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A requirement for the reversible mechanical actuation of liquid-crystal elastomers is macroscale alignment. However, current processing techniques do not achieve reliable and robust alignment, which limits the practical use of these materials as actuators and artificial muscles. It is now shown that by introducing polymers with exchangeable covalent bonds, liquid-crystal elastomers can be easily processed and aligned, and subsequently remodelled.
Photoelectrochemical water-splitting devices require integrating electrocatalysts with light-absorbing semiconductors, but understanding charge-transfer processes at interfaces has proved difficult. Ion-permeable electrocatalysts deposited onto TiO2 photoelectrodes now result in adaptive semiconductor/electrocatalyst junctions where both the effective interface barrier height and the photovoltage output change depending on the oxidation state of the electrocatalyst.
In wound healing, skin cells collectively migrate to maintain tissue cohesion despite the existence of inhomogeneities in the extracellular environment within the wound bed. Yet how the cell collective responds to heterogeneities in the extracellular matrix is not well understood. Now, it is shown that migrating human keratinocyte cell sheets form suspended multicellular bridges over non-adhesive regions on micropatterned substrates comprising alternating strips of fibronectin and non-adherent polymer.
The photoluminescent properties of electron spins at nitrogen–vacancy (NV) centres are promising for use in quantum information and magnetometry. It is now shown that the coherence times of NV centres in nanodiamonds can be engineered to be comparable to those of bulk diamond.
Failure caused by dendrite growth in rechargeable batteries with lithium metal anodes has prevented their widespread applicability. A microtomography study on lithium–polymer–lithium cells now reveals that at the early stage of dendrite formation dendritic structures lie within the electrode, underneath the polymer/electrode interface.
Lanthanide-doped nanocrystals can be used to upconvert infrared radiation into visible light, and are thought to be promising for a range of photonic and biological imaging applications. It is now shown that the upconversion efficiency can be improved by appropriately clustering the lanthanide ions on different structural sublattices.
Layered oxides are promising for many applications ranging from energy conversion and storage to magnetic and electric devices. The oxygen storage ability of ferroelectric LuFe2O4+x is now demonstrated and the storage mechanism is believed to be governed by a complex oxygen intercalation/de-intercalation process with several intermediate metastable states.
Scanning probe techniques reveal an intricate interplay between the formation of structural domains in strontium titanate and electronic transport effects at oxide interfaces.
Measurements of the structure and organization of intact bone samples show that water plays a significant role in orienting bone apatite crystals, and that such ordering is mediated by an amorphous mineral coating layer.
Mixed-halide organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites are reported to display electron–hole diffusion lengths over 1 μm. This observation provides important insight into the charge-carrier dynamics of this class of semiconductors and increases the expectations for highly efficient and cheap solar cells.
Adult cells can be routinely reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells by chemical and genetic means, such as the expression of a cocktail of exogenous transcription factors. It is now shown that growing cells on substrates with aligned features such as microgrooves can enhance this process.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 celebrates the use of computer simulations to model complex chemical systems using multiscale approaches. Taken in a broad sense, these ideas and techniques extend well beyond chemistry.
The efficiency of organic blends used for photovoltaic applications depends on their ability to convert photoexcited charges into free holes and electrons. It is now demonstrated that the lowermost energetic states formed at the donor/acceptor interface can reach conversion efficiencies close to 100%, and therefore do not behave as traps for charge carriers.
