Nanoscale materials articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Simple routes to self-assembling magnetic materials are elusive. Tew and colleagues produce copolymers containing cobalt complexes, which phase separate to give ferromagnetic properties at room temperature following heat treatment.

    • Zoha M. AL-Badri
    • , Raghavendra R. Maddikeri
    •  & Gregory N. Tew

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanocrystals are used in light-emitting diodes and solar cells, but their charge transport in films is unclear. Here, the study of PbS nanocrystal films reveals the role of mid-gap states in their charge transport, suggesting different design needs for devices operated in dark (transistors) versus light (solar cells) conditions.

    • Prashant Nagpal
    •  & Victor I. Klimov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmon resonances occur as collective excitations of surface electrons in noble metal nanoparticles. This study presents a new way of manipulating their behaviour by creating bimetallic dimers which, as a result of their asymmetric composition, give rise to unusual optical properties.

    • Timur Shegai
    • , Si Chen
    •  & Mikael Käll

  • Article |

    Plasmonic nanostructures can be used to manipulate objects larger than the wavelength of light but create thermal heating. In this work, the trapping and controlled rotation of nanoparticles is demonstrated using a plasmonic nanotweezer with a heat sink, predicting a reduction in heating compared with previous designs.

    • Kai Wang
    • , Ethan Schonbrun
    •  & Kenneth B. Crozier

  • Article |

    Hydrogels have a variety of applications including tissue engineering and controlled drug delivery. Here, liquid-crystal hydrogels are developed which transform into a fluid solution upon cooling; cells can be encapsulated in the gel at room temperature, then released at physiological temperatures.

    • Zhegang Huang
    • , Hyojin Lee
    •  & Myongsoo Lee

  • Article |

    Photodetection is believed to be among the most promising potential applications for graphene. Here, by combining graphene with plasmonic nanostructures, the efficiency of graphene-based photodetectors is increased by up to two orders of magnitude.

    • T.J. Echtermeyer
    • , L. Britnell
    •  & K.S. Novoselov

  • Article |

    Composites of carbon nanotubes and superconductors provide technologically important new, or improved, functionalities. Here, with a chemical solution approach, well-aligned carbon nanotube forests embedded in a superconducting NbC matrix are shown to effectively enhance the superconducting properties of NbC.

    • G.F. Zou
    • , H.M. Luo
    •  & Q.X. Jia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Being able to determine the wetting properties of individual nanoparticles would aid the preparation of particles with controlled surface properties. Isaet al. develop an in situ freeze-fracture shadow-casting method and use this to determine structural and thermodynamic properties of various 10 nm particles at fluid interfaces.

    • Lucio Isa
    • , Falk Lucas
    •  & Erik Reimhult

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical manipulation of fullerenes has allowed the production of heptagon-containing fullerenes, but they have not been synthesised using bottom-up approaches. Here, a heptagon-containing fullerene[68] is obtained as C68Cl6from a carbon arc plasma.

    • Yuan-Zhi Tan
    • , Rui-Ting Chen
    •  & Lan-Sun Zheng

  • Article |

    Single-molecule magnets could be useful for the development of spintronic devices. Here single-molecule magnets are encapsulated in carbon nanotubes without affecting the properties of the guest molecules, which may be useful in the development of spintronic or high-density magnetic storage devices.

    • Maria del Carmen Giménez-López
    • , Fabrizio Moro
    •  & Andrei N. Khlobystov

  • Article |

    Covalent reactions on carbon nanotube surfaces typically occur at random positions on the hexagonal lattice. Denget al. show that Billups–Birch reductive alkylation takes place at, and propagates from, sp3defect sites, leading to confinement of the reaction fronts in the tubular direction.

    • Shunliu Deng
    • , Yin Zhang
    •  & YuHuang Wang

  • Article |

    The unoccupied electronic levels of graphene are modified by corrugation, doping and presence of impurities. Here, the authors map discrete electronic domains within a single graphene sheet using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy and provide insight into the modification of unoccupied levels.

    • Brian J. Schultz
    • , Christopher J. Patridge
    •  & Sarbajit Banerjee

  • Article |

    Waveplates are used in optoelectronics to alter the polarization of light, but they do not typically perform achromatically, which is important for applications such as three-dimensional displays. Here, biologically inspired periodically multilayered structures are produced, which function as achromatic visible-light waveplates.

    • Yi-Jun Jen
    • , Akhlesh Lakhtakia
    •  & Jyun-Rong Lai

  • Article |

    Optoelectronic devices such as conventional semiconductor lasers are used to study the chaotic behaviour of nonlinear systems. Here chaos is observed for quantum-dot microlasers operating close to the quantum limit with potential for new directions in the study of chaos in quantum systems.

    • Ferdinand Albert
    • , Caspar Hopfmann
    •  & Ido Kanter

  • Article |

    Single nanoparticles are known to emit light intermittently, or 'blink', but the mechanisms describing this phenomenon are not fully understood. This study demonstrates that, for small clusters of blinking nanoparticles, the number of particles within a cluster dramatically influences blinking time.

    • Siying Wang
    • , Claudia Querner
    •  & Marija Drndic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoparticles continue to find research and industrial applications, but no single technique exists to characterise their physical properties. Now, an analytical ultracentrifugation method is described which allows the simulataneous determination of nanoparticle size, density and molecular weight distribution.

    • Randy P. Carney
    • , Jin Young Kim
    •  & Osman M. Bakr

  • Article |

    Lithium–sulphur batteries may achieve higher energy densities than conventional lithium-ion cells, but the dissolution of sulphur intermediates is a continuing challenge. Here this problem is overcome using a cathode with a mesoporous structure that is able to accommodate intermediate polysulphide anions.

    • Xiulei Ji
    • , Scott Evers
    •  & Linda F. Nazar

  • Article |

    Solid gold is most stable as a face-centred cubic structure, and stable colloidal gold with hexagonal close packing has not been produced. Huanget al.prepare square gold sheets with hexagonal close packing that are stable under ambient conditions.

    • Xiao Huang
    • , Shaozhou Li
    •  & Hua Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Temperature-controlled regulation of thermal conductivity is difficult to achieve because thermal properties do not change significantly through solid-state phase transitions. Here temperature control of thermal conductivities is demonstrated using liquid–solid phase transitions in a nanoparticle suspension.

    • Ruiting Zheng
    • , Jinwei Gao
    •  & Gang Chen

  • Article |

    Melting-related phenomena are of fundamental and applied interest, but the melting theory is poorly understood. Levitas and Samani develop an advanced phase-field theory of melting coupled to mechanics that resolves existing contradictions and reveals the features of melting phenomena.

    • Valery I Levitas
    •  & Kamran Samani

  • Article |

    Infrared cameras are used for night vision and in medical diagnostics, but currently only present monochrome images. Krishnaet al. demonstrate a monolithically intergrated plasmonic infrared quantum dot camera as a step towards coloured infrared imaging.

    • Sang Jun Lee
    • , Zahyun Ku
    •  & Sam Kyu Noh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron–hole exchange interaction is an intrinsic property of semiconductors, which affects their fine structure. Brovelliet al. demonstrate a nanoengineering-based approach that provides control over the exchange interaction energy at nearly constant emission energy, which cannot be carried out using core-only nanocrystals.

    • S. Brovelli
    • , R.D. Schaller
    •  & V.I. Klimov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoantennas may be important for future photonic circuits; they combine an emitter or detector with free-space propagation of light. Dregelyet al. fabricate an array of 3D optical Yagi–Uda nanoantennas and show that radiofrequency antenna array concepts applied to the optical regime can provide improved directional properties.

    • Daniel Dregely
    • , Richard Taubert
    •  & Harald Giessen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Embedding carbon fibres in polymer matrices provides significant gains in strength and stiffness. Here, the Raman G peak of carbon fibre is studied in relation to applied strain and referenced to graphene; the work could facilitate stress measurements of carbon fibre polymer composites.

    • Otakar Frank
    • , Georgia Tsoukleri
    •  & Costas Galiotis

  • Article |

    Graphene and InAs nanowires are both promising materials for coherent spin manipulation, but coupling between a quantum system and its environment leads to decoherence. Here, the contribution of electron–phonon coupling to decoherence in graphene and InAs nanowire is studied.

    • P. Roulleau
    • , S. Baer
    •  & T. Ihn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have potential catalysis, filtration and sensing applications, but device fabrication will require controlled MOF growth. Here, α-hopeite microparticles are used to achieve spatial control of MOF nucleation, and accelerate MOF growth.

    • Paolo Falcaro
    • , Anita J. Hill
    •  & Dario Buso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The performance of micromechanical and nanomechanical resonators is often hampered by mechanical damping. In this study, the authors demonstrate a numerical solver for the prediction of support-induced losses in these structures and verify experimentally the fidelity of this method.

    • Garrett D. Cole
    • , Ignacio Wilson-Rae
    •  & Markus Aspelmeyer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In molecular spintronics, the spin state of a molecule may be switched by changing the molecular structure. Here, the spin of a single-molecule magnet is switched by applying an electric current using a scanning tunnelling microscope, which may aid in information coding at the single-molecule level.

    • Tadahiro Komeda
    • , Hironari Isshiki
    •  & Masahiro Yamashita

  • Article |

    Polycrystalline substrates are a hindrance to the realization of high-definition plasmonic nanostructures. In this paper the authors chemically grow large and thin gold single crystals, and show that they can be coupled with top-down fabrication methods to produce high-quality nanostructures with good optical properties.

    • Jer-Shing Huang
    • , Victor Callegari
    •  & Bert Hecht

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deformations in nanocrystals smaller than 10 nm are not well understood. The authors perform compression high-resolution transmission electron microscopy studies of gold nanoparticles, and determine that the nanoparticles deform through the emission of partial dislocations from free surfaces.

    • He Zheng
    • , Ajing Cao
    •  & Scott X. Mao

  • Article |

    The imaging of magnetic domains in three-dimensional solids has been hampered by a lack of suitable methods. The authors show that Talbot-Lau neutron tomography is capable of visualizing the domain structure of an iron silicide bulk crystal.

    • I. Manke
    • , N. Kardjilov
    •  & J. Banhart

  • Article |

    Energy harvesting through mechanical actions of nanosized components could be useful for powering mobile electronics. Here, the authors grow lead zirconate nanowire arrays at comparatively low temperature and use them to power a macroscopic laser diode.

    • Sheng Xu
    • , Benjamin J. Hansen
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Frataxin is an essential protein that has been linked to iron–sulphur cluster assembly, and reduced levels are associated with Friedrich's ataxia. In this study, a combination of techniques is used to probe the interactions of the bacterial frataxin orthologue CyaY with the iron–sulphur cluster assembly machinery.

    • Filippo Prischi
    • , Petr V. Konarev
    •  & Annalisa Pastore

  • Article |

    Flicker noise in nanoscale field effect transistors deviates from the simple frequency-dependent behaviour of macroscale objects. Here the authors show that Coulomb repulsion between nearby trap sites leads to an order of magnitude reduction in noise in these devices.

    • N. Clément
    • , K. Nishiguchi
    •  & D. Vuillaume

  • Article |

    The assembly of nanoparticles into stoichiometry-controlled structures could lead to materials with novel properties and functions. Here, reaction systems are developed, which allow the rational assembly of differently functionalized gold nanoparticles (A and B) to give AB, AB2, AB3 and AB4nanoclusters.

    • Yong Wang
    • , Gang Chen
    •  & Hongyu Chen

  • Article |

    The mass production of high-quality reduced graphene oxide could aid the scale-up of graphene-based technologies. Here, a one-pot reduction of graphene oxide using hydriodic acid and acetic acid provides large quantities of highly conductive reduced graphene oxide.

    • In Kyu Moon
    • , Junghyun Lee
    •  & Hyoyoung Lee

  • Article |

    The spontaneous ordering of molecules into two-dimensional arrays is usually a result of directional intermolecular interactions. Here, it is shown that electrospray-deposited Mn12(acetate)16forms filamentary aggregates driven by anisotropic interactions, which are a consequence of the complex shape of the molecule.

    • Alex Saywell
    • , Graziano Magnano
    •  & Peter H. Beton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    At room temperature, glasses are known to be brittle and fracture upon deformation. Zhenget al. show that, by exposing amorphous silica nanostructures to a low-intensity electron beam, it is possible to achieve dramatic shape changes, including a superplastic elongation of 200% for nanowires.

    • Kun Zheng
    • , Chengcai Wang
    •  & Evan Ma

  • Article |

    Miniaturizing fuel cells for biological applications is challenging due to poor performance at these small scales. Now Gao and coworkers show that electrodes made with porous microfibers composed of oriented carbon nanotubes are capable of delivering fast mass transport of the reagents and greatly enhanced currents.

    • Feng Gao
    • , Lucie Viry
    •  & Nicolas Mano

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