Volume 17 Issue 4, April 2022

Decoration of nanofiltration membranes with catalysts lead to efficient removal and degradation of micropollutants.

This perspective analyses the adverse reactions reported for mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in the light of infusion reactions to nanomedicines, which display similar outcomes, suggests possible mechanisms and offers a safety roadmap for vaccine developers.

A comprehensive analysis of the key properties of nanopesticides in controlling agricultural pests for crop enhancement shows a much higher efficacy compared with non-nano analogues, also for in-field trials.

A robotic method enables rapid manufacturing of complex van der Waals solids.

Rhombohedral stacking of two identical non-ferroelectric monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides enables the observation of interfacial ferroelectricity.

A three-channel spinneret simultaneously extrudes and combines electrodes and electrolyte to make 1,500-km-long fibre batteries.

Graphene has a centrosymmetric crystal symmetry, which prohibits second-order effects in transport experiments. Yet, giant second-order nonlinear transports can emerge in graphene moiré superlattices at zero magnetic field, originating from the skew scattering of chiral Bloch electrons in the superlattice and giving rise to both longitudinal and transverse nonlinear conductivities under time-reversal symmetry.

Majorana modes are highly non-local quantum states with non-Abelian exchange statistics, which localize at the two ends of finite-size 1D topological superconductors of sufficient length. By precisely positioning magnetic atoms on a superconducting surface, their interaction is tailored such that the precursors of Majorana modes are simultaneously observed on both ends of linear atomic chains.

Marginal twisting of 2D semiconductor crystals enables the emergence of room temperature interfacial ferroelectricity.

Nonlinear optical parametric polaritons are observed in a WS₂ monolayer microcavity, opening the way for all-optical valley polariton nonlinear devices.

A solvent-free and zero-waste method was reported for the synthesis of single-atom catalysts via abrading bulk metal into single atoms. This strategy works for different metals (iron, cobalt, nickel and copper or their alloys) and supports (carbons, oxides or nitrides).

Chiral gold nanoparticles coated with enantiomerically pure phenylalanine were assembled into nanoporous membranes, whose ionic conductivity depends on the handedness of the incident circularly polarized light.

A polyethersulfone–titanium dioxide membrane is demonstrated to be effective at micropollutant removal during the photocatalytic degradation of steroid hormones in a flow-through photocatalytic membrane reactor under UV light at environmentally relevant concentrations.

The uptake and transfer of nanoplastics in the roots and shoots of lettuce and wheat were quantified by doping polystyrene nanoparticles with Eu–β-diketonate and using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, time-gated luminescence and scanning electron microscopy.