Chemistry articles within Nature Materials

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  • News & Views |

    The functionalization of crystalline porous materials is frequently limited to groups inert to the microscopic structure. Photoconversion of dormant precursors into highly reactive species shines light on the problem.

    • Matthew J. Rosseinsky

  • News & Views |

    The versatility and potential of conjugated organic materials continues to amaze, with their unique — and sometimes unexpected — properties being continuously discovered and harnessed by scientists in an attempt to use them in functional devices.

    • Vitaly Podzorov

  • Article |

    Synthetic solid-state nanopores are of interest at present for their use as single-molecule sensors for characterization and detection of biomolecules. By using self-assembly evaporation and atomic-layer deposition, kinked silica nanopores are shown to exhibit reduction in DNA-translocation velocity and selectivity.

    • Zhu Chen
    • , Yingbing Jiang
    •  & C. Jeffrey Brinker

  • Letter |

    Friction between two surfaces is usually studied at low relative sliding speeds. A molecular dynamics study now explores friction at high speeds, showing the emergence of a ballistic friction regime, qualitatively different from standard drift friction. The findings might have important implications for applications in nanoelectromechanical systems.

    • Roberto Guerra
    • , Ugo Tartaglino
    •  & Erio Tosatti

  • News & Views |

    A new route to layer-by-layer assembly of metal–organic framework thin films affords highly ordered and controllable surfaces with potential in chemical sensing and catalyst applications.

    • Mark A. Green

  • News & Views |

    The prediction of interface structures is an uncertain and time-consuming task. A technique merging ab initio calculations with a genetic algorithm simplifies the process and provides suitable solutions of the atomic structures that would be hard to envisage a priori.

    • W. Craig Carter

  • Article |

    Despite recent advances in lithium batteries, fundamental issues of practical importance such as energy efficiency have not been adequately considered. A general model for the occurrence of inherent hysteretic behaviour in insertion storage systems containing multiple particles is now proposed.

    • Wolfgang Dreyer
    • , Janko Jamnik
    •  & Miran Gaberšček

  • News & Views |

    β-sheet stack structures in protein crystals are held together with some of nature's weakest links: hydrogen bonds. It turns out that the size of the crystal stack makes a difference to its strength — and smaller is better.

    • Christine Semmrich
    •  & Andreas R. Bausch

  • News & Views |

    A plethora of chemical tools is necessary for probing the surface reconstruction of a complex metal oxide.

    • Ulrike Diebold

  • Letter |

    While superconductivity experts investigate the fundamental properties of iron pnictides, it is worth wondering whether the properties of these materials are good enough for applications. A strategy for growing high-quality BaFe2As2 thin films shows that the use of an appropriate buffer layer allows very high critical currents to be reached.

    • S. Lee
    • , J. Jiang
    •  & C. B. Eom

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