Materials chemistry articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    The growth of single-crystal Prussian blue analogues and their analysis using X-ray diffuse scattering reveals diverse, non-random vacancy arrangements and information about the micropore-network characteristics of these materials.

    • Arkadiy Simonov
    • , Trees De Baerdemaeker
    •  & Andrew L. Goodwin

  • Article |

    Inhibitor pairs that suppress the crystallization of haematin, which is a part of malaria parasites’ physiology, show unexpected antagonism due to attenuation of step pinning by kink blockers.

    • Wenchuan Ma
    • , James F. Lutsko
    •  & Peter G. Vekilov

  • Article |

    The pore space in the metal–organic framework Zr6O4(OH)4(bpydc)6 can be used as a scaffold to grow precisely defined atomically thick sheets of metal halide materials, taking advantage of multiple binding sites to direct complexation of the metal ions; these metal halide nanosheets fill the size gap between discrete molecular magnets and bulk magnetic materials, with potentially unusual magnetic properties arising from this size regime.

    • Miguel I. Gonzalez
    • , Ari B. Turkiewicz
    •  & Jeffrey R. Long

  • Article |

    Voxelated soft matter is designed and fabricated using multimaterial multinozzle three-dimensional printing, which switches between different viscoelastic inks along the same print filament to print multiple materials simultaneously.

    • Mark A. Skylar-Scott
    • , Jochen Mueller
    •  & Jennifer A. Lewis

  • Article |

    Multivalent anions are found to be capable of electron-doping polymer semiconductors to realize conductive films with very low work functions, which enable efficient electron injection into materials with low electron affinity.

    • Cindy G. Tang
    • , Mazlan Nur Syafiqah
    •  & Peter K. H. Ho

  • Letter |

    The stability of both colloidal quantum dots and perovskites can be improved by combining them into a hybrid material in which matched lattice parameters suppress the formation of undesired phases.

    • Mengxia Liu
    • , Yuelang Chen
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Letter |

    Superlattices consisting of alternating monolayer atomic crystals and molecular layers allow access to stable phosphorene monolayers with competitive transistor performance and to bulk monolayer materials with tunable optoelectronic properties.

    • Chen Wang
    • , Qiyuan He
    •  & Xiangfeng Duan

  • Letter |

    A process is described for the transformation of bulk wood into a low-cost, strong, tough, lightweight structural material, by the partial removal of lignin and hemicellulose followed by hot-pressing to densify the natural wood.

    • Jianwei Song
    • , Chaoji Chen
    •  & Liangbing Hu

  • Letter |

    Application of an electric field changes the transport and optical properties of samarium nickelate submerged in water, making it a suitable passive sensor of weak electric fields in salt water.

    • Zhen Zhang
    • , Derek Schwanz
    •  & Shriram Ramanathan

  • Letter |

    A blend of two organic molecules excited by a simple LED light source can release the stored excitation energy slowly as ‘long persistent luminescence’ over periods of up to an hour.

    • Ryota Kabe
    •  & Chihaya Adachi

  • Letter |

    By exploiting geometric constraints and interfacial forces instead of chemistry, colloidal clusters can be controllably coalesced into particles with uniformly distributed surface patches.

    • Zhe Gong
    • , Theodore Hueckel
    •  & Stefano Sacanna

  • Letter |

    Metal complexes of the pentazole anion exhibit multiple coordination modes, through ionic, covalent and hydrogen-bonding interactions, and good thermal stability with onset decomposition temperatures greater than 100 °C.

    • Yuangang Xu
    • , Qian Wang
    •  & Ming Lu

  • Brief Communications Arising |

    • Alok S. Tayi
    • , Alexander K. Shveyd
    •  & Samuel I. Stupp

  • Article |

    Energy–structure–function maps that describe the possible structures and properties of molecular crystals are developed, and these maps are used to guide the experimental discovery of porous materials with specific functions.

    • Angeles Pulido
    • , Linjiang Chen
    •  & Graeme M. Day

  • Letter |

    Nanometre-scale columnar structures in tooth enamel inspire novel nanocomposites containing layers of vertically aligned nanowires, produced by layer-by-layer fabrication and combining high values of both storage modulus and energy dissipation.

    • Bongjun Yeom
    • , Trisha Sain
    •  & Nicholas A. Kotov

  • Letter |

    Mutants of the C4-symmetric protein RhuA were designed to self-assemble into two-dimensional crystalline lattices with precise spatial arrangements and patterns; the lattices of one of the variants are auxetic and deform perpendicularly to an applied force in a way that is contrary to what is generally expected in typical materials.

    • Yuta Suzuki
    • , Giovanni Cardone
    •  & F. Akif Tezcan

  • Letter |

    Nanometre-scale cracks in a hydrophobic surface coating applied to hydrocarbon proton-exchange fuel-cell membranes work as tiny valves, delaying water desorption and maintaining ion conductivity in the membrane on dehumidification.

    • Chi Hoon Park
    • , So Young Lee
    •  & Young Moo Lee

  • Letter |

    For adsorption processes, gas uptake usually increases with increasing pressure; however, here the phenomenon of negative gas adsorption is demonstrated in a metal–organic framework, which undergoes a sudden hysteretic structural deformation and pore contraction, releasing guest molecules.

    • Simon Krause
    • , Volodymyr Bon
    •  & Stefan Kaskel

  • Letter |

    Magnetic molecules are candidates for solid-state spin qubits from which a quantum computer might be constructed, but the magnetic interactions between such molecules typically lead to unwanted decoherence; now magnetic molecules have been designed in such a way that their spin dynamics are energetically protected against the decoherence-inducing interactions.

    • Muhandis Shiddiq
    • , Dorsa Komijani
    •  & Stephen Hill

  • Letter |

    Porous materials find use in applications such as gas separation, drug delivery and energy storage, but have hitherto been solid rather than liquid; now a combination of cage molecules and a crown-ether solvent that cannot enter the cage molecules is used to create a porous liquid that can solubilize methane gas better than non-porous liquids.

    • Nicola Giri
    • , Mario G. Del Pópolo
    •  & Stuart L. James

  • Letter |

    Metal-organic frameworks have a porous structure that has useful applications in gas adsorption; here, small-angle X-ray scattering is used to visualize the process of adsorption as gas pressure increases, revealing that adsorbate molecules interact across pore walls in a way that allows extra adsorbate domains to be created in the framework and to form superlattices, before the adsorbate settles down into a more uniform distribution.

    • Hae Sung Cho
    • , Hexiang Deng
    •  & Osamu Terasaki

  • Letter |

    Computational protein design is used to create a protein–DNA co-assembling nanomaterial; by varying the arrangement of protein-binding sites on the double-stranded DNA, a ‘nanowire’ with single-molecule width can be spontaneously formed by mixing the protein and double-stranded DNA building blocks.

    • Yun Mou
    • , Jiun-Yann Yu
    •  & Stephen L. Mayo

  • Letter |

    By harnessing the charge transfer that takes place at the interface between a metal and a layer of molecules, the usually non-magnetic materials copper and manganese are made magnetic at room temperature.

    • Fatma Al Ma’Mari
    • , Timothy Moorsom
    •  & Oscar Cespedes

  • Letter |

    The addition of boron nitride nanosheets to polymer nanocomposites creates dielectric materials that operate at much higher working temperatures than previous polymer dielectrics, as well as being flexible, lightweight, photopatternable, scalable and robust, which now makes them more attractive for electronic device applications than ceramic dielectrics.

    • Qi Li
    • , Lei Chen
    •  & Qing Wang

  • Letter |

    A general method of folding arbitrary polygonal digital meshes in DNA uses a routeing algorithm based on graph theory and a relaxation simulation that traces scaffold strands through the target structures to produce complex structures with an open conformation that are stable under biological assay conditions.

    • Erik Benson
    • , Abdulmelik Mohammed
    •  & Björn Högberg

  • Review Article |

    Although classical crystallography is insufficient to determine disordered structure in crystals, correlated disorder does nevertheless contain clear crystallographic signatures that map to the type of disorder, which we are learning to decipher.

    • David A. Keen
    •  & Andrew L. Goodwin

  • Letter |

    Micrometre-sized particles covered with stiff, nanoscale spikes are shown to exhibit long-term colloidal stability in both hydrophilic and hydrophobic media, without the need for chemical coating, owing to the effect of the spikes on the contact area and, consequently, the force between the particles.

    • Joong Hwan Bahng
    • , Bongjun Yeom
    •  & Nicholas Kotov

  • Letter |

    Chemical force microscopy measurements show that the immobilization of specific cationic groups near non-polar domains produces pronounced changes in the domains’ hydrophobic interaction strengths: charged ammonium groups double interaction strengths, whereas guanidinium groups eliminate measurable interactions.

    • C. Derek Ma
    • , Chenxuan Wang
    •  & Nicholas L. Abbott

  • Letter |

    Inorganic–organic lead halide perovskite could be efficient when used as the light-harvesting component of solar cells; here incorporation of methylammonium lead bromide into formamidinium lead iodide stabilizes the perovskite and improves the power conversion efficiency of the solar cell up to 17.9 per cent.

    • Nam Joong Jeon
    • , Jun Hong Noh
    •  & Sang Il Seok

  • Letter |

    Usually materials design focuses on attractive interactions, but here a hydrogel is described whose properties are dominated by electrostatic repulsion between negatively charged titanate nanosheets embedded within it; the material, inspired by articular cartilage, deforms easily when sheared parallel to the sheets but resists compressive forces applied orthogonally.

    • Mingjie Liu
    • , Yasuhiro Ishida
    •  & Takuzo Aida

  • Letter |

    Gas hydrates are ice-like solids that have guest species encaged within a crystalline water framework, making the empty hydrate a natural — though long assumed to be inaccessible — point of reference; it is now shown that several days of continuous vacuum pumping removes all guests from neon hydrate, and the physical properties of the empty hydrate have been determined.

    • Andrzej Falenty
    • , Thomas C. Hansen
    •  & Werner F. Kuhs

  • Letter |

    Recent advances in electron microscopy are shown to allow vibrational spectroscopy at high spatial resolution in a scanning transmission electron microscope, and also to enable the direct detection of hydrogen.

    • Ondrej L. Krivanek
    • , Tracy C. Lovejoy
    •  & Peter A. Crozier

  • Letter |

    The magnetoresistance effect in WTe2, a layered semimetal, is extremely large: the electrical resistance can be changed by more than 13 million per cent at very high magnetic fields and low temperatures.

    • Mazhar N. Ali
    • , Jun Xiong
    •  & R. J. Cava

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Materials chemistry across other nature.com journals