Surface chemistry articles within Nature

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phospholipids enhance the structural and colloidal integrity of hybrid organic–inorganic lead halide perovskites and lead-free metal halide nanocrystals, which then exhibit enhanced robustness and optical properties.

    • Viktoriia Morad
    • , Andriy Stelmakh
    •  & Maksym V. Kovalenko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By using a pump–probe atomic force microscopy detection scheme, electron spin transitions between non-equilibrium triplet states of individual pentacene molecules, as well as the ability to manipulate electron spins over tens of microseconds, is demonstrated.

    • Lisanne Sellies
    • , Raffael Spachtholz
    •  & Jascha Repp

  • Article |

    Atomic-level imaging of photocurrents in a single molecule is achieved by combining a tunable laser with scanning tunnelling microscopy, revealing how photons turn into electric current via a photoexcited molecule.

    • Miyabi Imai-Imada
    • , Hiroshi Imada
    •  & Yousoo Kim

  • Article |

    Decoupling spin-polarized edge states using substitutional N-atom dopants along the edges of a zigzag graphene nanoribbon (ZGNR) reveals giant spin splitting of a N-dopant edge state, and supports the predicted emergent magnetic order in ZGNRs.

    • Raymond E. Blackwell
    • , Fangzhou Zhao
    •  & Felix R. Fischer

  • Article |

    Using scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, fractional edge excitations are observed in nanographene spin chains, enabling the potential to study strongly correlated phases in purely organic materials.

    • Shantanu Mishra
    • , Gonçalo Catarina
    •  & Roman Fasel

  • Article |

    Experimental measurements of vibrational sum-frequency generation spectra indicate that the dielectric response of water near an electrode may be strongly asymmetric, with different responses to positive and negative electrode charge.

    • Angelo Montenegro
    • , Chayan Dutta
    •  & Alexander V. Benderskii

  • Article |

    High oxidation resistance, without degradation of thermal or electrical conductivity, is achieved in copper using surface modification by a solvothermal or electrochemical treatment with sodium formate and formation of a thin surface coordination layer.

    • Jian Peng
    • , Bili Chen
    •  & Nanfeng Zheng

  • Letter |

    Recombination of excitons to produce molecular light emission is made more efficient by controlling electron spin within the molecule to produce spin-triplet excitons only, without the usual accompanying spin-singlet excitons.

    • Kensuke Kimura
    • , Kuniyuki Miwa
    •  & Yousoo Kim

  • Letter |

    A lithographic patterning and release method is used to create a dense, fluctuating, Brownian system of mobile colloidal kite- and dart-shaped Penrose tiles over large areas that retains quasi-crystalline order.

    • Po-Yuan Wang
    •  & Thomas G. Mason

  • Letter |

    Precision control over matter at the atomic scale enables a planar dye molecule to be lifted up and placed on its edge—a configuration that is surprisingly stable.

    • Taner Esat
    • , Niklas Friedrich
    •  & Ruslan Temirov

  • Letter |

    A class of colloids is reported in which inorganic solute particles—such as metals and semiconductors—are dispersed in molten inorganic salts.

    • Hao Zhang
    • , Kinjal Dasbiswas
    •  & Dmitri V. Talapin

  • Letter |

    Watching a single molecule move calls for measurements that combine ultrafast temporal resolution with atomic spatial resolution; this is now shown to be possible by combining scanning tunnelling microscopy with lightwave electronics, through a technique that involves removing a single electron from the highest occupied orbital of a single pentacene molecule in a time window shorter than an oscillation cycle of light.

    • Tyler L. Cocker
    • , Dominik Peller
    •  & Rupert Huber

  • Letter |

    Surface patterning of nanoparticles with polymer patches is achieved in a poor solvent for the polymer by controlling the ratio between the sizes of polymer molecules and nanoparticles.

    • Rachelle M. Choueiri
    • , Elizabeth Galati
    •  & Eugenia Kumacheva

  • Letter |

    Insects are captured by the carnivorous plant Nepenthes alata when they ‘aquaplane’ on the wet rim, or ‘peristome’, of the plant’s pitcher organ; here it is shown that unidirectional water flow is crucial to the complete wetting of the peristome, and that the underlying mechanism involves multiscale structural features.

    • Huawei Chen
    • , Pengfei Zhang
    •  & Lei Jiang

  • Letter |

    Synthesis of atomically precise zigzag edges in graphene nanoribbons is demonstrated using a bottom-up strategy based on surface-assisted arrangement and reaction of precursor monomers; these nanoribbons have edge-localized states with large energy splittings.

    • Pascal Ruffieux
    • , Shiyong Wang
    •  & Roman Fasel

  • Letter |

    Theory suggests that many chemical reactions (not simply, as is often thought, redox reactions) might be catalysed by an applied electric field; experimental evidence for this is now provided from single-molecule studies of the formation of carbon–carbon bonds in a Diels–Alder reaction.

    • Albert C. Aragonès
    • , Naomi L. Haworth
    •  & Michelle L. Coote

  • Letter |

    Scanning tunnelling microscopy reveals that molecules of ferrocenecarboxylic acid can self-assemble into quasicrystal monolayers containing highly unusual cyclic hydrogen-bonded pentamers; this molecular framework could form the basis of a large range of supramolecular assemblies.

    • Natalie A. Wasio
    • , Rebecca C. Quardokus
    •  & S. Alex Kandel

  • Letter |

    A simple and accessible method of probing the nature of bonding on the very surface of a material is reported, using transmission electron microscopy: the technologically important compound strontium titanate is examined as an example.

    • Guo-zhen Zhu
    • , Guillaume Radtke
    •  & Gianluigi A. Botton

  • News & Views |

    A simple method has been developed to control the shape of nanoscale cuprous oxide crystals. Some shapes turn out to be much better than others as catalysts for a light-activated reaction.

    • Peidong Yang

  • News & Views |

    Gold is not as inert as was believed — it can promote molecular synthesis. A study uses scanning tunnelling microscopy to catch gold in the act as it guides the formation of one-dimensional polymers from saturated hydrocarbons.

    • Robert J. Madix
    •  & Cynthia M. Friend

  • News & Views |

    The tendency of hydrophobic surfaces to aggregate in water is often invoked to explain how biomolecules recognize and bind to each other. Water seems to have a much more active role in these processes than had been thought.

    • Philip Ball

  • News & Views |

    Nuclear magnetic resonance is a versatile analytical technique, but acquiring well-resolved NMR spectra of chemical surfaces has been hard. The coming of age of a spectral enhancement method should change all that.

    • Robert G. Griffin

  • Letter |

    Advances in nanomagnetics research have brought powerful applications in magnetic sensing technology, but so far no high-resolution magnetic-imaging tool is available to characterize complex, often buried, nanoscale structures. These authors have developed a scanning probe technique in which the intense, confined magnetic field of a micromagnetic probe tip is used to localize the ferromagnetic resonance mode immediately beneath the probe, and demonstrate that they can image magnetic features at a resolution of 200 nm.

    • Inhee Lee
    • , Yuri Obukhov
    •  & P. Chris Hammel

  • Letter |

    Many functional materials can be created by directing the assembly of colloidal particles into a desired structure. Control over particle assembly usually involves the use of molecules such as DNA that can recognize and bind each other. Here, a simple and effective alternative is described. Colloidal spheres serve as keys, and monodisperse colloidal particles with a spherical cavity as locks. These will spontaneously and reversibly bind to each other via the depletion interaction if their sizes match.

    • S. Sacanna
    • , W. T. M. Irvine
    •  & D. J. Pine

  • Letter |

    Surface-enhanced Raman scattering is a powerful spectroscopy technique that can be used to study substances down to the level of single molecules. But the practical applications have been limited by the need for metal substrates with roughened surfaces or in the form of nanoparticles. Here a new approach — shell-insulated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy — is described, and its versatility demonstrated with numerous test substances.

    • Jian Feng Li
    • , Yi Fan Huang
    •  & Zhong Qun Tian

  • News & Views |

    A neat mode of operation of the atomic force microscope has been used to probe the interface between mica and water. The results help to settle a long-standing debate about the nature of this interface.

    • Joost W. M. Frenken
    •  & Tjerk H. Oosterkamp

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