Materials science articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Point defects in 2D semiconductors have potential for quantum computing applications, but their controlled design and synthesis remains challenging. Here, the authors identify and fabricate a promising quantum defect in 2D WS2 via high-throughput computational screening and scanning tunnelling microscopy.

    • John C. Thomas
    • , Wei Chen
    •  & Geoffroy Hautier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Glutamine synthetase (GS) relies on Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to activate glutamate (Glu) and are vital for maintaining ammonia and Glu homeostasis, but GS function is impaired during ATP-deficient neurotoxic events. Here the authors report polyphosphate-manganese nanosheets having GS-like activity independent of ATP to promote the conversion of Glu to glutamine in excitatory neurotoxic cells.

    • Jing Wang
    • , Xinyang Zhao
    •  & Wei Wei

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Untethered soft robots offer numerous advantages in terms of mobility, versatility, and autonomy, making them increasingly valuable for a wide range of applications. Jung et al. review the new types of untethered soft actuators that represent breakthroughs and discuss the future perspective of soft actuators.

    • Yeongju Jung
    • , Kangkyu Kwon
    •  & Seung Hwan Ko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft elastic materials could be useful in the fabrication of brain-machine interfaces, but achieving the desirable material properties can be challenging. Here, the authors report control of the amorphous-crystalline transition of polymers to alter hydrogel properties and monitor mouse behaviour.

    • Sizhe Huang
    • , Xinyue Liu
    •  & Siyuan Rao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many of the most industrially important magnets require the addition of rare-earths to improve their coercivity and magnetic performance. Here, the authors place a single paramagnetic rare-earth ion, Er3+, in a diamagnetic nanoparticle, and study the slow relaxation of the resulting nanoparticles, providing vital information for the further development of rare-earth magnetic materials.

    • Diogo A. Gálico
    • , Emille M. Rodrigues
    •  & Muralee Murugesu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hard carbon is regarded as a promising negative electrode for Na-ion batteries but suffers from low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE). Here, the authors identify the time-dependent ion pre-desolvation on the nanopore of hard carbons, which remarkably improves the ICE by simply extending the aging time.

    • Ziyang Lu
    • , Huijun Yang
    •  & Haoshen Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently, excitons with unconventional properties were reported in a van der Waals antiferromagnet NiPS3. Here, using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, the authors show that the formation of these excitons is primarily driven by Hund’s coupling and that they propagate similarly to two-magnon excitations.

    • W. He
    • , Y. Shen
    •  & M. P. M. Dean

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The conversion of atmospheric N2 into NH3 under ambient pressure is highly interesting but very challenging. In this study, the authors present a tandem air-NOx and NOx-NH3 system that combines non-thermal plasma-enabled N2 oxidation with Ni(OH)x/Cu-catalyzed electrochemical NOx−reduction, resulting in a high NH3 yield from N2 under ambient pressure conditions.

    • Wei Liu
    • , Mengyang Xia
    •  & Guidong Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Porous carbons with high specific surface area and electronic conductivity are of interest for their electron and ion transport ability. Here authors use ultra-high temperature reactions of Li metal and polytetrafluoroethylene to make graphitized porous carbon for electrochemical energy storage.

    • Huimin Zhang
    • , Jingyi Qiu
    •  & Hao Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thin crystals grown on rigid spherical templates of increasing curvature exhibit increased protrusions. Here, the authors demonstrate the opposite curvature effect on the morphology of molecularly thin crystals grown within elastic fluid membranes, like those of biological cells.

    • Hao Wan
    • , Geunwoong Jeon
    •  & Maria M. Santore

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, authors demonstrate the electrohydrodynamic printing of alkylated 3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine functionalized MXene (AD-MXene) ink. The AD-MXene outperforms vacuum-deposited Au and Al electrodes, providing thin film transistors with good environmental stability due to its hydrophobicity.

    • Tae Yun Ko
    • , Heqing Ye
    •  & Insik In

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The communication of colour information stands as one of the most immediate and widespread methods of interaction among biological entities. Xu et al. report an electrochromic neuromorphic transistor employing color updates to represent synaptic weight for real-time visualised in-sensor computing.

    • Yao Ni
    • , Jiaqi Liu
    •  & Wentao Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Large-scale eDMFT computation reveals that FeO undergoes a gradual orbitally selective insulator-metal transition across the extreme conditions of Earth’s interior, with implications for compositions and conductivity of the core-mantle boundary region.

    • Wai-Ga D. Ho
    • , Peng Zhang
    •  & Vasilije V. Dobrosavljevic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While monolayer of 1T-TaS2 is considered to be a Mott insulator, the nature of the bulk insulating state is debated. Here the authors introduce a ladder-type structures with fractional misalignment of adjacent layers, showing that it becomes a Mott insulator due to decoupling between the layers.

    • Yihao Wang
    • , Zhihao Li
    •  & Liang Cao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrating self-healing capabilities into skin-like stretchable transistors presents a persistent challenge. Here, by using a supramolecular polymer matrix, the authors develop autonomous self-healing transistors and skin-like logic circuits.

    • Ngoc Thanh Phuong Vo
    • , Tae Uk Nam
    •  & Jin Young Oh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors characterize the phonon modes at the FeSe/SrTiO3 interface with atomically resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy and correlate them with accurate atomic structure in an electron microscope. They find several phonon modes highly localized at the interface, one of which engages in strong interactions with the electrons in FeSe.

    • Ruochen Shi
    • , Qize Li
    •  & Peng Gao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Converting CO2 to valuable chemicals is of high interest. Here the authors address the challenge of low CO2 solubility in water by incorporating a metal-organic framework layer to enhance CO2 pre-concentration and activation before its electroreduction by the underlying solid electrocatalyst.

    • Subhabrata Mukhopadhyay
    • , Muhammad Saad Naeem
    •  & Idan Hod

  • Article
    | Open Access

    MnBi2Te4 is an antiferromagnetic topological insulator. This combination of magnetic ordering and topological properties has resulted in intense interest, however, like many van der Waals materials, experimental results are hampered by fabrication difficulties. Here, Li, Wang, Lian et al. show that the fabrication process itself can result in mismatched thickness dependence of magneto-transport measurements. ‘

    • Yaoxin Li
    • , Yongchao Wang
    •  & Chang Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The intelligent responses of Venus flytrap to various stimuli provide valuable insights into electronic design. Here, the authors report a liquid metal-based logic module with memory and counting properties to intelligently respond like the flytrap.

    • Yuanyuan Yang
    •  & Yajing Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phosphoric acid (PA) doped proton exchange membranes (PEMs) often degrade above 200 °C due to membrane creeping, PA dehydration, and condensation. Here, the authors introduce gel-state polybenzimidazole PEMs with double cross-linked 3D layered structures, enabling efficient and stable fuel cell operation above 200 °C.

    • Liang Zhang
    • , Mengjiao Liu
    •  & Lixin Xue

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical interference filters are multilayer structures for controlling the propagation of electromagnetic waves. Jin et al. have developed a method of via inkjet printing to fabricate optical interference filters with commercially relevant quality with remarkable A4 paper size (29.7 × 21.0 cm²) in ambient conditions.

    • Qihao Jin
    • , Qiaoshuang Zhang
    •  & Uli Lemmer

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Hypersonic vehicles experience extreme temperatures, high heat fluxes, and aggressive oxidizing environments. Here, the authors highlight key materials design principles for critical vehicle areas and strategies for advancing laboratory-scale materials to flight-ready components.

    • Adam B. Peters
    • , Dajie Zhang
    •  & Suhas Eswarappa Prameela

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Concerns over the immunogenicity of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) are growing, and the implications for tissue engineering are unknown. Here the authors evaluate the impact of anti-PEG antibodies and PEG immunogenicity on the efficacy of a PEG hydrogel-based tissue engineering therapy.

    • Alisa H. Isaac
    • , Sarea Y. Recalde Phillips
    •  & Daniel L. Alge

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bound states in continuum have attracted attention in various platforms, and recently condensation of bound states in continuum polariton modes was demonstrated at low temperatures. Here the authors report the observation of such a state in a periodic air-hole perovskite-based photonic crystal at room temperature.

    • Xianxin Wu
    • , Shuai Zhang
    •  & Xinfeng Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manganese complexes have long been utilized by nature to catalyze the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) but mirroring their efficiency in artificial electrochemical systems has proven difficult. This study centers on alpha-manganese dioxide (α-MnO2), which closely mimics natural MnIV-O-MnIII-HxO motifs, presenting a novel method for manipulating proton coupling within the OER process using an external electric field.

    • Xuelei Pan
    • , Mengyu Yan
    •  & Liqiang Mai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Perception plays a pivotal role in advancing future intelligent textiles. Here, the authors develop smart perceptual textiles using natural-derived ionic-conductive silk fibers. These textiles can electrically detect external hazards and precisely pinpointing human touch, making them suitable for smart protective clothing and soft human-machine interfaces.

    • Haojie Lu
    • , Yong Zhang
    •  & Yingying Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Defects in materials are well known to suppress thermal transport. Here, the authors demonstrate that introducing defects in nanoscale heating zone enhances thermal conductance by up to 75% through reducing directional phonon nonequilibrium.

    • Yue Hu
    • , Jiaxuan Xu
    •  & Hua Bao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reconfigurable neuromorphic transistors are important for creating compact and efficient neuromorphic computing networks. Here, Li et al. introduce an optoelectronic electrolyte-gated transistor to perform multimodal recognition.

    • Pengzhan Li
    • , Mingzhen Zhang
    •  & Chen Ge

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The correlation between asymmetric molecular geometry of non-fullerene acceptors and their optoelectronic properties was unclear. Here, the authors found asymmetric ones exhibit increased open-circuit voltage compared to their symmetric counterparts due to reduced non-radiative charge recombination.

    • Jinfeng Huang
    • , Tianyi Chen
    •  & Lijian Zuo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is useful to be able to equip marine animals with sensors, but it can be challenging to attach these to soft marine organisms. Here, the authors use an adhesive hydrogel to achieve rapid attachment of sensors to marine life including jellyfish, squid and lobster.

    • Camilo Duque Londono
    • , Seth F. Cones
    •  & Xuanhe Zhao

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