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New zeolitic materials have shown high performance in emerging applications across diverse areas. This Review focuses on the advances in zeolite applications, including the catalytic production of hydrocarbons and oxygenates from non-petrochemical feedstocks, the efficient separation of hydrocarbon mixtures that are otherwise challenging, and host–guest assemblies with unprecedented physical properties.
Rechargeable Li metal batteries are currently limited by electrolyte decomposition and rapid Li consumption. Li plating and stripping greatly depend on the solid electrolyte interphase formed at the Li metal–liquid electrolyte interface. This Review discusses the reactions occurring at this interface from a corrosion science perspective, highlighting the requirements for an ideal passivation layer.
Metal oxides are widely used in photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic systems for fuel synthesis and environmental remediation. In this Review, we examine the kinetic challenges, from charge generation to water oxidation catalysis, that determine the performance of metal oxide photo(electro)catalysts.
Lipid nanoparticle–mRNA formulations have entered the clinic as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, marking an important milestone for mRNA therapeutics. This Review discusses lipid nanoparticle design for mRNA delivery, highlighting key points for clinical translation and preclinical studies of lipid nanoparticle–mRNA therapeutics for various diseases.
Machine learning is enabling a metallurgical renaissance. This Review discusses recent progress in representations, descriptors and interatomic potentials, overviewing metallic glasses, high-entropy alloys, superalloys and shape-memory alloys, magnets and catalysts, and the prediction of mechanical and thermal properties.
High-throughput experimental technologies can generate large data sets of cell-type-specific information, allowing the study of multicellular complexity. This Review discusses machine learning approaches, in particular, deep learning and network-based models, which can be applied to analyse, interpret and model these data sets.
The field of magnonics studies the dynamic excitations of a magnetically ordered material. This Review surveys coherent magnonics, discussing the design of spin-wave devices and the use of magnon Bose–Einstein condensates to enable a broad range of applications.
Machine learning can be applied for the controlled synthesis of nanoparticles with precise properties. This Review discusses different machine learning approaches for the synthesis of semiconductor, metal, carbon-based and polymeric nanoparticles, and highlights key approaches for the collection of large datasets.
Topological qubits are attractive because of the potential to store quantum information in a topologically protected manner; however, they are challenging to realize. This Review surveys the recent attempts to realize topological qubits out of materials systems that combine superconductivity, spin–orbit coupling and a magnetic field, and surveys both theoretical ideas and experimental results.
Intravenously injected renal-clearable optical agents (RCOAs) are rapidly cleared by the kidneys, allowing disease diagnosis and treatment by optical imaging, while avoiding unwanted tissue accumulation and adverse effects. This Review discusses the design of RCOAs for kidney imaging, kidney injury detection, cancer theranostics, intraoperative image-guided surgery and optical urinalysis.
Metal halide perovskites (MHPs) have substantial potential for solar cell applications. This Review critically assesses recent advances in elucidating the physical and chemical activity of defects in both high-bandgap and low-bandgap MHPs, and correlates it to performance and stability losses.
Sodium batteries are promising candidates for mitigating the supply risks associated with lithium batteries. This Review compares the two technologies in terms of fundamental principles and specific materials, and assesses the performance of commercial prototype sodium cells.
Myriad complex colloidal particles have been engineered to investigate the growth of microscopic architectures from the bottom up. This Review provides a framework for the synthesis of such particles using an analogy to traditional total synthesis, describing how elementary particles are combined and transformed into new forms of colloidal matter.
Inorganic–polymer composites have emerged as viable solid electrolytes for the mass production of solid-state batteries. In this Review, we examine the properties and design of inorganic–polymer composite electrolytes, discuss the processing technologies for multilayer and multiphase composite structures, and outline the challenges of integrating composite electrolytes into solid-state batteries.
Electrochemical ion insertion is rapidly emerging as a powerful materials design strategy. This Review discusses how ion insertion enables reversible transformation and switching of physico-chemical properties, the role of defects and interfacial reactions, and opportunities for ultrafast ionic control.
Multifunctional nanostructures are explored for smart cancer nanomedicine. This Review discusses nanostructures made of biomolecules, including polysaccharides, nucleic acids, peptides and proteins, which are inherently multifunctional and allow the targeting and delivery of cancer drugs to tumour tissue.
Weyl fermions have yet to be observed as elementary particles but can be realized in topological quantum materials. This Review discusses the theoretical and experimental discovery of emergent Weyl fermions, high-fold chiral fermions, topological Weyl lines and related Dirac phases.
Defect-based spin qubits offer a versatile platform for creating solid-state quantum devices. This Review is a guide for understanding the properties and applications of current spin defects, and provides a framework for designing, engineering and discovering new qubit candidates
Osmotic energy conversion is a promising renewable energy source. This Review discusses nanofluidics-based osmotic energy conversion systems, investigating the principles of ion diffusion in nanofluidic systems, optimization of membrane architectures to increase energy conversion and possible integration with other technologies, such as water splitting.
Phase transformations in 2D materials have distinct kinetic and thermodynamic features, resulting from their reduced dimensionality and unique interactions. This Review discusses the properties of phase transitions and defects in 2D materials, and examines technological applications and challenges in the study of 2D phase transitions.
