Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Lightwave electronics could enable the control of interactions in quantum materials and provide access to the quantum phases and quantum information of condensed-matter systems. This Review discusses the fundamental concepts of lightwave electronics and outlines key advances and potential applications.
In situ self-assembly is advantageous for cancer therapy and imaging because of the efficient deep-tumour targeting, enhanced blood circulation and negligible drug resistance of the resulting nanomedicines. This Review discusses extracellular and intracellular in situ self-assembly based on endogenous and exogenous stimuli for cancer therapy and imaging applications.
Two-dimensional materials can enable a new generation of flexible and printed electronics suitable for light-weight, low-power, sustainable and cost-effective field-effect transistors. This Review surveys solution-processed transistors based on 2D materials, discussing their performance, limitations and future perspectives.
Combining poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) with 3D-printing techniques enables the customization of compliant conductive materials for soft robotics, towards the goal of merging humans and robots. This Review discusses the fundamentals of 3D-printed PEDOT:PSS for soft robotics, from printable ink design and evaluation to printing strategies and promising soft robotic systems.
UV photodetectors based on low-dimensional wide-bandgap semiconductors offer wearable, multidimensional and intelligent functions in the scenarios of imaging, communication, multispectral and/or weak light detection and flexible electronics. This Review focuses on the material design, dimensionality engineering and device engineering of wide-bandgap semiconductors in diversified UV applications.
Although perovskite solar cells now have competitive efficiencies compared with silicon solar cells, their low stability has hindered their commercial application thus far. This Review summarizes the tremendous improvements made over the past decade and offer a perspective on how to reach >25-year stable perovskite solar cells.
Nanotheranostics — nanoparticle-based systems combining diagnostic and therapeutic functions — hold great promise, but their implementation in the clinic is challenging. This Review discusses the design and clinical development of nanotheranostics and defines the critical steps needed to overcome technical, manufacturing, regulatory and economical challenges for their safe and effective clinical translation.
Owing to the many-body nature of quantum materials, a microscopic understanding of the interactions dictating their ground state is essential to control their dynamics. This Review summarizes how THz light is effective for both probing quantum materials and driving them into new types of out-of-equilibrium phases.
Electrified processes offer a chemical-free approach to the removal of a wide range of contaminants from water, including many that are difficult to remove using conventional methods. This Review discusses the fundamentals of several important electrified processes and highlights the role of electrode materials in contaminant transport and transformation.
Integrating various two-dimensional materials and three-dimensional nanomembranes via van der Waals interactions enables novel hetero-integrated photonic layouts and ways to explore exotic nanophotonic phenomena. This Review discusses photonic van der Waals integration, from film preparation to device implementation.
Understanding the protein corona can advance nanomedicinal developments and elucidate how nanomaterials impact the environment. This Review discusses the evolution and challenges in characterizing the protein corona, explores how artificial intelligence can supplement experimental efforts and exposes emerging opportunities in nanomedicine and the environment.
Ternary organic solar cells adhere to a simple device fabrication strategy and are among the highest performing organic solar cells to date. This Review examines the multiple models of operation that have emerged for ternary cells, highlighting new insights and still-existing gaps in knowledge.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bound nanoscale mediators of intercellular communication. This Review discusses EVs in the context of the extracellular matrix, highlighting how the understanding of their interactions inspires materials design to control the release, retention and production of EVs for various biological and therapeutic applications.
The field of organic electronics has acknowledged that the key to process and device optimization is to elucidate the correlation between the active layer morphology and performance. This Review outlines how this can be achieved using accessible approaches from materials science and classical polymer thermodynamics.
Monolayer-protected metal clusters are a unique class of versatile, atomically precise nanomaterials that have drawn attention in diverse areas of materials science owing to their molecular-like properties. This Review discusses how understanding these properties through tightly connected experimental and computational investigations can strengthen their impact from catalysis to biomedical applications.
Ultrafast spectroscopies enable the characterization of quantum materials and of their functional properties arising from strong correlations and electronic topology. This Review discusses three emerging techniques: attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, solid-state high-harmonic generation spectroscopy and extreme ultraviolet-second harmonic generation spectroscopy.
Biology can help to design materials and approaches for tumour tissue engineering. Biomaterials are a requisite for modelling cancer to rebuild tissue organization, composition and function. This Review discusses bioengineering strategies that recreate the pathophysiology of tumour tissues to address questions in cancer research.
Machine learning is increasingly popular in materials science research. This Review generalizes learnings from applied machine learning in robotics and gameplaying and extends it to materials science. In particular, hybrid approaches combining model-based and data-driven models are seeding the transition from the application of machine learning to discrete tools and workflows towards emergent knowledge.
Clamping devices have been implemented in organ-on-a-chip systems to facilitate on-chip culture of complex biological models, the performance of various readouts and the selection of proper materials. In this Review, we highlight the current status of clamping technology, its benefits and future devices that promise a major impact in the organ-on-a-chip field.
Nucleic acids for gene silencing, expression and editing can precisely target disease at the molecular level but require effective delivery systems. This Review discusses the material and biological principles used to design delivery systems to target specific organs in the body.
