Engineering articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Indoor sound fields are disordered due to reflections and multiple scattering, which scrambles acoustic communication. Here, based on tunable metasurfaces and communication theories, the authors demonstrate multi-channel, multi-spectral, cross-talk-free acoustic communication in a room.

    • Hongkuan Zhang
    • , Qiyuan Wang
    •  & Guancong Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kinks define boundaries between distinct configurations of a material. Here, the authors reveal the emergence of propagating kinks in purely dissipative kirigami and show that such structures can shape-change into different textures depending on how fast they are stretched enabling basic mechanical tasks.

    • Shahram Janbaz
    •  & Corentin Coulais

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tissue adhesives have received significant interest for their clinical utility but are typically incompatible with advanced manufacturing methods. Here, the authors introduce a 3D printable tissue adhesive for the fabrication of patches and devices for diverse biomedical applications.

    • Sarah J. Wu
    • , Jingjing Wu
    •  & Xuanhe Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stretchable sensor networks with multiplexing designs can result in misrecognition due to electrical signal interferences from the sensing nodes and internal circuits. Here, Shao et al. show an untethered triboelectric electronic skin with an elastic composite-based shield layer for lower misrecognition rate.

    • Beibei Shao
    • , Ming-Han Lu
    •  & Ying-Chih Lai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sensitivity-dependent data analysis methods disrupted the development of artificial olfactory technologies. Here, authors present a data-centric artificial olfactory system based on eigengraph that reflects the intrinsic electrochemical interaction.

    • Seung-Hyun Sung
    • , Jun Min Suh
    •  & Seong Chan Jun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Due to recent fluctuations in lithium prices, the instability of lithium-ion batteries prices is on the rise. Here, through a re-evaluation of purity criteria, the authors report that the presence of magnesium impurity in lithium precursor actually improves cathode performance, economics, and environmental aspects.

    • Gogwon Choe
    • , Hyungsub Kim
    •  & Yong-Tae Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Elemental immiscibility limits the development of solid solution materials. Here, authors create a nonequilibrium flame aerosol method to mix nearly any pair of metal elements in a single-phase nano-ceramic. Also, an exsolution behavior is presented to produce active and stable nanoparticles.

    • Shuo Liu
    • , Chaochao Dun
    •  & Mark T. Swihart

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Micropollutant removal in polymeric nanofiltration membranes is difficult to characterise due to pore heterogeneity. A force interplay framework was developed to describe adsorption in VaCNT membranes with defined nanopores, providing insight for the design of membranes with improved selectivity.

    • Minh N. Nguyen
    • , Melinda L. Jue
    •  & Andrea I. Schäfer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aerogels are suitable for soft tissue engineering, but often come with brittleness. Here the authors develop a hybrid aerogel with micro- and nanofiber networks that optimizes tensile moduli and fracture energies and show that these materials are super-elastic, fostering rapid tissue ingrowth and allowing minimally invasive procedures.

    • S. M. Shatil Shahriar
    • , Alec D. McCarthy
    •  & Jingwei Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Waterproof flexible organic solar cells without compromising mechanical flexibility and conformability remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate in-situ growth of hole-transporting layer to strengthen interfacial and thermodynamic adhesion for better waterproofness in 3 μm-thick devices.

    • Sixing Xiong
    • , Kenjiro Fukuda
    •  & Takao Someya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High-throughput electron microscopy demands minimal human intervention and high image quality. Here, authors introduce DeepFocus, a data-driven method for aberration correction in electron microscopy, robust for low SNR images, fast and easily adaptable to microscopes and samples. Peer Review Information: Nature Communications thanks Yang Zhang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.

    • P. J. Schubert
    • , R. Saxena
    •  & J. Kornfeld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The electrochemical reduction of CO for sustainable fuel production has gained attention, but the reaction mechanism needs further clarification. Here the authors delve into the discussion regarding whether the rate-determining step for the generation of multi-carbon products is the C-C coupling or the hydrogenation of CO, and provide evidence for dimerization of two *CO as the pivotal step in this process.

    • Wanyu Deng
    • , Peng Zhang
    •  & Jinlong Gong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is challenging to achieve simultaneous robustness, permeability and high electrical performance when patterning textile electronics. Here, the authors report an in-textile photolithography method for precise metal patterns while maintaining the 3D porous structure for wearable textile electronics.

    • Pengwei Wang
    • , Xiaohao Ma
    •  & Zijian Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing superior structural materials has been challenging because of the inherent conflict between their strength and toughness. Here, the authors use 3D-printing to produce a high-entropy alloy with a microstructure resembling nano-bridged honeycomb structure with good strength and toughness.

    • Punit Kumar
    • , Sheng Huang
    •  & Robert O. Ritchie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventional desalination processes generate clean water and reject brine to sea, which is harmful to the aquatic life. Here, the authors propose a low- cost scalable and foldable mangrove-mimetic device for solar thermal distillation and passive salt collection without brine discharge.

    • Mohamed A. Abdelsalam
    • , Muhammad Sajjad
    •  & TieJun Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The activation of propane at mild conditions is challenging. Now a microfluidic reaction system with a Cu microtube serving as both the catalyst and the microchannel reactor can selectively convert propane to propylene at room temperature and ambient pressure.

    • Chunsong Li
    • , Haochen Zhang
    •  & Qi Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adaptive tactile interactions transfer across users, space, and time, via embroidered smart gloves is reported by the authors. The scalable fabrication and adaptive computation pipeline enable tactile occlusion alleviation, human skills transfer, and interactive teleoperation.

    • Yiyue Luo
    • , Chao Liu
    •  & Wojciech Matusik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Encoding and downsampling images is key for visual prostheses. Here, the authors show that an actor-model framework using the inherent computation of the retinal network yields better performance in downsampling images compared to learning-free methods.

    • Franklin Leong
    • , Babak Rahmani
    •  & Diego Ghezzi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inspired by insects in nature, the authors develop a neuromorphic robotic system with obstacle avoidance, tunnel centering and gap crossing capabilities. Their robotic system accomplishes these multiple capabilities by steering towards regions of low apparent motion.

    • Thorben Schoepe
    • , Ella Janotte
    •  & Elisabetta Chicca

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Handheld robots are limited in controllable degrees of freedom, which can result in lower dexterity for clinical applications. Here, Wang et al. report a handheld time-share driven robot with one motor that powers multiple motion modules for high-dextrous operation.

    • Yunjiang Wang
    • , Xinben Hu
    •  & Haoran Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Four-dimensional (4D) printing ceramics is a challenge due to their weak deformability. Here, the authors report a hydrogel-dehydration-driven direct 4D printing approach, enabling simple and efficient manufacturing of various complex ceramic objects

    • Rong Wang
    • , Chao Yuan
    •  & Qi Ge

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    In order to complete the transition to the era of large-scale integration, silicon photonics will have to overcome several challenges. Here, the authors outline what these challenges are and what it will take to tackle them.

    • Sudip Shekhar
    • , Wim Bogaerts
    •  & Bhavin J. Shastri

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The efficacy of drug-eluting stents remains limited due to delayed reendothelialization, impaired intimal remodeling, and potentially increased late restenosis. Here the authors propose a one-produces-multi stent coating, a drug-free strategy that supports in situ healing of vascular tissues, as demonstrated in rabbit and porcine models.

    • Haoshuang Wu
    • , Li Yang
    •  & Yunbing Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing neuromorphic hardware, focusing mainly on shallow-reservoir computing, is challenged in providing adequate spatial and temporal scales characteristic for effective computing. Here, Gao et al. report an ultra-short channel organic neuromorphic vertical transistor with distributed reservoir states.

    • Changsong Gao
    • , Di Liu
    •  & Huipeng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adipose stem cells are promising therapeutic agents in tissue regeneration. Here the authors develop a lipid nanoparticle/RNA engineering platform to enhance the protein production of these cells, which demonstrate superior healing efficacy in a mouse model of diabetic cutaneous wounds.

    • Yonger Xue
    • , Yuebao Zhang
    •  & Yizhou Dong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global challenges demand global solutions. Here, the authors show a distributed self-driving lab architecture in The World Avatar, linking robots in Cambridge and Singapore for asynchronous multi-objective reaction optimisation.

    • Jiaru Bai
    • , Sebastian Mosbach
    •  & Markus Kraft

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Olefin/paraffin separations are challenging in chemical industry. Here, authors report a sieving adsorbent for separating C2-C4 olefins from counterpart paraffins. The interlayer spaces are selectively opened via stronger guest-host interactions induced by olefins, as opposed to saturated paraffins.

    • Yong Peng
    • , Hanting Xiong
    •  & Jun Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is an unmet medical need for the detection and treatment of early adenomas to prevent their progression to malignant disease. Here the authors show that orally administered E. coli Nissle 1917 can selectively colonize adenomas in mouse models and in patients as a detection tool, as well as deliver immunotherapeutics for colorectal neoplasia treatment.

    • Candice R. Gurbatri
    • , Georgette A. Radford
    •  & Tal Danino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic soft robots offer a non-invasive way to deliver bioadhesives to targeted lesion sites to accelerate the healing. Authors present a magnetic multi-layer soft robot that is capable of performing navigated locomotion on biological tissues and on-demand multi-target adhesion at different sites.

    • Ziheng Chen
    • , Yibin Wang
    •  & Jiangfan Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrical signals with characteristic parameters for reconstructing neural circuits remain incompletely understood, limiting the therapeutic potential of electrical neuromodulation techniques. Here, the authors demonstrate that dual electrical stimulation at 10–20 Hz rebuilds the spinal sensorimotor neural circuit after spinal cord injury, indicating the characteristic signals of circuit remodeling.

    • Kai Zhou
    • , Wei Wei
    •  & Yaobo Liu

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Neuroprosthetic devices have recently emerged as promising solutions to restore sensory-motor functions lost due to injury or neurological diseases. In this perspective, Donati and Valle propose to combine neuroprostheses with neuromorphic technologies for designing more natural human-machine interfaces with possible improvements in device performance, acceptability, and embeddability.

    • Elisa Donati
    •  & Giacomo Valle

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In existing soft robotic sensing strategies, additional components and design changes are often required to sense the environment. Zou et al. introduce a retrofit self-sensing strategy for soft pneumatic actuators, utilizing internal pressure variations arising from interactions.

    • Shibo Zou
    • , Sergio Picella
    •  & Johannes T. B. Overvelde

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic neural implants hold considerable promise for biocompatible neural interfaces. Here, the authors employ polymer-based organic electrochemical diodes and transistors to develop neuron-sized complex circuits, enabling multiplexing without crosstalk and demonstrate that, when integrated onto ultra-thin plastic, these circuits achieve high performance while maintaining minimal invasiveness.

    • Ilke Uguz
    • , David Ohayon
    •  & Kenneth L. Shepard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Harvesting biomechanical energy from cardiac motion is an attractive power source for implantable bioelectronic devices. Here, the authors report a battery-free, transcatheter, self-powered intracardiac pacemaker for the treatment of arrhythmia in large animal models.

    • Zhuo Liu
    • , Yiran Hu
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Engineering across other nature.com journals