featured highlights
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Gapless oxide semiconductors: Designer spin
A new class of semiconducting materials are proposed that exhibit full spin polarization and tunable carrier densities, and could be useful for the next generation of spintronic devices.
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Iron-based superconductors: Hot stuff
A new iron-arsenide based superconductor with critical temperature above 40 K.
Organic, carbon-based and soft materials
Bending hydrogels
Thermoresponsive hydrogels can be made to bend by asymmetrically altering the nanostructure.
Inorganic, ceramic and composite
Nanotubes: Resonant reinforcement
High-performance resonators have been made by reinforcing aluminum with carbon nanotubes.
Metals and alloys
Hydrophobic nanowires: Raindrops keep falling off my head
A metal surface covered in nanowire ‘bristles’ is incredibly good at repelling water.
Biomaterials and biosensors
Protein detection: Follow the light
A luminescent metal complex selectively detects trace amounts of histidine and histidine-rich proteins in the presence of other amino acids and contaminants.
Optics, photonics and optoelectronics
Colorful nanorods
The interaction between dye molecules and gold nanorods to which they are attached tells a resonating, colorful story.
Electronic, magnetic and superconducting
Organic semiconductors: Choice of carrier
New findings explain why organic semiconductors can carry charge in the form of both electrons and holes.
Energy conversion, catalysis and separation
Fuel cells: The inside story
Designing efficient fuel cells is made easier by probing the distribution of oxygen within a working polymer electrolyte device.
Device applications
Water lily templates
A polymer template with a multiscale hierarchical structure makes stable superhydrophobic surfaces in a simple, one-step process.
