Materials science

Hafnium dioxide is of technological interest as it is compatible with silicon; however, previous work indicates that a nanometre grain size is required to generate ferroelectricity. Here ferroelectric Y-doped HfO₂ thin films with high crystallinity are grown with large crystal grain sizes, indicating that ferroelectricity is intrinsic.

This Review discusses the development of electronanotribology, its intersection with room-temperature ionic liquids and how such collaboration can be used to electrically control friction at the nanoscale.

A competitive-chemical-reaction-based growth mechanism by controlling the kinetic parameters can easily realize the growth of transition metal chalcogenides and transition metal phosphorous chalcogenides with different compositions and phases.

Understanding reversible anionic redox reactions is key to designing high-energy-density cathodes for lithium-ion batteries. Anionic redox activation in cation-disordered rock-salt Li_1.17Ti_0.58Ni_0.25O₂ is shown to involve intermediate Ni^3+/4+ species that can evolve to Ni²⁺ during relaxation.

Distinct electronic and optical properties emerge from quantum confinement in low-dimensional materials. Here, combining optical characterization and ab initio calculations, the authors report an unconventional excitonic state and bound phonon sideband in layered silicon diphosphide.

The authors use scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy to visualize the electronic structure of mirror twin boundaries, revealing a Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid.

The authors show that an out-of-plane antidamping spin–orbit torque can produce a sizeable change in the switching dynamics of a magnetic layer with perpendicular anisotropy.

The realization of large-scale exciton–polariton platforms operating at room temperature and exhibiting long-lived, strongly interacting excitons has been elusive. Here, the authors demonstrate a room-temperature perovskite-based polaritonic platform with a polariton lattice size of up to 10 × 10.

A design paradigm to create robust robotic metamaterials using versatile gear clusters is demonstrated. It enables intriguing programmability of elastic properties and shape while preserving stability for intelligent machines.

Electrostatic capacitors can enable ultrafast energy storage and release, but advances in energy density and efficiency need to be made. Here, by doping equimolar Zr, Hf and Sn into Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin films, a high-entropy stabilized Bi₂Ti₂O₇ pyrochlore phase forms with an energy density of 182 J cm⁻³ and 78% efficiency.

The growth of lithium dendrites across electrolyte layers limits the practical viability of solid-state Li-ion batteries. A direct correlation between void formation and lithium dendrite growth in solid-state electrolytes with metallic interlayers is now observed.

The cycling disordering–ordering transition of low-misfit superlattice nanoprecipitates in metallic materials continuously annihilates radiation defects via a short-range atom-reshuffling process, giving rise to high radiation tolerance.

The performance of organic optoelectronic and energy-harvesting devices is largely dictated by molecular orientation and resultant permanent dipole moment. Here, the authors demonstrate a strategy to actively control dipole direction in organic glassy films.

Thin films of BaTiO₃ do not possess the same small switching fields and energies as the single-crystal form, hindering applications. Here, thin films are synthesized that enable switching for voltages <100 mV and fields <10 kV cm^–1, and a pathway to subnanosecond switching is presented.

Photoelectrochemical devices are used for direct solar fuel production, but the stability of light absorbers can hamper their commercial prospects. Integrating a BiOI light absorber into a robust oxide-based architecture with a graphite paste conductive encapsulant results in photocathodes with long-term H₂ evolution activity.

Three-dimensional printed protein-based robotic structures are actuated by exoskeleton-like coats of molecular motor assemblies upon the spatially targeted release of chemical fuel, resulting in micrometre-scale shape-morphing activity.

Fabrication of semiconductor heterojunctions typically involves a complex process and often leads to bioincompatibility. Here, the authors propose a porous heterojunction in p-type silicon via simple stain etching at ambient conditions, and apply it in optically induced biomodulation.

Real-time imaging of accelerated solid–liquid–gas reactions with nanobubbles uncovers the mechanisms of enhanced triple-phase reactions by identifying the critical distance between solid and gas at the nanoscale.

Single-atom catalysts demonstrate enhanced catalytic properties, but most systems only explore combinations of a few different metals. Here, a library of 37 different elements is investigated, and it is shown that loading 12 metallic atoms in one system presents improved electrochemical activity.

Here the authors investigate lipid nanodiscs as drug carriers for antitumour immunotherapy. They demonstrate that flexible lipid nanodiscs functionalized with STING-activating cyclic dinucleotides exhibit superior tumour penetration and tumour cell uptake compared with spherical liposomes, resulting in improved antitumour T-cell priming and tumour regression.

Extreme mechanical deformation processes can lead to nanograins in many metals, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Nanotwinning-assisted dynamic recrystallization is shown to facilitate grain refinement to the nanoscale at high strains and strain rates.

A multiscale modelling platform combining nanoscale resonant scattering, mesoscale multiple scattering and macroscale light transport effectively predicts the macroscopic visual effects created by optical metamaterials with disordered nanostructures.

Asynchronous sublattice magnetization switching is found in a ferrimagnetic material and understood by considering the exchange coupling and alloy microstructure.

A ferromagnetic transition in CrSBr is attributed to ordering of magnetic defects, and can be electrostatically manipulated.

The morphology of donor–acceptor blends in organic photovoltaics dictates the efficiency of the exciton dissociation and charge diffusion, and thus the final device performance. Here, the authors show that filament assembly helps to maximize the output, further enabling a power conversion efficiency greater than 19%.

Highly stretchable organic electrochemical transistors with stable charge transport under severe tensional strains are demonstrated using a honeycomb semiconducting polymer morphology, thereby enabling controllable signal output for diverse stretchable bioelectronic applications.

Intercalation-type metal oxides are promising anodes for Li-ion batteries but suffer from low energy and power density together with cycling instability. A nanostructured rock-salt Nb₂O₅ formed via amorphous-to-crystalline transformation during cycling with Li⁺ is shown to exhibit enhanced performance.

Volatile organic compounds such as benzene are toxic pollutants that cause health issues even at trace concentrations. Here, a double-walled metal–organic framework is presented that demonstrates high uptake at very low pressures (<10 Pa), allowing the removal of benzene to below acceptable indoor limits.

Departing from common approaches to designing Floquet topological insulators, here the authors present a photonic realization of Floquet topological insulators revealing topological phases that simultaneously support Chern and anomalous topological states.

The interface stacking order of twisted graphene can be actively flipped between locally stable states using a mechanical impulse, and this flipping propagates spontaneously through the network in a domino-like fashion.

Slit-like nanochannels of pristine graphite and activated carbon, fabricated by van der Waals assembly of pristine or sculpted graphite crystals, enable comprehensive ionic response measurements and the systematic realization of their ion transport properties. These are attributed to optimal combinations of (mobile) surface charge and slippage effects at the channel wall surface in both pristine and activated nanochannels.

Nanometre-sized clusters can self-organize into centimetre-scale hierarchical structures, mimicking the complex constructions seen in nature and providing a platform to design synthetically directed advanced materials with sophisticated functions.

Superionic lithium conductivity has only been observed in a few classes of materials, mostly in thiophosphates but rarely in oxides. Corner-sharing connectivity in an oxide crystal structure framework is now shown to promote superionic conductivity.

This Perspective reviews the complementary developments in synthetic biology and biomaterials and discusses how convergence of these two fields creates a promising design strategy for the fabrication of tailored living materials for medicine and biotechnology.

Precise manipulation of colloids and cells is desired for material and life sciences. However, such control remains challenging without material modifications. Here, the authors achieve reversible single-particle manipulation with subwavelength resolution and high throughput using harmonic acoustics.

Gauge fields are essential for detecting and controlling quantum dynamical systems, but their potential has yet to be fully exploited. Here, the authors insert a single-unit-cell synthetic gauge flux into a sonic crystal with the gauge phase ranging from 0 to 2π, leading to topological Wannier cycles.

Transition metal oxide electrodes are promising for rechargeable batteries but are subject to suffer from structural transformations and electrochemical degradation. The evolution of oxygen-redox activity and reversibility in layered electrodes are shown to arise from cation-migration mechanisms during de/intercalation.

Semipermeable polymeric anion exchange membranes are essential for separation, filtration and energy conversion technologies such as fuel cells. Quasi-elastic neutron scattering is now used to disentangle water, polymer relaxation and OH⁻ diffusional dynamics in a commercially available membrane.

Wiring photosynthetic biomachineries to electrodes is promising for sustainable bio-electricity and fuel generation, but designing such interfaces is challenging. Aerosol jet printing is now used to generate hierarchical pillar array electrodes using indium tin oxide nanoparticles for high-performance semi-artificial photosynthesis.

Understanding exciton dynamics in quantum dots is important for realizing their potential in optoelectronics. Here, the authors use femtosecond transient absorption microscopy to reveal ultrafast exciton transport, enhanced at larger interdot distance and taking place within hundreds of femtoseconds after generation.

All-electrical generation, manipulation and detection of spin polarization in chiral nanowires is demonstrated.

Measuring three-dimensional dielectric tensors is desired for applications in material and soft matter physics. Here, the authors use a tomographic approach and inversely solve the vectorial wave equation to directly reconstruct dielectric tensors of anisotropic structures.

High-pressure synthesis is used to stabilize superconducting (Ba,K)SbO₃, whose properties provide a fresh perspective on the origin of superconductivity in these types of materials.

The oxygen evolution reaction is central to making chemicals and energy carriers using electrons. Metal hydroxide–organic frameworks are shown to act as a tunable catalytic platform for oxygen evolution, with π–π interactions dictating stability and transition metals modulating activity.

Two monomers with distinct solubility of their corresponding polymers in an ionic liquid enable tuning of the microstructure of the copolymers during their polymerization. Thus, energy dissipative and elastic molecular domains are created, resulting in highly tough and stretchable ionogels.

Constitutive laws underlie most physical processes, but understanding chemo-mechanical expansion in heterogeneous solids is challenging. A physically constrained image-learning approach is now proposed to obtain fundamental insight into dislocations inside battery electrodes.

Lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide is used as a conducting salt for rechargeable lithium metal batteries because of its stability, but corrosion with aluminium current collectors is an issue. A non-corrosive sulfonimide salt is shown to suppress anodic dissolution of an Al current collector at high potentials while improving cycling.

A multipole polaron, composed of a mobile electron dressed with a cloud of the quadrupole crystal-electric-field polarization, is identified in a rare-earth intermetallic.

Microscale architecting enables metamaterials to achieve mechanical properties not accessible to bulk materials. Here the authors show that established design protocols for the fracture of materials need to be revised to predict the failure of these materials.