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A coating made from densely packed hydroxyapatite particles in an organic matrix endows the dactyl club of mantis shrimps with high stiffness and energy damping.
Combining quantum effects with conductivity modulation in complex oxides requires mutually exclusive criteria, making applications difficult. Using tip-induced electrical generation of anti-Frenkel defects, conducting features in Er(Mn,Ti)O3 are written with nanoscale precision while keeping structural integrity.
A laser-based patterning method enables the fast fabrication of high-quality two- and three-dimensional features in polydimethylsiloxane for microfluidics and biomedical applications.
Although some transition metal oxide-based electrodes exhibit high storage capacities beyond theoretical values, the underlying physicochemical mechanism remains elusive. Surface capacitance on metal nanoparticles involving spin-polarized electrons is now shown to be consistent with a space charge mechanism.
Monochromatic electron energy-loss spectroscopy enables the observation of highly confined and ultraslow hyperbolic phonon polaritons in suspended monolayer hexagonal boron nitride, expanding the potential of van der Waals materials for nanophotonic applications.
Solution processability is required for many industrial processes, but metal–organic frameworks are in general not dispersible, hindering their application. Here, a surface modification is reported that allows porous liquid formation and so synthesis of highly loaded and mechanically robust mixed matrix membranes.
Efficient nanoparticle delivery into tumours has been a challenge in the field. It is now shown that the efficiency can be improved substantially when the dose breaches a specific threshold.
Nanosized zeolites enable better catalytic performance; however, their synthesis is non-trivial. Here, a simple treatment is presented that enables the growth of nanosized fins on zeolites that act as pseudo-nanoparticles, reducing deactivation rates for methanol-to-hydrocarbon catalysis.
Numerical simulations allow the prediction of domain morphology, from aligned to stretched and isotropic, in crystalline organic thin films formed by meniscus-guided coating, as a function of various deposition parameters.
The characteristic length scale and mechanism of the metal–insulator transition in nickelate superlattices is addressed, with implications for the design of oxide electronics.
Photo-excited gold nanoparticles are shown to provide ultrafast and efficient hot-hole injection to the valence band of p-type GaN, substantially altering hot-electron dynamics in the nanoparticles and forming a basis to design hot-hole-based optoelectronics.
Hybrid colloidal suprastructures and superlattices are assembled by exploring depletion forces to selectively control the interactions between colloidal particles.
Lithium metal is considered an ideal anode for high-energy rechargeable lithium batteries, but understanding its nucleation and growth at the nanoscale remains challenging. Using cryogenic transmission electron microscopy and simulations, a structural and morphological evolution scenario for Li deposits is proposed.
Spin qubits in systems with strong spin–orbit coupling can be electrically controlled, but are usually affected by short coherence times. Here, coherence times up to 10 ms are obtained for strain-engineered hole states bound to boron acceptors in silicon 28.
Deployment of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells is limited by the durability of Pt-nanoscale catalysts during cathodic oxygen reduction reactions. Dissolution processes on single crystalline and thin film surfaces are now correlated leading to the design of PtAu catalysts with suppressed dissolution.
Hyperspectral Raman imaging is used to visualize defects in polycrystalline graphene under ion bombardment, showing zero-dimensional and one-dimensional defects in grains and at grain boundaries, respectively, and preferential self-healing at the grain boundaries.
Infrared nanoimaging of phonon polaritons in twisted α-phase molybdenum trioxide bilayers reveals tunable wavefront geometries and topological transitions over a broad range of twist angles, offering a configurable platform for nanophotonic applications.
Carbon nanotubes with 2 nm channel radius are shown to display pressure-driven ionic currents, which share some similarities to the response of biological mechanosensitive ion channels to tension.