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: 37 min 21 sec ago
Atomic-scale interface strengthening unlocks efficient and durable Mg-based thermoelectric devices
Nature Materials, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02167-0
Solid-state thermoelectrics can convert waste heat to electrical energy, but applications are hindered by long-term stability issues. Here cobalt is used as a contact layer with direct bonding to thermoelectric MgAgSb, enabling a thermoelectric module to achieve 10.2% conversion efficiency over 1,440 h of thermal cycling.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Barium titanate and lithium niobate permittivity and Pockels coefficients from megahertz to sub-terahertz frequencies
Nature Materials, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02158-1
Pockels coefficients and permittivity are measured in barium titanate and lithium niobate from 100 MHz to 330 GHz and device geometries are proposed to maintain a constant electro-optic response in BTO devices.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Ultrafast evanescent heat transfer across solid interfaces via hyperbolic phonon–polariton modes in hexagonal boron nitride
Nature Materials, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02154-5
The authors report subnanosecond thermal transport on a gold–hexagonal boron nitrite interface governed by hyperbolic phonon–polariton coupling, demonstrating a cooling mechanism orders of magnitude faster than those relying on phonon-mediated processes.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
De novo design of self-assembling peptides with antimicrobial activity guided by deep learning
Nature Materials, Published online: 14 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02164-3
A deep learning-guided de novo design identifies self-assembling peptides containing non-natural amino acids capable of killing multidrug-resistant bacteria and treating mice with acute intestinal infection.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Force transmission is a master regulator of mechanical cell competition
Nature Materials, Published online: 14 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02150-9
Differences in force transmission capabilities between competing cells create large stress fluctuation at their interface, resulting in upward forces and cell elimination, which might have implications for tissue homeostasis and tumour cell invasion.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Spin excitations in nanographene-based antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains
Nature Materials, Published online: 14 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02166-1
Open-shell nanographenes are used to fabricate length-controlled antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains. It is revealed that the spin excitation spectra evolve from gapped to gapless following a power-law dependence on chain length, along with the visualization of the standing waves of confined single spinons.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Inhalable nanozymes against pneumonia
Nature Materials, Published online: 13 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02182-1
An inhalable nanoplatform responds to inflamed lung tissues by self-assembling into catalytically active fibrillar structures that locally decrease reactive oxygen species, relieve inflammation and alleviate viral pneumonia symptoms.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Incorporation of isolated Ag atoms and Au nanoparticles in copper nitride for selective CO electroreduction to multicarbon alcohols
Nature Materials, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02153-6
Highly selective formation of C2+ alcohols is obtained using CO electroreduction with a trimetallic-copper-based catalyst incorporating gold nanoparticles and isolated silver atoms.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Enabling three-dimensional architected materials across length scales and timescales
Nature Materials, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02119-8
Architected materials provide a pathway to achieve properties beyond those of monolithic materials. This Perspective discusses complex architecture designs and their fabrication, characterization and functions across length scales and timescales.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Ultrafine metal nanoparticles isolated on oxide nano-islands as exceptional sintering-resistant catalysts
Nature Materials, Published online: 10 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02134-9
An isolation strategy is presented to improve the stability of metal nanoparticles by grafting oxide nano-islands between the support and the nanoparticles. This enhances sintering resistance, with the mean size of the nanoparticles maintained at 1.4 nm after 400 h of catalytic dry reforming of methane.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Clarifying the origin of molecular O<sub>2</sub> in cathode oxides
Nature Materials, Published online: 10 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02144-7
Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering measurements suggest that the oxidized oxygen species in high-energy Li-rich oxide cathodes are trapped molecular O2, which is also observed in O-redox-inactive materials. This suggests that resonant X-ray inelastic scattering measurements generate these species, and molecular O2 is not responsible for voltage hysteresis and decay.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
A non-layered two-dimensional semiconductor for p-type transistors
Nature Materials, Published online: 07 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02165-2
The number and performance of p-type two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors has been limited. Now, non-layered 2D β-Bi2O3 single crystals are synthesized on a SiO2/Si substrate using a vapour–liquid–solid–solid growth method. Field-effect transistors based on 2D β-Bi2O3 crystals exhibit high hole mobility, on/off current ratio and air stability.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
A facile approach for generating ordered oxygen vacancies in metal oxides
Nature Materials, Published online: 07 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02171-4
A simple method combining thermal activation and electric fields is demonstrated to efficiently generate ordered vacancies in bulk metal oxides, which can be used for broad applications.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Vapour–liquid–solid–solid growth of two-dimensional non-layered β-Bi<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> crystals with high hole mobility
Nature Materials, Published online: 07 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02141-w
High-quality, non-layered 2D β-Bi2O3 crystals are grown using a vapour–liquid–solid–solid growth technique. These crystals demonstrate promising properties for p-channel field-effect transistors.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Stiff and self-healing hydrogels by polymer entanglements in co-planar nanoconfinement
Nature Materials, Published online: 07 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02146-5
Mechanical stiffness and self-healing properties are difficult to combine in synthetic hydrogels. Using polymer entanglements in co-planar nanoconfinement, stiff and self-healing hydrogels are fabricated, with applications in biology and engineering.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Surfactant-induced hole concentration enhancement for highly efficient perovskite light-emitting diodes
Nature Materials, Published online: 05 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02123-y
Additives help to increase the surface hole concentration in metal halide perovskites, enabling high electroluminescence yields with low operating voltages.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Rapid growth of inch-sized lanthanide oxychloride single crystals
Nature Materials, Published online: 05 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02142-9
Inch-sized bulk lanthanide oxychloride single crystals and single-crystalline thin films with thickness down to the monolayer are synthesized through flux-enabled oriented attachment, providing a library of van der Waals materials with interesting dielectric and quantum properties.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
The role of non-fullerene acceptors continues
Nature Materials, Published online: 04 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02177-y
Non-fullerene acceptors help organic solar cells achieve high performance, transforming organic photovoltaics into a useful technology.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Lab-to-fab progress for organic photovoltaics
Nature Materials, Published online: 04 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02160-7
Derya Baran, an associate professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Department of Materials Science and Engineering), talks to Nature Materials about the progress of laboratory-to-fabrication for organic photovoltaics
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)
Reflections on progress in organic photovoltaics
Nature Materials, Published online: 04 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02161-6
Jenny Nelson, a professor at Imperial College London (Department of Physics), talks to Nature Materials about recent research advances in organic photovoltaics.
Categories: Nanoscience News (<front>)