Nature Materials - Current issue : December 2008 - Vol 7 No 12
- A hearty response
- Graphitic sheets: A good memory
- Superconductivity: Across different phases
- Crystal structure predictions: Rising to the challenge
Latest content
Current issue
Crystal structure predictions
Review by Woodley and CatlowThe prediction of the structure of crystalline solids at the atomic level from first principles remains challenging. Recent developments both on methodologies for surveying energy landscapes and for predicting the structure of inorganic materials such as molecular crystals, microporous solids and nanoparticulate structures are presented.
Advance online publication
Chemical actuation
Letter by Biener et al.Nanostructured high-surface-area materials capable of converting energy into mechanical work are promising for or use as actuation devices. Surface-chemistry-induced changes of the surface stress in nanoporous gold are now observed on alternate exposure to ozone and carbon monoxide.
Advance online publication
DNA-directed assembly
Letter by Kim et al.The growth kinetics and crystallization behaviour of DNA-directed colloidal systems are not well understood. Now, using experiments and simulations, a single nucleotide mismatch in DNA strands attached to two microsphere species enables the kinetics of crystal growth and segregation as a result of crystallization to be investigated.
Advance online publication
One of the challenges posed by spin manipulation in organic semiconductors is the difficulty of measuring the spin injection from a ferromagnetic contact and the subsequent spin diffusion length. Clear advances in this field have now been achieved by two-photon photoemission and low energy muon spin rotation.
Advance online publication
Stable nanocatalysts
Article by Joo et al.Colloidal synthesis can help to precisely control the shape and composition of catalytic metal nanoparticles, but it has so far proved difficult to use these particles in high-temperature reactions. Core–shell structures capable of isolating Pt-mesoporous silica nanoparticles have now been shown to be catalytically active for ethylene hydrogenation and CO oxidation at high temperature.
Current issue
Carbon electronics
Article by Li et al.Carbon-based structures are being intensively investigated for their use in electronic devices. A pronounced non-volatile switching is now observed in two-terminal devices made from graphitic sheets. The highly reliable switching mechanism is explained by the local breaking and rejoining of atomic bonds in the sheets.