Communications Materials

List of Papers (Total 888)

Oxygen stoichiometry-driven charge compensation and Ruddlesden–Popper defects in ferromagnetic high-entropy manganite thin films

High-entropy oxides (HEOs) originate from an innovative materials design strategy that stabilizes single-phase solid solutions despite the inclusion of multiple principal elements into a single cation sublattice. While prior efforts have largely focused on cation disorder, the impact of anion defects on the structure and properties of HEOs remains unexplored. Here, we examine the...

Designing printable alloys by tuning liquid short-range order

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) enables near-net shape synthesis in a single step with minimal waste, yet only a small fraction of commercial alloys are printable. This process-material incompatibility stems from AM’s high cooling rates, which favor grain growth over nucleation, leading to hot cracking, anisotropy, residual stresses, and poor damage tolerance. Alloy design...

Giant Rashba splitting in a 2D BiAs layer on InAs(111)B

Bismuth-based compounds, such as Bi1-xSbx or Bi2Te3, have outstanding electronic properties especially for advanced quantum devices. However, the potential of low-dimensional group V-Bi materials is largely undetermined. Here, we report the experimental realization of a two-dimensional (2D) BiAs layer with giant Rashba spin splitting, grown on an InAs(111)B substrate via...

Delivering biomedicines with stimuli‑responsive biomaterials

Stimuli‑responsive (smart) biomaterials are emerging as versatile platforms for the precision delivery of biotherapeutics. Engineered to sense internal or external cues, these materials undergo reversible physicochemical changes that trigger on‑demand payload release, thus improving efficacy while limiting off‑target toxicity. Here we synthesize the design principles that...

GENIUS: an agentic AI framework for autonomous design and execution of simulation protocols

Predictive atomistic simulations have propelled materials discovery, yet routine setup and debugging still demand computer specialists. This know-how gap limits the use of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME), where state-of-the-art codes exist but remain cumbersome for non-experts. We address this bottleneck with GENIUS, an AI-agentic workflow that fuses a smart...

Small-scale water energy harvesting for sustainably-powered distributed electronics

Small-scale water energy harvesting offers a promising pathway to power the rapidly expanding ecosystem of distributed electronics. The inherent ubiquity and mechanical energy of water make it an ideal resource for sustainable, off-grid power generation. The efficiency and application scope of these energy harvesters are fundamentally governed by their working environment and...

Multifunctional zinc-ion capacitors for energy storage

Zinc-ion capacitors are promising energy storage systems due to their high theoretical capacity, environmental friendliness, and cost effectiveness. Recently, to broaden application scenarios, multifunctional zinc-ion capacitors have been designed and attracted increasing interest. Therefore, development of advanced electrodes, electrolytes, and integrated devices have been...

Advanced carbon-based electrodes for zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitors enhanced by heteroatom doping

The growing demand for sustainable energy storage requires devices that combine high energy density with rapid charging and long cycle life. Zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitors offer a promising solution by integrating battery-like and capacitor-like electrodes, yet their performance depends critically on advanced carbon materials for the positive electrode. In this Review, we...

Synthesis and helium separation performance of polycrystalline membranes of the high precision molecular sieve MIL-116(Ga)

Helium is a finite but essential resource with important applications in medicine, research, and aerospace. Conventional He-upgrading from natural methane gas (CH4) is done by cryogenic distillation. This study presents energy-efficient He-upgrading by membrane separation using the “dense” metal-organic framework (MOF) MIL-116(Ga), which enables high precision molecular sieving...

Sulfur cathodes for next-generation batteries

The global transition toward efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective energy storage is accelerating, driven by efforts to decarbonize key sectors. Among emerging technologies, sulfur-based conversion cathodes have garnered significant attention as promising candidates for next-generation batteries due to their exceptional theoretical energy density, low cost, and material...

Stable and eco-friendly inorganic lead-free perovskite solar cells: structural, electronic, and defect engineering

Inorganic lead-free halide perovskites are emerging as promising candidates for stable and environmentally responsible photovoltaic technologies. Replacing volatile organic cations and toxic lead with robust inorganic constituents enables improved thermal and chemical resilience while preserving favorable optoelectronic properties. This review provides a comparative assessment of...

Stochastic switching time constant and instability in nanomagnets

The Arrhenius law governs thermally-activated phenomena with a pre-exponential factor, the attempt time τ0, which defines the time constant of stochastic process. In nanomagnets, accessing τ0 is a formidable task due to the temperature-dependent magnetic properties that preclude the use of a standard Arrhenius plot and lead to the questionable assumption that τ0 = 1 ns for...

Deep learning-based dual-reference triboelectric sensor for direct surface potential prediction

Quantitatively determining a material’s tendency to gain or lose electrons is crucial for triboelectric devices but remains challenging. Here, we introduce a dual-reference triboelectric sensor integrated with deep learning to rapidly estimate surface potential. An unknown material is contacted with two reference surfaces of opposite triboelectric polarity, producing paired...

Backbone rigidity promoting hole delocalization and enabling efficient charge generation with minimal voltage loss in nonfullerene organic photovoltaics

Achieving both low voltage loss and efficient charge generation remains a major challenge in advancing high-performance organic photovoltaics (OPVs). Here, we show that photovoltaic cells using PTNT1-F—a dithienonaphthobisthiadiazole (TNT)-based polymer recently developed by our group—exhibit a notably low nonradiative voltage loss (∆Vnr) of 0.18 V, suggesting a minimal driving...

Universal method for polyvalent ions’ redox state quantification in inorganic materials down to trace concentrations

The oxidation state control of polyvalent cations within materials is a pivotal determinant of their macroscopic properties and practical functionalities, from persistent and stress-stimulated luminescence, to energy storage and photocatalytic activity. Nonetheless, the resulting redox state is highly sensitive to synthetic conditions, and quantifying techniques aimed at its...

Deep learning modeling of oxygen redistribution and thermal transport in silicon on insulator and buried oxide layers

Silicon on insulator technology requires precise control of buried oxide layers and the associated heat transfer across interfaces. Current approaches struggle to predict oxygen distribution and layer thickness after implantation and annealing, and they face challenges in computing interfacial thermal resistance under complex conditions. Here we show a computational framework...

On the origin of bulk-related anisotropies in surface optical spectra

Reflection anisotropy spectroscopy is widely used to probe the optical properties of surfaces, yet the origin of the ’bulk-related’ features has been debated for decades. It is often argued that these features are related to surface-induced bulk anisotropy because they coincide with critical energies of the bulk dielectric function. Here, we show that a quantitative understanding...

Synthesis and application of silk fibroin nanoparticles for drug delivery

Silk fibroin has emerged as a promising natural biomaterial due to the exceptional biocompatibility, unique functional architecture, and controllable biodegradability. It can be processed into silk fibroin nanoparticles through multiple techniques, such as microfluidic. Owing to the unique structural features, the prepared silk fibroin nanoparticles exhibit favorable drug-loading...

AI-powered open-source infrastructure for accelerating materials discovery and advanced manufacturing

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) offer significant opportunities to drive industrial transformation by addressing growing societal demands for products, techno-economic efficiency, and reduced carbon footprints. This review presents a structured framework for building transparent, scalable, and sustainable AI-driven infrastructures spanning conceptualization to...

Silk-based biomaterial scaffolds for dental tissue regeneration

Being a natural biomaterial with exceptional biological features, silk-based biomaterial offers an attractive option for fabricating biomimetic scaffolds that provide excellent physicochemical and biomechanical support and induce several physiological signaling pathways to facilitate tissue regeneration. Recent advancements in various biofabrication strategies enable the creation...

Quantum defects in carbon nanotubes as single-photon sources

Single-photon emitters are essential components of emerging quantum technologies, including secure communication and quantum computing. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have emerged as a promising platform for quantum light sources due to their quasi-one-dimensional excitonic host structure and compatibility with telecom photonic systems. Recent advances in deterministic...

Phase-shift engineered triboelectric nanogenerators for constant-voltage output and efficient energy harvesting

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have emerged as a promising technology for harvesting ambient mechanical energy, their practical deployment has been strongly underpinned by their excellent inherent capabilities for ambient mechanical energy harvesting. Phase-shift engineering, which modulates the phase shifts of electrical outputs from multiple TENG units to achieve...

MXene-based stimuli-responsive and autonomous intelligent materials

MXenes, a rapidly growing class of two-dimensional transition metal carbides and nitrides, have emerged as powerful building blocks for stimuli-responsive materials (SRMs) owing to their high conductivity, tunable surface chemistry, mechanical compliance, and strong photothermal effects. This review critically summarizes recent advances in MXene-based SRMs that respond to light...