Featured
-
-
Article |
Growth of diamond in liquid metal at 1 atm pressure
Diamond crystals and polycrystalline diamond films can be grown using liquid metal at standard pressure and high temperature instead of conventional high pressure and high temperature.
- Yan Gong
- , Da Luo
- & Rodney S. Ruoff
-
Article |
Metal telluride nanosheets by scalable solid lithiation and exfoliation
Fast and scalable synthesis of a variety of transition metal telluride nanosheets by solid lithiation and hydrolysis is demonstrated and several interesting quantum phenomena were observed, such as quantum oscillations and giant magnetoresistance.
- Liangzhu Zhang
- , Zixuan Yang
- & Hui-Ming Cheng
-
Article |
Cascaded compression of size distribution of nanopores in monolayer graphene
Cascaded compression, in which nanopores are compressed by cycles of shrinkage and expansion, is described, leading tohigh-density nanopores in monolayer graphene with a narrow pore-size distribution, left skewness and ultrasmall tail deviation.
- Jiangtao Wang
- , Chi Cheng
- & Jing Kong
-
Article |
Functional composites by programming entropy-driven nanosheet growth
Following a micro-then-nano growth sequence to fabricate composites that are blends of block-copolymer-based supramolecules, small molecules and nanoparticles shows that high-performance barrier materials can be manufactured by means of entropy-driven assembly.
- Emma Vargo
- , Le Ma
- & Ting Xu
-
Article |
Stack growth of wafer-scale van der Waals superconductor heterostructures
Stacks of van der Waals superconductor heterostructures comprising many layers and several blocks of two-dimensional materials have been grown in a highly controllable manner at a wafer scale using a high-to-low temperature strategy.
- Zhenjia Zhou
- , Fuchen Hou
- & Libo Gao
-
Article |
Liquid metal for high-entropy alloy nanoparticles synthesis
We discovered that liquid metal endowing negative mixing enthalpy with other elements could provide a stable thermodynamic condition and act as a desirable dynamic mixing reservoir, realizing the synthesis of high-entropy alloy nanoparticles.
- Guanghui Cao
- , Jingjing Liang
- & Lei Fu
-
Article |
Non-epitaxial single-crystal 2D material growth by geometric confinement
Geometric confinement on arbitrary substrates promotes, without epitaxial seeding, the layer-by-layer growth of two-dimensional single-crystal monolayers and bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides.
- Ki Seok Kim
- , Doyoon Lee
- & Jeehwan Kim
-
Article |
Long-range ordered porous carbons produced from C60
A new type of carbon, long-range ordered porous carbon, is synthesized from carbon fullerenes at the gram scale and under ambient pressure.
- Fei Pan
- , Kun Ni
- & Yanwu Zhu
-
Article |
Dislocation-induced stop-and-go kinetics of interfacial transformations
Environmental transmission electron microscopy is used to reveal that mismatch dislocations modulate the interfacial transformation of copper oxide to copper metal in an intermittent manner.
- Xianhu Sun
- , Dongxiang Wu
- & Guangwen Zhou
-
Article |
Epitaxial single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride multilayers on Ni (111)
Using a chemical vapour deposition method, it is possible to epitaxially grow wafer-scale single-crystal trilayers of hexagonal boron nitride—an important dielectric for 2D materials—on Ni (111) foils by boron dissolution.
- Kyung Yeol Ma
- , Leining Zhang
- & Hyeon Suk Shin
-
Article |
Observation of fractional edge excitations in nanographene spin chains
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 |
Near-complete depolymerization of polyesters with nano-dispersed enzymes
Nanoscopic dispersion of enzymes with deep active sites enables chain-end-mediated processive biodegradation of semi-crystalline polyesters with programmable latency and material integrity.
- Christopher DelRe
- , Yufeng Jiang
- & Ting Xu
-
Article |
Macroscopic materials assembled from nanoparticle superlattices
Polymer-covered inorganic nanoparticles are designed to self-assemble into micrometre-sized superlattice crystallites that can subsequently be built into freestanding centimetre-scale solids with hierarchical order across seven orders of magnitude.
- Peter J. Santos
- , Paul A. Gabrys
- & Robert J. Macfarlane
-
Article |
High-resolution X-ray luminescence extension imaging
Using lanthanide-doped nanomaterials and flexible substrates, an approach that enables flat-panel-free, high-resolution, three-dimensional imaging is demonstrated and termed X-ray luminescence extension imaging.
- Xiangyu Ou
- , Xian Qin
- & Xiaogang Liu
-
Article |
Self-similar mesocrystals form via interface-driven nucleation and assembly
Mesocrystal formation is investigated for haematite in the presence of oxalate, showing that chemical gradients at interfaces cause nucleation near surfaces rather than in the bulk, followed by particle attachment.
- Guomin Zhu
- , Maria L. Sushko
- & James J. De Yoreo
-
Article |
Wafer-scale single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride monolayers on Cu (111)
The epitaxial growth of single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride monolayers on a copper (111) thin film across a sapphire wafer suggests a route to the broad adoption of two-dimensional layered semiconductor materials in industry.
- Tse-An Chen
- , Chih-Piao Chuu
- & Lain-Jong Li
-
Letter |
Crosslinking ionic oligomers as conformable precursors to calcium carbonate
The crosslinking of oligomeric precursors, controlled by a capping agent, enables the production of moulded crystalline calcium carbonate with continuous structures.
- Zhaoming Liu
- , Changyu Shao
- & Ruikang Tang
-
Letter |
Production of phosphorene nanoribbons
Phosphorene nanoribbons are produced in liquids through the intercalation of black phosphorous crystals with lithium ions, enabling the search for predicted exotic states and applications of these nanoribbons.
- Mitchell C. Watts
- , Loren Picco
- & Christopher A. Howard
-
Letter |
Self-assembly of highly symmetrical, ultrasmall inorganic cages directed by surfactant micelles
Machine-learning algorithms are used to generate single-particle three-dimensional reconstructions, revealing that highly symmetrical dodecahedral silica cages, around 10 nm in size, self-assemble in the presence of surfactant micelles.
- Kai Ma
- , Yunye Gong
- & Ulrich Wiesner
-
Letter |
A library of atomically thin metal chalcogenides
Molten-salt-assisted chemical vapour deposition is used to synthesize a wide variety of two-dimensional transition-metal chalcogenides.
- Jiadong Zhou
- , Junhao Lin
- & Zheng Liu
-
Letter |
Monolayer atomic crystal molecular superlattices
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 |
One-pot growth of two-dimensional lateral heterostructures via sequential edge-epitaxy
An approach is developed for the continuous fabrication of lateral multi-junction heterostructures of transition-metal dichalcogenides, in which the sequential formation of heterojunctions is achieved solely by changing the composition of the reactive gas environment in the presence of water vapour.
- Prasana K. Sahoo
- , Shahriar Memaran
- & Humberto R. Gutiérrez
-
Letter |
Layer-by-layer assembly of two-dimensional materials into wafer-scale heterostructures
Layer-by-layer stacking enables the construction of transition-metal dichalcogenide van der Waals heterostructures with high-quality, uniform interfaces and tunable electrical properties.
- Kibum Kang
- , Kan-Heng Lee
- & Jiwoong Park
-
Letter |
High-temperature crystallization of nanocrystals into three-dimensional superlattices
A bottom-up process to achieve rapid growth of micrometre-sized three-dimensional nanocrystal superlattices during colloidal synthesis at high temperatures is revealed by in situ small-angle X-ray scattering; the process is applicable to several colloidal materials.
- Liheng Wu
- , Joshua J. Willis
- & Christopher J. Tassone
-
Letter |
Ultra-selective high-flux membranes from directly synthesized zeolite nanosheets
A direct synthesis of high-aspect-ratio microporous zeolite nanosheets and the use of such nanosheets in separation membranes are described.
- Mi Young Jeon
- , Donghun Kim
- & Michael Tsapatsis
-
Letter |
Abiotic tooth enamel
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 |
Arrays of horizontal carbon nanotubes of controlled chirality grown using designed catalysts
Horizontal arrays of metallic or semiconducting carbon nanotubes with controlled chirality are grown from specially designed solid carbide catalysts.
- Shuchen Zhang
- , Lixing Kang
- & Jin Zhang
-
Letter |
Carbon-based tribofilms from lubricating oils
Moving mechanical interfaces need to be lubricated to ensure long life and easy slippage; here, a new type of coating is described—comprising nitrides of either molybdenum or vanadium, together with a copper or nickel catalyst—that generates protective tribofilms from lubricating oils.
- Ali Erdemir
- , Giovanni Ramirez
- & Subramanian K. R. S. Sankaranarayanan
-
Letter |
On-surface synthesis of graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edge topology
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 |
Anomalous dispersions of ‘hedgehog’ particles
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 |
Nanotwinned diamond with unprecedented hardness and stability
Nanotwinned diamond synthesized with onion carbon nanoparticles as precursors has much higher hardness and thermal stability than natural diamond; its enhanced hardness is due to the reduced size of its twin structures.
- Quan Huang
- , Dongli Yu
- & Yongjun Tian
-
Letter |
Quasicrystalline structure formation in a classical crystalline thin-film system
The unusual ordering of quasicrystals can be induced in thin films of a regular crystalline material; here a two-dimensional quasicrystal has been achieved by growing thin films of the perovskite barium titanate on an appropriately oriented crystalline platinum substrate.
- Stefan Förster
- , Klaus Meinel
- & Wolf Widdra
-
Letter |
Ultrastable silver nanoparticles
Silver nanoparticles are susceptible to oxidation and have accordingly received less attention than gold nanoparticles; ultrastable silver nanoparticles are now reported, which can be produced in very large quantities as a single-sized molecular product, and the origins of their enhanced stability are elucidated using a single-crystal X-ray structure and first-principles calculations.
- Anil Desireddy
- , Brian E. Conn
- & Terry P. Bigioni
-
Letter |
Tunable near-infrared and visible-light transmittance in nanocrystal-in-glass composites
By introducing tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals into niobium oxide glass, a new transparent material is produced with tunable and spectrally selective optical switching properties.
- Anna Llordés
- , Guillermo Garcia
- & Delia J. Milliron
-
Letter |
Sequential deposition as a route to high-performance perovskite-sensitized solar cells
A method of producing perovskite-sensitized solar cells by sequential — as opposed to single-step — deposition of the perovskite’s components onto a nanoporous titanium oxide film allows for greater reproducibility of device performance and a record power conversion efficiency of 15 per cent.
- Julian Burschka
- , Norman Pellet
- & Michael Grätzel
-
Letter |
Ultrahard nanotwinned cubic boron nitride
The hardness, toughness and chemical stability of the well-known superhard material cubic boron nitride have been improved by using a synthesis technique based on specially prepared ‘onion-like’ precursor materials.
- Yongjun Tian
- , Bo Xu
- & Zhongyuan Liu
-
News |
Nanoparticle blast caught on film
Combustion could help to make minuscule matter.
- Eugenie Samuel Reich
-
Letter |
Continuous gas-phase synthesis of nanowires with tunable properties
Aerotaxy, an aerosol-based growth method, is used to produce gallium arsenide nanowires with a growth rate of about 1 micrometre per second, which is 20 to 1,000 times higher than previously reported for traditional nanowires and allows sensitive and reproducible control of the nanowires’ optical and electronic properties.
- Magnus Heurlin
- , Martin H. Magnusson
- & Lars Samuelson
-
Article |
Quantum plasmon resonances of individual metallic nanoparticles
Metal nanoparticles with dimensions below ten nanometres exhibit plasmon resonances governed by quantum mechanical effects, as probed with electron microscopy and spectroscopy
- Jonathan A. Scholl
- , Ai Leen Koh
- & Jennifer A. Dionne
-
Review Article |
Synthesis, assembly and applications of semiconductor nanomembranes
- J. A. Rogers
- , M. G. Lagally
- & R. G. Nuzzo
-
News & Views |
Beyond the confines of templates
The use of templates to control the morphology of nanostructures is a powerful but inflexible technique. A template that is remodelled during synthesis suggests fresh opportunities for fabricating new nanostructures.
- Younan Xia
- & Byungkwon Lim