Nature Materials is a multidisciplinary journal aimed at bringing together cutting-edge research across the entire spectrum of materials science and technology. Nature Materials covers all applied and fundamental aspects of the synthesis/processing, structure/composition, properties and performance of materials. Nature Materials provides a forum for the development of a common identity among materials scientists while encouraging researchers to cross established subdisciplinary lines. To achieve this, Nature Materials takes an interdisciplinary, integrated and balanced approach to all areas of materials research while fostering the exchange of ideas between scientists involved in different communities.
Updated: 1 hour 41 min ago
Terahertz emission from giant optical rectification in a van der Waals material
Nature Materials, Published online: 01 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02201-1
The authors demonstrate broadband terahertz emission from a two-dimensional van der Waals ferroelectric semiconductor, NbOI2, that originates from its efficient optical rectification and apply it to realize in situ near-field terahertz spectroscopy.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Water uptake of solids and its impact on ion transport
Nature Materials, Published online: 31 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02143-8
The uptake of water by polar solids can modify electrical and mass transport properties. This Review discusses hydration mechanisms and surveys case studies of the effects water uptake has on transport properties in different materials.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Phonon interference in single-molecule junctions
Nature Materials, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02195-w
Characterizing the interference of phonons at the single-molecule level remains a challenging task. Here, the authors observe and characterize destructive phonon interference in molecular junctions at room temperature.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Organic light-emitting transistors with high efficiency and narrow emission originating from intrinsic multiple-order microcavities
Nature Materials, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02191-0
Achieving both high efficiency and narrow emission in organic light-emitting transistors (OLETs) remains a challenge. Here the authors demonstrate laterally integrated OLETs with an intrinsic microcavity that achieve both enhanced efficiency and narrow emission.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Flaw-size-dependent mechanical interlayer coupling and edge-reconstruction embrittlement in van der Waals materials
Nature Materials, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02194-x
Fracture behaviours in multilayer h-BN, involving interlayer-friction toughening and edge-reconstruction embrittlement, are identified through in situ experiments and theoretical analyses.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Author Correction: Antagonistic-contracting high-power photo-oscillators for multifunctional actuations
Nature Materials, Published online: 25 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02218-6
Author Correction: Antagonistic-contracting high-power photo-oscillators for multifunctional actuations
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Designer lipids for delivering mRNA to the brain
Nature Materials, Published online: 24 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02184-z
Lipid nanoparticles formulated with ionizable lipids inspired by brain-targeting small molecules facilitate the delivery of mRNA past the blood–brain barrier and into the brain.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Tension anisotropy drives fibroblast phenotypic transition by self-reinforcing cell–extracellular matrix mechanical feedback
Nature Materials, Published online: 24 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02162-5
Extracellular anisotropic stresses trigger fibroblast transition into myofibroblasts by the mechanical self-reinforcement of cell–extracellular matrix interactions.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Mechanisms of resistive switching in two-dimensional monolayer and multilayer materials
Nature Materials, Published online: 24 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02170-5
The authors review the mechanisms of resistive switching in monolayer and bulk forms of two-dimensional layered materials, providing insights into atomic motions and electronic transport across interfaces.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Terahertz photocurrent probe of quantum geometry and interactions in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene
Nature Materials, Published online: 24 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02180-3
Exploiting the intrinsic response of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene to resonant terahertz radiation, the interplay between electron interactions and quantum geometry is studied in such flat-band systems.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Octo-diamond crystal of nanoscale tetrahedra with interchanging chiral motifs
Nature Materials, Published online: 24 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02185-y
A superlattice structure of gold tetrahedra formed via a surface-promoted pathway is reported. The octo-diamond crystal is achiral, but exhibits bilayers of left- and right-handed chiral motifs with chiroptical plasmonic responses.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Topological acoustics unlocks new horizons in microfluidics
Nature Materials, Published online: 21 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02136-7
Topological acoustics offers robust control over acoustic waves, akin to the control of electrons in topological quantum materials. Now, research shows its transformative applications in microfluidics, enabling robust transport and trapping of nanoparticles and DNA molecules for biomedical devices.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Magnon-mediated exciton–exciton interaction in a van der Waals antiferromagnet
Nature Materials, Published online: 21 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02183-0
Using pump-power-dependent exciton absorption spectroscopy, the authors reveal magnon-mediated exciton–exciton interactions and a consequent nonlinear optical response in CrSBr, an antiferromagnetic semiconductor.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Topological acoustofluidics
Nature Materials, Published online: 21 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02169-y
The authors present a valley-Hall topological acoustofluidic chip revealing the complex interactions between elastic valley spin and nonlinear fluid dynamics, revealing its potential towards on-chip biological applications.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Unconventional unidirectional magnetoresistance in heterostructures of a topological semimetal and a ferromagnet
Nature Materials, Published online: 21 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02175-0
Unconventional unidirectional magnetoresistance observed in the heterostructures of a topological semimetal (WTe2) and a magnetic insulator (Cr2Ge2Te6) enables the electrical read-out of the magnetic states of a perpendicularly polarized magnet through longitudinal resistance measurements.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Illuminating active matter by harnessing light for modular flow control
Nature Materials, Published online: 20 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02181-2
A modular programming framework for controlling microtubule-based active matter using light is introduced, enabling the precise design and manipulation of dynamic micrometre-scale fluid flows for tasks such as mixing, transport and separation in microfluidic applications.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Chiral light detection with centrosymmetric-metamaterial-assisted valleytronics
Nature Materials, Published online: 19 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02155-4
The authors demonstrate on-chip circularly polarized light detection using the chiral properties of transition metal dichalcogenide valleytronic transistors on centrosymmetric plasmonic metamaterials.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Impact of spin–orbit coupling on superconductivity in rhombohedral graphene
Nature Materials, Published online: 19 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02156-3
The authors present transport measurements of rhombohedral trilayer graphene proximitized by transition metal dichalcogenides. They find that the presence of transition metal dichalcogenides enables the emergence of new superconducting and metallic phases and affects the superconducting states present in bare rhombohedral trilayer graphene.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Wafer-scale AA-stacked hexagonal boron nitride grown on a GaN substrate
Nature Materials, Published online: 19 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02173-2
Metal–organic chemical vapour deposition enables the wafer-scale growth of hexagonal boron nitride with an AA stacking sequence that was previously considered thermodynamically unfavourable.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Connecting silicon carbide technologies
Nature Materials, Published online: 18 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02176-z
A conference on classical and quantum technologies using silicon carbide, held in Germany in July 2024, brought together key researchers from academia, industry and funding agencies.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)