Surface chemistry articles within Nature Materials

Featured

  • Article |

    Gold nanoclusters show promise as photothermal materials, but are often thermally unstable. Here ligand engineering is used to integrate molecular rotors with gold nanoclusters to dissipate thermal energy and improve photothermal therapy performance.

    • Jing Chen
    • , Peilin Gu
    •  & Chunhai Fan

  • Article |

    Trapped films of air known as plastrons are promising for underwater engineering but typically have short lifetimes. Here, aerophilic titanium alloy surfaces are developed with thermodynamically stabilized plastrons for antifouling applications.

    • Alexander B. Tesler
    • , Stefan Kolle
    •  & Wolfgang H. Goldmann

  • News & Views |

    A second-harmonic generation approach enables the direct measurement of the potential of zero charge at electrochemical interfaces.

    • Jan Rossmeisl

  • Article |

    The electric field created at an electrode–electrolyte interface can polarize the electrode’s surface and nearby molecules. Although its effect can be countered by an applied potential, quantifying the value of this potential is difficult. An optical method for determining the potential of zero charge at an electrochemical interface is now presented.

    • Pengtao Xu
    • , Alexander D. von Rueden
    •  & Jin Suntivich

  • Article |

    Non-classical crystallization may proceed through formation of intermediate phases, but it is not known whether these are linked to the final crystallization. Here, using an atomic force microscope at 90 bar, brucite carbonation is directly observed, with an amorphous intermediate acting as the seed for crystalline nesquehonite.

    • Xin Zhang
    • , Alan S. Lea
    •  & Kevin M. Rosso

  • Perspective |

    Chiral surfaces are fundamental materials for the preparation of enantiomerically pure pharmaceuticals. This Perspective discusses the recent advances in the fabrication of chiral surfaces and the progress towards scalable, high-surface-area, enantiomerically pure surfaces.

    • Nisha Shukla
    •  & Andrew J. Gellman

  • Article |

    The interaction of water with TiO2 is crucial for applications such as photocatalytic water splitting. The interfacial structure between water and rutile TiO2 is now shown to consist of an array of hydroxyl molecules with water in the second layer.

    • H. Hussain
    • , G. Tocci
    •  & G. Thornton

  • Review Article |

    The role of surface ligands in tuning the optoelectronic properties, controlling the stability and determining the performance in applications of colloidal nanocrystals is discussed in this Review.

    • Michael A. Boles
    • , Daishun Ling
    •  & Dmitri V. Talapin

  • Article |

    The interaction between perovskite oxides and water can have a significant influence on practical performance. Here the authors study the dynamics of surface water adsorption and hydroxide formation during monolayer formation on a ruthenate.

    • Daniel Halwidl
    • , Bernhard Stöger
    •  & Ulrike Diebold

  • News & Views |

    The finding of a sharp interface between a chemically attacked surface and the pristine bulk in a borosilicate glass is at odds with the widely held diffusion-based mechanisms of glass durability.

    • Andrew Putnis

  • Commentary |

    To design reliable and safe geological repositories it is critical to understand how the characteristics of spent nuclear fuel evolve with time, and how this affects the storage environment.

    • Rodney C. Ewing

  • Letter |

    Although the coarsening of catalytically active metal clusters can be accelerated by the presence of gases, the role played by gas molecules is difficult to ascertain. Carbon monoxide-induced coalescence of Pd adatoms supported on a Fe3O4 surface is now investigated at room temperature, and Pd-carbonyl species are shown to be responsible for their mobility.

    • Gareth S. Parkinson
    • , Zbynek Novotny
    •  & Ulrike Diebold

  • Letter |

    The optical and electronic performance of inorganic nanocrystal assemblies stabilized by organic ligands has been extensively investigated, whereas less attention has been paid to their thermal transport properties. It is now shown that the thermal conductivity of these composite systems is determined by the vibrational states of both inorganic and ligand regions, as well as by their relative volumes.

    • Wee-Liat Ong
    • , Sara M. Rupich
    •  & Jonathan A. Malen

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