Nanoscale materials articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rhombohedral-stacked (R-stacked) transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers exhibit remarkable properties, but their large-area epitaxial growth remains challenging. Here, the authors report the remote epitaxy of centimetre-scale single-crystal R-stacked WS2 bilayer films on sapphire substrates.

    • Chao Chang
    • , Xiaowen Zhang
    •  & Xiaozhi Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Traditional methods to incorporate polycrystalline thin film into flexible systems are often complicated and limited by their sizes. Here, the authors introduce flexible amorphous thin film energy harvester, based on perovskite oxides, on a plastic substrate for electromechanical energy harvesting.

    • Ju Han
    • , Sung Hyun Park
    •  & Yong Soo Cho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extending magnetic nanostructures into three dimensions offers a vast increase in potential functionalities, but this typically comes at the expense of ease of fabrication and measurement. Here, Dion et al. demonstrate an approach to creating three dimensional magnetic nanostructures while retaining easy fabrication and readout of established two dimensional approaches.

    • Troy Dion
    • , Kilian D. Stenning
    •  & Jack C. Gartside

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The relationship between the structural configurations of M-N-C electrocatalysts and their performances in neutral environments has been insufficiently investigated. Here the authors demonstrate that an ultralow metal-loaded Co-N-C electrocatalyst, featuring the asymmetric Co-C/N/O configuration, exhibit exceptional efficiency in electrochemically producing hydrogen peroxide under neutral conditions.

    • Longxiang Liu
    • , Liqun Kang
    •  & Guanjie He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors demonstrate a wafer-scale, low-temperature process using atomic layer deposition, for the synthesis of uniform, conformal amorphous boron nitride (aBN) thin films. They further fabricate aBN-encapsulated monolayer MoS2 field-effect transistors.

    • Cindy Y. Chen
    • , Zheng Sun
    •  & Joshua A. Robinson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tuning the instabilities of 2D materials can control their wrinkling behavior for interesting physical properties, but still challenging. Here, the authors report a push-to-shear experimental approach to control the wrinkling patterns of monolayer 2D materials and measure their bending stiffness.

    • Yuan Hou
    • , Jingzhuo Zhou
    •  & Yang Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bristleworms possess dedicated cells that can synthesize highly stereotypical bristles with sub-micrometric precision. Here, Ikeda and colleagues shed light on the underlying dynamics of cellular protrusions, revealing an extension-disassembly cycle that resembles a 3D printer.

    • Kyojiro N. Ikeda
    • , Ilya Belevich
    •  & Florian Raible

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The preparation of atom-thick lattices with Å-scale pores is desirable for achieving ion selectivity and high ion flux. Here authors present a cm-scale membrane made of atom-thick graphene film hosting zero-dimensional pores spanning only a few Å, repaired using an in situ electrochemical strategy, yielding high Li+/Mg2+ separation performance.

    • Zongyao Zhou
    • , Kangning Zhao
    •  & Kumar Varoon Agrawal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon nanotube-based single photon emitters allow for room-temperature operation, but suffer from vanishing indistinguishability due to strong dephasing. Following a theoretical proposal, the authors tackle the problem experimentally by using a cavity to enhance the photon coherence time and the emission spectral density in the regime of incoherent good cavity-coupling.

    • Lukas Husel
    • , Julian Trapp
    •  & Alexander Högele

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inspired by fireflies, a bimodal information indication system using a photochemical afterglow material within a photonic crystal matrix is developed to display both static and changing information, such as sample type and degree of degradation.

    • Hanwen Huang
    • , Jiamiao Yin
    •  & Changchun Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous work proposed the Berry curvature dipole as the mechanism of the nonlinear Hall effect. Lee et al. establish the sign-changing Berry curvature hot spots from spin-orbit split bands as the origin of the Berry curvature dipole and link it to the nonlinear Hall effect in the topological semimetal NbIrTe4.

    • Ji-Eun Lee
    • , Aifeng Wang
    •  & Hyejin Ryu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing stable water oxidation catalysts is of great importance for proton-exchange membrane water electrolyzers. Here the authors report a bicontinuous nanoreactor composed of multiscale defected RuO2 nanocrystals for robust acidic water oxidation reactivity.

    • Ding Chen
    • , Ruohan Yu
    •  & Shichun Mu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The self-assembly of nanocrystals into checkerboard lattice patterns is difficult to control. Here, the authors investigate the formation of such patterns from hydrophilic/hydrophobic bifunctionalized Ag nanocubes and use multiscale simulations to understand the effects of physical forces.

    • Yufei Wang
    • , Yilong Zhou
    •  & Andrea R. Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystal facets are known to be important in traditional heterogeneous catalysis, yet this effect has not been studied in plasmon-assisted catalysis. Here, the authors investigate the impact facets have on CO2 reduction using plasmonic Au NPs.

    • Yicui Kang
    • , Simão M. João
    •  & Emiliano Cortés

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The synthesis of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) by a soft-template methodology is challenging. Here, the authors attach the soft templates to the COFs backbone via ion bonds, avoiding crystallization incompatibilities and allowing subsequent removal of the template by ion exchange for enhanced U(VI)/Th(IV) adsorption performance.

    • Ningning He
    • , Yingdi Zou
    •  & Lijian Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Terminal hydroxyl groups on γ-Al2O3 surfaces serve as anchoring sites for Ag. Based on the surface energy of different crystal planes of γ-Al2O3 at various temperatures, the authors propose a high-temperature-induced crystal plane transformation method to construct terminal hydroxyl anchoring sites.

    • Jiaxin Li
    • , Kai Li
    •  & Hong He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low-dimensional ferroelectric systems are predicted to have topologically nontrivial polar structures, such as vortices or skyrmions. Here authors present atomic-scale 3D topological polar structures in BaTiO3 nanoparticles using atomic electron tomography and revealed their size-dependent transitions.

    • Chaehwa Jeong
    • , Juhyeok Lee
    •  & Yongsoo Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report the observation of an interlayer plasmon polaron in heterostructures composed of graphene and monolayer WS2. This is manifested in the ARPES spectra as a strong quasiparticle peak accompanied by several carrier density-dependent shake-off replicas around the WS2 conduction band minimum.

    • Søren Ulstrup
    • , Yann in ’t Veld
    •  & Jyoti Katoch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Improving mass transfer through hierarchically porous synthetic materials is a great challenge. Here the authors address this by expanding the original Murray’s law, a biomimetic principle defining the branching of veins in living structures.

    • Binghan Zhou
    • , Qian Cheng
    •  & Tawfique Hasan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polarization reversal dynamics in sliding ferroelectrics is important for the application in slidetronics. Here, the authors observe the interlayer directional sliding induced polarization switching with simultaneous hysteresis response in γ-InSe:Y.

    • Fengrui Sui
    • , Haoyang Li
    •  & Chungang Duan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular switches are ubiquitous in the biochemistry regulatory network. Here, the authors construct synthetic molecular switches controlled by DNA-modifying enzymes such as DNA polymerase and nicking endonuclease to control and cascade assembly and disassembly.

    • Hong Kang
    • , Yuexuan Yang
    •  & Bryan Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silicon-integrated graphene photodetectors exhibit promising bandwidths at telecom wavelengths, but their responsivity is usually limited. Here, the authors report the wafer-scale fabrication of waveguide-integrated detectors based on twisted bilayer graphene, showing responsivities up to 0.65 A/W and 3-dB bandwidths >65 GHz.

    • Qinci Wu
    • , Jun Qian
    •  & Hailin Peng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report the ledge-guided epitaxial growth of high-density 2D Bi2O2Se fin arrays and their application for the realization of 2D multi-channel fin field-effect transistors, showing improved on-state currents as the number of integrated channels is increased.

    • Mengshi Yu
    • , Congwei Tan
    •  & Hailin Peng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Researchers report a sustainable nanofluidic osmotic energy harvester made from natural montmorillonite clay nanosheets and recycled cellulose. Scaled-up films of 700 cm2 show power output of 8 W m−2 with stability over 30 days

    • Jiadong Tang
    • , Yun Wang
    •  & Tieyong Zuo

  • 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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    Crystalline materials’ properties are highly dependent on their size. Here authors report a general synthesis of ultrasmall (4–6 nm) and highly defective Zr/Hf-Metal Organic Frameworks nanoparticles that present enhanced peptide hydrolysis performance.

    • Shan Dai
    • , Charlotte Simms
    •  & Christian Serre

  • 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

    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

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