan Klotz
    •  & Livia E. Bove

Browse broader subjects

Browse Structure of solids and liquids across other nature.com journals