Nature Nanotechnology provides a forum for the publication of top-quality research papers in all areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Coverage in Nature Nanotechnology extends from basic research in physics, chemistry and biology through to the development of new devices and technologies for applications in a wide range of industrial sectors. Organic, inorganic and hybrid materials are all covered.
Updated: 1 hour 59 min ago
Long-term blood sugar control with smart insulin crystals
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 26 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01871-x
Insulin crystals coated with a thin, porous membrane with electrical potential-sensitive channels — named i-crystal — show glucose- and ketone-responsive insulin release. Owing to their high drug-loading content and slow, zero-order insulin release kinetics, i-crystal can regulate the blood glucose level for more than 1 month in mice models with type 1 diabetes.
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A bioinspired polymeric membrane-enclosed insulin crystal achieves long-term, self-regulated drug release for type 1 diabetes therapy
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 26 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01860-0
This article presents a polymeric membrane-enclosed insulin crystal equipped with physiological signal-sensing microdomains, dubbed ‘smart drug crystals’, that enables long-term, glucose- and β-hydroxybutyrate-dually responsive drug release for type 1 diabetes therapy.
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Nanoscopic cross-grain cation homogenization in perovskite solar cells
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 24 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01854-y
Nano-groove traps at grain triple junctions significantly affect cation homogeneity in formamidinium–caesium perovskite films. Shallowing these traps improves interfacial properties and enhances solar cell performance.
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Systemic HER3 ligand-mimicking nanobioparticles enter the brain and reduce intracranial tumour growth
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01867-7
Delivering therapeutics to the brain is challenging because of the hard-to-cross blood–brain barrier. Here, the authors show that HER3, which is expressed on the surface of many metastatic tumours, is associated with the brain endothelium and can drive accumulation of HER3-targeted nanoparticles within the brain, for therapy against HER3-positive tumours.
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Intermediate-range solvent templating and counterion behaviour at charged carbon nanotube surfaces
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01865-9
Neutron scattering on a model system of highly concentrated solutions of charged carbon nanotubes reveals a strong solvent ordering up to ∼40 Å around the charged nanoscale surface.
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Momentum tunnelling across quantum barriers
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 20 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01868-6
Theoretical studies discover quantum momentum tunnelling between liquid flows separated by nanometre-thick graphene layers via the interaction between molecular dipole excitations and plasmons.
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Grover’s algorithm in a four-qubit silicon processor above the fault-tolerant threshold
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 20 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-024-01853-5
A four-qubit processor of three phosphorus nuclear spins and an electron spin in silicon enables the implementation of a three-qubit Grover’s search algorithm with 95% fidelity. The implementation is based on an advanced multi-qubit gate with single-qubit gate fidelities above 99.9% and two-qubit gate fidelities above 99%.
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Intracellular dehydrogenation catalysis leads to reductive stress and immunosuppression
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 20 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01870-y
This paper shows that nano-enabled dehydrogenation catalysis in biological systems induces a domino effect, including reductive stress, immunosuppression and tumour metastasis.
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Welcome to Technology Features
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 18 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01883-7
How far away are lab-scale nanotechnologies from commercialization? We asked two journalists to investigate.
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Molecular-scale CO spillover on a dual-site electrocatalyst enhances methanol production from CO<sub>2</sub> reduction
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 18 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01866-8
A dual-site electrocatalyst is developed to greatly enhance methanol production from CO2 reduction via a cascade process, taking advantage of molecular-scale CO spillover.
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Tandem-controlled lysosomal assembly of nanofibres induces pyroptosis for cancer immunotherapy
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 18 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01857-9
Controlled synthesis of supramolecular structures within lysosomes holds promise for cancer imaging and treatment. The authors introduce a programmable assembly strategy to generate fluorescent nanofibres in tumour cell lysosomes, enabling targeted tumour accumulation and inducing pyroptosis for precise cancer imaging and immunotherapy.
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Size-driven phase evolution in ultrathin relaxor films
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 11 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01863-x
Geometrical confinement in ultrathin 0.68PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3-0.32PbTiO3 films induces a dome-shaped stability region of relaxor behaviour in a temperature–thickness relaxor phase diagram.
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Electron correlation strengthened in multilayer rhombohedral graphite
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 10 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-024-01839-3
Two decades after the exfoliation of graphene, the focus is shifting to ‘reassembling’ graphite to uncover new insights into interacting electrons.
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Customizable virus-like particles deliver CRISPR–Cas9 ribonucleoprotein for effective ocular neovascular and Huntington’s disease gene therapy
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 10 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-024-01851-7
This paper reports a customizable CRISPR ribonucleoprotein delivery tool, dubbed RIDE, for the treatment of Huntington’s disease in mice, non-human primates and patients’ iPSC neurons.
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Nanopore discrimination of rare earth elements
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 10 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01864-w
Here the authors show that Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A modified with nitrilotriacetic acid achieves direct and simultaneous discrimination of rare earth elements, suggesting the potential use of nanopore sensing in geological exploration.
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Spin–valley protected Kramers pair in bilayer graphene
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 10 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01858-8
A tunable quantum dot device in Bernal bilayer graphene possesses a spin–valley relaxation time of 38 s at millikelvin temperatures.
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Multivalent effect enables efficient and stable deep-blue perovskite LEDs
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 05 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01855-x
A distinctive multivalent-effect immobilization strategy fundamentally stabilizes the structure of deep-blue reduced-dimensional perovskite emitters and enhances excitonic radiative recombination. Using this effect, the efficiency and stability bottlenecks of deep-blue perovskite LEDs are overcome.
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Spin-torque-driven gigahertz magnetization dynamics in the non-collinear antiferromagnet Mn<sub>3</sub>Sn
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 03 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01859-7
An optically induced spin current pulse induces gigahertz magnetization dynamics in Mn3Sn with a spin coherence length of approximately 15 nm, which is longer than in ferromagnets.
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Nature-inspired platform nanotechnology for RNA delivery to myeloid cells and their bone marrow progenitors
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 03 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-024-01847-3
In this study, the authors present optimization and efficacy testing of apolipoprotein-based lipid nanoparticles for delivering various nucleic acid therapeutics in vivo to immune cells and their progenitors in the bone marrow.
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Resolving polarization switching pathways of sliding ferroelectricity in trilayer 3R-MoS<sub>2</sub>
Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 03 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-01862-y
The work studies the switchable excitonic response in trilayer 3R-MoS2 and shows that the polarization switching pathway in multilayer sliding ferroelectrics results from interactions between domain walls, pinning centres and free-carrier screening.
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