Volume 21 Issue 10, October 2022

Gang Qian from CITIC Pacific Special Steel, one of the major steelmakers in China, talks to Nature Materials about their experience and perspective on moving towards decarbonization.

The steel industry in China has an important role in reducing national and global carbon emissions, demanding integrated actions and efforts across policies, industry and science to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality.

The direct manipulation of a new kind of ferroelectric state, arising from the sliding of van der Waals layers in a coordination polymer, is demonstrated.

Resonant X-ray scattering experiments have revealed a charge-ordered phase next to the recently discovered superconducting phase in layered nickelates — in remarkable analogy to the cuprate high-temperature superconductors.

In the absence of biochemical gradients, cancer cell migration over fibrillar isotropic collagen can occur by a mechanical self-steering process involving asymmetric matrix deformation from the rear.

Designing highly ordered and ultrathin nanoporous membranes achieves superior water flux, while maintaining high selectivity for NaCl rejection.

We show that an insulating bulk state and helical edge state coexist in Bi₄Br₄ and that this coexistence persists up to room temperature.

The authors present evidence for the formation of commensurate charge order in non-superconducting thin films of infinite-layer nickelates, whereas they find no charge order in a superconducting film.

A nacre-inspired, centimetre-sized bulk material is prepared by assembling graphene oxide and microscale amorphous/crystalline heterophase reinforcing platelets adhered together with polymer-based crosslinkers, which shows high flexural strength and fracture toughness.

Application of electromotive force between molten iron–carbon and slag is shown to decarburize iron. Electrorefining decarburizes by direct interfacial electrochemical reaction, resulting in low solubilized oxygen in iron, even at low carbon concentration.

The variation in the properties of rare earth (RE) steels is shown to stem from the presence of oxygen-based inclusions, and only under very-low-oxygen conditions can RE elements perform a vital role in purifying, modifying and micro-alloying steels.

The authors investigate tunnelling magnetoresistance in Fe₃GeTe₂/hBN(WSe₂)/Fe₃GeTe₂ magnetic tunnel junctions and report strong variations with bias including polarization reversals.

The role of the dielectric environment in thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) is not yet fully understood. Here the authors reveal the relevance of environment–emitter interactions in gating the reverse intersystem crossing and its particular relevance in dipolar TADF emitters.

Two-dimensional materials can present ferroelectricity by layer sliding, but electrical confirmation is lacking due to narrow bandgaps. Here, a single-crystal coordination polymer with large bandgap enabling direct electrical measurement of P–E hysteresis is shown to present sliding ferroelectricity.

Understanding reversible anionic redox reactions is key to designing high-energy-density cathodes for lithium-ion batteries. Anionic redox activation in cation-disordered rock-salt Li_1.17Ti_0.58Ni_0.25O₂ is shown to involve intermediate Ni^3+/4+ species that can evolve to Ni²⁺ during relaxation.

Polymer electrolytes provide a safe solution for future solid-state high-energy-density batteries, but combining high ionic conductivity and a high transference number is a challenge. A polymeric ionic liquid used as a polymer solvent is now shown to be promising for both sodium and potassium batteries.

Carbon nanomaterials such as graphene show intriguing molecular transport properties, but to achieve regular channels over a large area requires perfect sheet alignment. Here, a large-area two-dimensional conjugated-polymer-framework is grown with regular pore distribution, enabling 99.5% salt rejection by forward osmosis.

Mechanical confinement of fibroblasts into micrometre-sized channels deforms the cell nucleus, leading to temporary nuclear lamina destablization and disassembly, loss of lamina-associated domains in chromatin and a decrease in histone and DNA methylation. These mechanically induced alterations in chromatin boost the conversion of fibroblasts into neurons and pluripotent stem cells and thus can be explored for cell engineering applications.

Cell clusters mechanically reorganize viscoelastic collagen networks, resulting in transient gradients in collagen density, alignment and stiffness that promote spontaneous persistent migration.