Volume 15 Issue 9, September 2020

Two studies on sub-micrometre plastic particles provide evidence of plastic accumulation in terrestrial plants.

Lattices of magnetic whirls are a promising model system to study phases and phase transitions in two dimensions.

Breaking the mirror symmetry in twisted bilayer MoSe₂ results in large scale exciton dipole oriented domains in a two-dimensional homostructure.

Overcoming the challenges of plastic detection in plants has made it possible to transfer many of the lessons learned from plant–metal nanoparticle interactions to plastic nanoparticles.

The operationalization and improvement of environmental exposure assessment models for engineered nanomaterials can build on ten emerging principles relating to their release pathways, waste handling, transformations, influence of the properties on reactions and role that organisms can play in their fate and transport.

A MoS₂ transistor with chiral nanocrescent plasmonic antennae enables the generation, propagation, detection and manipulation of valley information at room temperature.

Domain-resolved spectroscopy reveals the impact of local atomic registry and crystal symmetry on the exciton properties of individual domains in near-0°-twist-angle MoSe₂/MoSe₂.

The accumulation of nanoplastics in terrestrial plants is directly linked to the nanoparticles’ charge and can have ecological effects and implications for agricultural sustainability and food safety.

While in 3D materials melting is a single, first-order phase transition, in 2D systems, it can also proceed via an intermediate phase. For a skyrmion lattice in Cu₂OSeO₃, magnetic field variations can tune this quasiparticle 2D solid into a skyrmion liquid via an intermediate hexatic phase with short-range translational and quasi-long-range orientational order.

The realization of high-quality van der Waals contacts on monocrystalline halide perovskite thin films enables the probing of their long-range carrier and photocarrier transport properties.

A memristor-based artificial dendrite enables the neural network to perform high-accuracy computation tasks with reduced power consumption.

Gene brushes patterned as synthetic operons on two-dimensional silicon compartments with defined geometry allow the investigation and regulation of nanoscale multi-protein assemblies.

Volatile reporter molecules released by protease-sensing nanoparticles can serve as breath biomarkers for monitoring respiratory disease.

A screening-level analysis that considers system-wide benefits and costs is used to identify opportunities where engineered nanomaterials can advance the sustainability of crop-based agriculture.