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The basement membrane stiffness is shown to be a more dominant determinant than pore size in regulating cancer cell invasion, metastasis formation and patient survival. This stiffness is now known to be affected by the ratio of netrin-4 to laminin, with more netrin-4 leading to softer basement membranes.
The moiré pattern that is formed between well-aligned graphene and hexagonal boron nitride can modify the properties of WSe2 (placed close by without intentional angle alignment), leading to the formation of a mini Brillouin zone and the folding of the bands in WSe2.
Metal-fluoride-based lithium-ion battery cathodes are typically classified as conversion materials because reconstructive phase transitions are presumed to occur upon lithiation. Metal fluoride lithiation is now shown to be dominated instead by diffusion-controlled displacement mechanisms.
Molecular motors destroy a microtubule lattice as they walk on it, but it is now shown that a self-healing process incorporates new dimers in the damaged regions and prevents microtubule disassembly.
Assembly of magic-sized nanoclusters into suprastructures leads to enhanced luminescence and catalytic activity for CO2 conversion while substantially extending their ambient stability.
Femtosecond optical pulses are used to generate coherent phonons that break inversion symmetry and drive anisotropic terahertz photocurrents in the topological material ZrTe5.
The thickness dependence of the dispersion of spin waves in mesoscopic iron films is measured and found to be renormalized in the out-of-plane direction as the thickness is reduced. The results are captured by a Heisenberg model that accounts for the confinement in the out-of-plane direction through the loss of Fe bonds.
The atomic process of grain boundary migration has been directly observed by scanning transmission electron microscopy, revealing transformations between different stable or metastable grain boundary structures.
A symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast is used to fabricate bacterial cellulose-based living materials that respond to external cues and adapt their structural and functional properties, with implications for sensing and catalytic applications.
Structure–activity relationships built on descriptors of surfaces can help to design electrocatalysts, but their identification for electrochemically driven surface transformations is challenging. The composition of LaNiO3 thin film surfaces can now dictate surface transformation and activity of the oxygen evolution reaction.
Studies on the morphology stability of polymer donor–small-molecule acceptor blends relevant to solar cell stability reveal relationships between their intermolecular interactions and the thermodynamic, kinetic, thermal and mechanical properties.
Understanding the origin of unprecedented solar-to-hydrogen efficiencies in doped SrTiO3 has proved challenging. Linking in situ charge accumulation to electronic structure in this system now reveals design principles for hydrogen-evolving photocatalysts.
Sodium ion batteries could be an attractive alternative to Li-ion technology but designing high energy density and moisture stable Na-based cathodes is challenging. Adjusting synthesis conditions and stoichiometry, an O3-type NaLi1/3Mn2/3O2 phase with anionic redox activity is reported.
Ferroelectric superlattices can present a rich variety of phenomena. Here, in PbTiO3/SrRuO3 superlattices, it is shown that a complex and stable hierarchical supercrystal can form, with the correlated metal of the SrRuO3 layers showing large curvatures.
Angle-resolved photoemission evidence for a three-dimensional higher-order topological insulator is presented. This work demonstrates that stacking configurations can be utilized to realize different topological phases.
Hydrogen doping and polymer adsorption at the oxide surface of liquid metal microparticles increase the conductivity and viscoplastic behaviour of the oxide, leading to liquid-metal-based printed circuits with stable resistance up to 500% strain.
A broad range of characterization techniques is used to understand the dominant electron conduction in various p-type doped π-conjugated polymers, which show p-type and n-type thermoelectric power factors depending on the dopant concentration.
Periodic patterns with varying cross-linking densities are realized in conjugated polydiacetylene films, creating multiple holographic images—all dynamically responsive to exposure to various solvents—simultaneously in the same polymeric structures.
Scanning electron microscopy is used to image stacking domains in few-layer graphene, as well as moiré patterns in twisted van der Waals heterostructures, allowing for the correlation of the local structure with their excitonic properties.