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With the extension of a popular computational method to its tensorial analogue, structural configurations that optimize anisotropic physical quantities can now be predicted.
In an identification parade of chemical reactions using a single-electrode system, the charges generated by the mechanical rubbing of insulators are shown to be electrons rather than ions.
Meeting their biological counterparts halfway, artificial molecular machines embedded in liquid crystals, crystalline solids and mesoporous materials are poised to meet the demands of the next generation of functional materials.
The spectral complexity shown by conjugated polymers has been explained by interactions between chromophores in tangled chains, but experiments on model oligomers reveal that it may arise from the chromophores themselves.
A chemically driven process turns the classic insulator, gallium oxide, into a metal by the formation of a heterogeneous mixture of crystalline and amorphous regions.
The combination of high-mobility charge transport and efficient luminescence in one material has so far proved elusive in semiconducting polymers. Varying the side groups on a single polymer can improve both properties simultaneously.
Sea cucumber skin is the architectural basis for polymer nanocomposites that can adapt their mechanical properties in response to biomedically relevant chemical stimuli, in a similar fashion to the animals' self-defence mechanism.
The systematic development of phase-change materials has been hampered by experimental and computational difficulties. The first successful modelling of the full phase-change cycle therefore closes an important gap.
The successful synthesis of highly crystalline Cs3C60, exhibiting superconductivity up to a record temperature for fullerides of 38 K, demonstrates a powerful synthetic route for investigating the origin of superconductivity in this class of materials.
The interplay of various mechanical forces leads to characteristic shapes of torn adhesive films. Analysis of these shapes provides potential for new approaches to material characterization.
The discovery of magnetically induced electric polarization in cupric oxide at 230 K has uncovered a new class of multiferroics with significantly higher ordering temperatures.
A method of writing and erasing conducting nanostructures at the interface between the wide-bandgap insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 is presented. New developments for ultrahigh-density information storage look feasible.
The new generation of hydrogels moves away from the bulk materials of old, to those with multilayered, complex internal structures and controllable physical properties.
Crystallography and microscopy are alternative pathways for investigating the structure of small objects. More elaborate techniques are needed at length scales where atomic clusters become nanocrystals.
Simplification in large-area manufacturing of complex organic electronics is a critical step towards ubiquitous, flexible, portable applications; why not make the molecules do the work?
The mechanical properties of granular matter are affected by the addition of liquid — however, over a wide range, the actual amount of liquid is unimportant. Now, imaging techniques look inside the wet granular pile, or 'sandcastle', to help solve this puzzle.
