Organic–inorganic nanostructures articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • 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

    Hong et al. report 2D perovskite lateral homojunction consists of ordered and disordered phases, achieved by organic cation doping induced phase pinning, built upon which they develop tuneable optical properties under external stimuli and directional exciton diffusion in the homojunctions.

    • Huilong Hong
    • , Songhao Guo
    •  & Yongping Fu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbaporphyrin dimers, known for their interesting photophysical properties and application in metal-organic chemistry, generally contain two identical subunits. Here, the authors highlight the benefits that can accrue from breaking the inherent symmetry of carbaporphyrin dimers and details a new approach to creating heterobimetallic complexes.

    • Haodan He
    • , Jiyeon Lee
    •  & Xian-Sheng Ke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The detrimental effects of intragrain impurity nanoclusters on the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells remain unexplored. Here, the authors study the intragrain impurity annihilation by in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy and adopt a laser stimulus to heal such impurity.

    • Songhua Cai
    • , Zhipeng Li
    •  & Yuanyuan Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The efficient separation of iso-butene, an important raw material in chemical industry, remains challenging due to similar molecular properties of C4 olefins. Here, the authors report a sulfate-pillared adsorbent for the molecular sieving of iso-C4H8 from C4H6 and n-C4H8 with good benchmark uptake ratios and Henry’s selectivities.

    • Junhui Liu
    • , Hanting Xiong
    •  & Jun Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The separation and purification of C6 cyclic hydrocarbons by thermal distillation is an energy intensive process which may be replaced by alternative energy-efficient adsorptive techniques. Here, the authors report a chain-like coordination polymer which facilitates complete separation of benzene, cyclohexene, and cyclohexane via an ideal molecular sieving mechanism.

    • Feng Xie
    • , Lihang Chen
    •  & Jing Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By virtue of the rotational motions of interlocked macrocycles, the authors describe a chameleon-like catenane host that can adjust its co-conformation for selective binding to copper(I) or sulfate ion. While the cationic copper(I) complex is achiral, the interlocked rings in the catenane host rotate and re-orient into a chiral co-conformation upon forming the anionic sulfate complex.

    • Yueliang Yao
    • , Yuen Cheong Tse
    •  & Ho Yu Au-Yeung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite having all the ingredients required for the formation of two-dimensional ferromagnetism, achieving such a magnetic state in atomically thin metal-organic coordination networks has proved to be a persistent challenge. Here, Lobo-Checa et al demonstrate 2Dferromagnetism in a self-assembled network, exhibiting coercive fields over 2 Tesla and a Curie temperature of 35K.

    • Jorge Lobo-Checa
    • , Leyre Hernández-López
    •  & Fernando Bartolomé

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crack formation typically results in random patterns and material failure. Inspired by plant phototropism, the authors use plasmonic absorbers to control crack propagation in colloidal films with light, showcasing a robust, programmable self-assembly process.

    • Fanny Thorimbert
    • , Mateusz Odziomek
    •  & Marco Faustini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Assembly is an interesting strategy to build chiral hierarchies with premade properties and functionalities. Here, the authors present assembled chiral hydrogen-bonded organic-inorganic frameworks with dynamical chiroptical activities and employ them as powerful and recoverable platforms for enantioselective recognition of chiral aliphatic substrates.

    • Jun Guo
    • , Yulong Duan
    •  & Yi Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mineralization is common in biological materials for selective strengthening, but similar toughening in polymer composites is challenging. Here, the authors report a mechanically-mediated reaction for formation of mineralized microrods within a synthetic material.

    • Jorge Ayarza
    • , Jun Wang
    •  & Aaron P. Esser-Kahn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors uncover a coherent, long-range transport of excitons in organic semiconductors that are strongly coupled to spatially structured plasmon fields by tracing ultrafast Rabi oscillations using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy.

    • Daniel Timmer
    • , Moritz Gittinger
    •  & Christoph Lienau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low-temperature spectroscopy of single fluorescent molecules can be of use to study dynamics in the nano-environment around them. Here, Smit et al. show that the fluorescence wavelength of molecules on the surface of hexagonal boron-nitride is particularly sensitive to how clean this surface is.

    • Robert Smit
    • , Arash Tebyani
    •  & Michel Orrit

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The application of chiral metamaterials is limited by the fabrication of large-area chiral plasmonic structures with high dissymmetry factors. Here, the authors overcome this limitation imparting extrinsic chirality to hierarchical nanostructured polymer substrates with application in quantum and security enhanced optical communications.

    • Yoon Ho Lee
    • , Yousang Won
    •  & Joon Hak Oh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nanoparticle-polymer interface plays a key role in nanoparticle-polymer composites but understanding the structures and properties of the interfacial region remains challenging. Here, the authors directly observe the presence of two interfacial polymer layers around a nanoparticle in polar polymers with different polar molecular conformations from the bulk polymer leading to an enhancement in polarity-related properties of polymer nanocomposites

    • Xinhui Li
    • , Shan He
    •  & Ce-Wen Nan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal-based heterogeneous catalysts are widely employed in ring-opening polymerization (ROP) but up to now the exploration of metal-organic frameworks (MOF) as catalysts in ROP remains underdeveloped. Here, the authors report a MOF heterogeneous catalytic system for fast, controllable, air- and moisture-insensitive ring-opening polymerization of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides, and its seamless integration with hybrid material preparation.

    • Ying Liu
    • , Zhongwu Ren
    •  & Yugang Bai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with adjustable porosity and tunable functionality have attracted considerable attention, but the directional control of intermolecular and intramolecular motion of TPE-based ligands in the non-interpenetrated flexible MOFs has not yet been studied. Here, the authors report a non-interpenetrated tetraphenylethylene-based MOF with anisotropic flexibility.

    • Sha-Sha Meng
    • , Ming Xu
    •  & Zhi-Yuan Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metalloligands provide a potent strategy for manipulating the surface metal arrangements of metal nanoclusters (NCs), but their synthesis and subsequent installation onto metal NCs remains a significant challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate the synthesis of two atomically precise silver NCs by controlling reaction temperature and demonstrate thermal induced structure transformation between the clusters during a temperature-dependent assembly process.

    • Zhi Wang
    • , Yan-Jie Zhu
    •  & Di Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chirality induced spin selectivity is a process whereby a chiral molecule induces a spin-polarization to a current passing along the chiral molecule. The exact physical origin of the effect is still debated despite extensive experimental result. Here, Adhikari et al provide evidence for the important role of spin-orbit coupling in the normal metals that connect to the chiral molecule in CISS experiments.

    • Yuwaraj Adhikari
    • , Tianhan Liu
    •  & Peng Xiong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Materials with room temperature phosphorescence that are mechanically robust are desirable, but can be challenging to obtain. Here, the authors report the combination of poly(vinyl alcohol) and chromophore molecules with layered double hydroxides for room temperature phosphorescent materials.

    • Rui Tian
    • , Shuo Gao
    •  & Chao Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanically interlocked architectures inspired the fabrication of numerous molecular systems, but the topological design of such architectures has not been fully explored from the nano- to the macroscopic scale. Here, the authors propose a MOFaxane, comprised of long chain molecules penetrating a microcrystal of metal– organic framework.

    • Tomoya Iizuka
    • , Hiroyuki Sano
    •  & Takashi Uemura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Luminescent metal-organic frameworks are an emerging class of optical sensors capable to capture and detect toxic gases. Here, the authors report the incorporation of synergistic binding sites in MOF-808 through post-synthetic modification with copper for optical sensing of NO2 at remarkably low concentrations.

    • Isabel del Castillo-Velilla
    • , Ahmad Sousaraei
    •  & Ana E. Platero-Prats

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Defects in metal-organic frameworks impact their structure and properties. Here authors uncover formate defects in MOF-74 that originate from decomposed DMF solvent. NMR shows that the defects partially eliminate open metal sites and lead to a decrease of gas adsorption; the adsorption mechanism of CO2 in defective MOF is also elucidated.

    • Yao Fu
    • , Yifeng Yao
    •  & Xueqian Kong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently there has been interest in exploring the coupling between magnons for use in information processing, however, this is hampered by the fact that such coupling is forbidden due to the different parity of the acoustic and optical magnons. Here, Comstock et al show that the interlayer Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya-Interaction in a layered hybrid antiferromagnet can allow for strong coupling between the acoustic and optical magnons, offering a pathway for magnon coherent information processing.

    • Andrew H. Comstock
    • , Chung-Tao Chou
    •  & Dali Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of mixed-matrix membranes is especially challenging when highly permeable materials are used. Here the authors present a molecular soldering strategy featuring multifunctional polyphenols in tailored polymer chains, well-designed hollow MOF structures, and defect-free interfaces to break the permeability-selectivity trade-off limit.

    • Bin Zhu
    • , Shanshan He
    •  & Lu Shao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Immobilization of biomolecules into porous materials could lead to enhanced performance in terms of stability and easier separation for their reuse. Here authors gain insights into the spatial arrangement of green fluorescent protein entrapped in a mesoporous MOF by situ small-angle neutron scattering.

    • Xiaoliang Wang
    • , Lilin He
    •  & Shengqian Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fabrication of synthetic nanochannels for ion separation is challenging. Here, the authors synthesize angstrom-scale ion channels featuring one-dimensional to three-dimensional pore configurations by growing metal‒organic frameworks into nanochannels; the structure of the pore influences the ion transport performance.

    • Xingya Li
    • , Gengping Jiang
    •  & Huacheng Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fabrication of 3D covalent organic framework thin films is challenging. Here the authors report on a liquid-liquid interfacial approach based on physical-organic considerations to synthesize an ultrathin covalent crystal film.

    • Yizhou Yang
    • , Yanyan Chen
    •  & Karl Börjesson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    X-rays are used for imaging and sterilisation of bone but cause damage due to ionising radiation. Here, the authors study the degradation of collagen caused by photon-electron excitations and show that damage is initiated from onset which has implications for X-ray imaging and the levels of safe exposure.

    • Katrein Sauer
    • , Ivo Zizak
    •  & Paul Zaslansky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrahigh-resolution patterning with high-throughput and high-fidelity is highly in demand for expanding the potential of OLEDs. Here, the authors report that silicone-incorporated organic light-emitting semiconductors can achieve anisotropic lithography via reactive ion etching-coupled photolithography, for ultrahigh-density RGB OLED arrays.

    • Hyukmin Kweon
    • , Keun-Yeong Choi
    •  & Do Hwan Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Scaling up anisotropic freeze-casting processes can be challenging due to the temperature gradient farther from the cold source. Here, authors report an additive freeze-casting technique able to produce large-scale aerogel panels and demonstrate it towards practical passive cooling applications.

    • Kit-Ying Chan
    • , Xi Shen
    •  & Jang-Kyo Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atmospheric water harvesting by MOF-based devices is critically dependent on weather conditions. Here, the authors report a MOF-based adaptive water harvesting system capable of adapting its cycles to temperature and relative humidity fluctuations throughout the day, continuously optimizing water production.

    • Husam A. Almassad
    • , Rada I. Abaza
    •  & Kyle E. Cordova

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cellulose based ion conductive hydrogels are emerging materials for application in flexible electronics but achieving simultaneously high conductivity and good mechanical properties remains challenging. Here, the authors propose a supramolecular engineering strategy to strengthen cellulosic hydrogel and to improve simultaneously its ionic conductivity and freezing tolerance.

    • Siheng Wang
    • , Le Yu
    •  & Chaoji Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of highly luminescent materials such as large Stokes shift fast emitters is desirable for their potential application in photonics. Here the authors engineer hetero-ligand metal-organic frameworks nanoparticles to achieve high emission yield, large Stokes shift and realize a prototypal fast scintillator.

    • J. Perego
    • , Charl X. Bezuidenhout
    •  & A. Monguzzi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active photonics in free space is important in computing, imaging and sensing. Here, hybrid silicon-organic nanoscale structures change the intensity of a free-space light beam by applied microwave signals at gigahertz speeds with a high efficiency.

    • Ileana-Cristina Benea-Chelmus
    • , Sydney Mason
    •  & Federico Capasso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Liquid crystals (LC) are promising materials for the fabrication of reconfigurable arrays of 2D nanomaterials but it remains difficult to achieve stable dispersions of nanomaterials. Here, the authors report on good dispersions of pristine CdSe nanoplatelets (NPLs) in LCs, and reversible, rapid control of their alignment and associated anisotropic photoluminescence using a magnetic field.

    • Dahin Kim
    • , Dennis Ndaya
    •  & Chinedum O. Osuji

Browse broader subjects

Browse Organic–inorganic nanostructures across other nature.com journals