Volume 23 Issue 2, February 2024

Early detection of electrical degradation can be identified by colour change due to the chromogenic response of blended molecules in dielectric polymers.

Electronic moiré patterns can be imprinted remotely onto a target quantum material, inducing exotic interacting behaviour.

Considering responsive materials as transient collective assemblies rather than individual shape-changing objects allows for emergent functionalities that cannot be derived from the properties of single objects but are driven by interactions between them.

Engineered ligand shells on gold nanoclusters utilizing molecular motion improve the thermal conductance between the cluster and the solvent, increasing thermal stability and enhancing performance in the photothermal treatment of cancerous tumours.

Processible centimetre-scale porous glasses using zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) materials are developed, while fine-tuning of the processing conditions allows control of pore size and molecular sieving properties.

Orthogonally twisted CrSBr ferromagnetic monolayers with in-plane Ising anisotropies are found to exhibit multistep magnetoresistance switching with a magnetic hysteresis opening. This work emphasizes the role of spin dimensionality in two-dimensional magnets, and the potential of orthogonal and large-twist-angle van der Waals magnets.

The antiferromagnetic material haematite, named for its blood-red colour, hosts swirling spin vortices termed merons. The rotation sense of such antiferromagnetic vortices has now been imaged in real space.

Metal monochalcogenides — a class of van der Waals layered semiconductors — can exhibit ultrahigh plasticity. Investigation of the deformation mechanism reveals that on mechanical loading, these materials undergo local phase transitions that, coupled with the concurrent generation of a microcrack network, give rise to the ultrahigh plasticity.

Multiferroics can possess multiple ferroic orders, for example, electric polarization and magnetism, and are of interest for new device applications. Here thermal control is shown to manipulate electric and magnetic orders in a single-phase quasi-two-dimensional halide perovskite.

Employing a remote Coulomb superlattice formed by twisted bilayer WS₂, the authors demonstrate the engineering and on/off switching of a Coulomb superlattice of correlated states in bilayer graphene with period and strength determined by the remote superlattice.

The metal monochalcogenides are a group of van der Waals layered semiconductors with ultra-high plasticity. It is now revealed that their plasticity is attributed to the ability to transform their stacking order or phases, coupled with the concurrent generation of a micro-crack network.

Diamond quantum magnetometry is utilized to directly read the vorticity of antiferromagnetic spin textures through coupled multi-polar emergent magnetic charge distributions.

The authors present magnetotransport measurements to demonstrate multistep magnetization switching in orthogonally twisted CrSBr ferromagnetic monolayers.

The authors imprint a moiré potential on a remote monolayer semiconductor through the moiré potential created in a remote MoSe₂/WS₂ moiré bilayer. The imprinted moiré potential enables gate-controlled generation of flat bands and correlated insulating states in the targeted monolayer.

The authors demonstrate the tunability of moiré potential and emergent moiré exciton Rydberg states in a monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide governed by an adjacent twisted bilayer graphene near the magic angle with gate-tunable local charge density.

Rhenium chalcohalide cluster compounds are promising photoluminescent materials. Here the authors report a new material in this family, Rb₆Re₆S₈I₈, which shows broad photoluminescence (PL) range, high PL quantum yield and long PL lifetime.

Early detection of electrical degradation in dielectric polymers is crucial but remains challenging. A general strategy of blending the polymer with chromogenic molecules is reported, which generates a visually discernible colour change as chemically activated by oxygen radicals generated in situ, indicating the early stage of electrical degradation in polymers.

Interfacial reactions between lithium and anodes are not well understood in an all-solid environment. For the silicon anode we now demonstrate that, rather than strong Li–Si alloying at the conventional solid–liquid interface, the lithiation reaction of micrometre-sized Si can be greatly constricted at the solid–solid interface.

NiFe-based oxo-hydroxides are active for the oxygen evolution reaction but suffer from complex synthesis and durability when deposited. Easily processable Fe–Ni alloys with a highly active oxo-hydroxide surface are now shown to pave the way for oxygen-evolving electrodes for alkaline water electrolysers.

Porosity of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks can be preserved beyond glass transition and melt processing. Here centimetre-scale porous glasses are demonstrated, whereas liquid processing enables fine-tuning of the size of the gas-transporting channels for molecular sieving.

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.

Autonomous assembly, reconfiguration and disassembly are observed in living aggregates, but are difficult to replicate in synthetic soft matter. Here mechanically interlocked responsive ribbons form transient viscoelastic solids for the on-demand assembly of functional materials.

Magneto-gas vesicles, protein nanostructures with enhanced ultrasound signal and sensitivity, enable the non-invasive, long-term and quantitative monitoring of the mechanics of three-dimensional tissues and animals.