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Emerging applications of steam electrolysis and electrochemical synthesis for future hydrogen technologies at intermediate temperatures set stringent requirements on the stability of protonic ceramic cells. Now a sintering approach enables densified Ce-free protonic zirconate cells with enhanced Faradaic efficiency and exceptional stability under harsh operating conditions.

Nickelate superconductors attract enormous attention in the field of high-temperature superconductivity. Here the authors report observation of perfect diamagnetism and interfacial effect on the electronic structures in infinite layer Nd_0.8Sr_0.2NiO₂ superconductors.

The observation of superconductivity in infinite-layer nickelates has been limited to epitaxial thin films, which has restricted their experimental investigation. Now, a technique is reported for the release of millimetre-scale freestanding superconducting nickelate membranes. This geometry enables a range of studies, including the response of superconductivity to strain.

A magnetoresistance effect that occurs in a platinum layer deposited on a magnon junction consisting of two insulating magnetic yttrium iron garnet layers separated by an antiferromagnetic nickel oxide spacer layer could be used to create spintronic and magnonic devices that are free from Joule heating.

Despite much recent effort, the highest reported T_c of the infinite-layer nickelates remains lower than 15 K. Here, the authors apply pressure to Pr_0.82Sr_0.18NiO₂ thin films and observe a monotonic increase of T_c to 31 K at 12.1 GPa, an increase that does not level off with increasing pressure.

By contacting a solid oxide fuel cell to a microelectromechanical system inside an environmental electron microscope, the authors establish links between environmental conditions (gas atmosphere, temperature), cell voltage and atomic-scale structure.

The phase transitions of rare earth nickelates have attracted intensive study as they arise from the complex interplay of charge, spin and lattice degrees of freedom. Here Guo et al. present evidence that LaNiO₃ has an unanticipated magnetically ordered metallic phase.

Superconductivity is demonstrated in an infinite-layer nickelate similar to infinite-layer copper oxides, which is synthesized using soft- chemistry topotactic reduction of the perovskite precursor phase.

By moving to a substrate that better stabilizes conditions, the doping series of Nd_1–xSr_xNiO₂ is synthesized free from extended defects, resulting in enhancement of superconductivity in terms of transition temperature and range of doping.

Measurements of four different infinite-layer nickelates show that magnetic behaviour coexists with superconductivity. This is different from what is seen in cuprates, giving a strong distinction between the two classes of oxide superconductors.

Unconventional superconductivity is often associated with the presence of other kinds of electronic order. Observations of charge order in infinite-layer nickelate superconductors show that they fit this pattern.

Dye-sensitized solar cells are a promising technology for sustainable energy generation. Most dyes in these types of solar cell act as sensitizers for injecting electrons into n-type semiconductors. But the development of a sensitizer that can efficiently inject holes into p-type semiconductors makes possible the realization of tandem cells that could exploit the two approaches together.

In thin magnetic films with confined geometry, the magnetization can adopt vortex-shaped arrangements. Such vortex states have been studied intensely in ferromagnetic films, but this paper reports the first direct observation of them in an antiferromagnetic system.

‘Ultrathin’ gold interlayers are shown to form nanoparticles that balance optical losses and electrical contact, enabling efficient perovskite–perovskite integration for scalable and durable triple-junction photovoltaics.

Trimetallic nickel–iron–molybdenum oxides are good electrocatalysts despite severe molybdenum dissolution. Here, it is found that molybdenum induces the formation of nickel vacancies and distorts octahedral nickel sites, which induces the formation and stabilization of active nickel oxyhydroxides.

Since superconductivity has been observed in bilayer La3Ni2O7 and trilayer La4Ni3O10 under high pressure, there have been efforts to expand the high-Tc nickelate family by synthesising new materials. In this study, the authors stabilised a Sr alternative and co-substituted in YySr3-yNi2-xAlxO7-δ. They found that different dopants significantly affect the physical properties- substituting Sr at Y site greatly enhances conductivity, while substituting Al at the Ni site reduces it.

Recent advancements in the sample quality of infinite-layer nickelates have made systematic comparisons with cuprates increasingly relevant. Hsu et al. report anomalous electronic transport in high-crystallinity (Nd,Sr)NiO₂ at large magnetic fields, map out the transport phase diagram, and discuss similarities and differences with cuprates.

Robust superconductivity is demonstrated in La₂PrNi₂O₇ thin films on a SrLaAlO₄ substrate.

X-ray spectroscopy and density functional theory are used to show that the electronic structure of the parent compound of superconducting infinite-layer nickelates, while similar to the copper-based high-temperature superconductors, has significant differences.

Nickelate superconductivity has so far been limited to thin films, raising questions about the role of the polar substrate–film interface. Here the authors utilize advanced characterization techniques to reveal the interfacial atomic structure and its relevance for superconductivity.

Fracture and related processes are typically considered detrimental, but have also attracted interest in more constructive roles. Here authors demonstrate ordered fragmentation at submicron scales of a metal oxide/hydroxide thin film by introducing preferential sites for fracture on the underlying substrate.

The intrinsic instability of wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells is predominantly attributed to the vacancy defects caused by multiple ion migration. Here, authors incorporate an ether ring supramolecule into perovskites and achieve an efficiency of over 28% for all-perovskite tandem solar cells.

Exsolved Nickel nanoparticles enhance the performance in energy conversion devices. Here, we report a nanoengineered vertically aligned nanostructure (VAN) that provides faster and more selective paths for Ni diffusion compared to traditional films.

Light can provide ultrafast ways of spin manipulation in magnetic materials, but existing methods are limited by long thermal recovery or low temperature. Here, the authors demonstrate ultrafast spin precession via optical charge-transfer processes in exchange-coupled Fe/CoO at room temperature.

Here the authors report NiGa₂O_4–x(OH)_y for light-driven CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol. The surface Lewis acid–base pairs and -OH groups act as conduits for H^- /H⁺ transport to active sites, enhancing photocatalytic methanol production.

Ab initio calculations are used to identify the structural conditions under which a polar state in metals might be stabilized; this information is used to guide the experimental realization of new room-temperature polar metals.

Most solids expand when they are heated, but some non-magnetic materials expand when they are cooled. Researchers have now observed evidence for negative thermal expansion (NTE) in nanocrystals of two magnetic materials. Moreover, the NTE effect in nanocrystals of CuO is four times larger than that observed in the celebrated NTE material zirconium tungstate.

Effects of lesion environments on transplanted neural progenitor cells (NPC) are not well characterized. Here, the authors show that NPC transplanted into CNS lesions generate cells that share transcriptional and functional features with host wound repair astroglia in mice.

Perovskite solar cells degrade when subjected to reverse bias. Jiang et al. show that relatively thick hole transport layers and metal back contacts with improved electrochemical stability afford better tolerance to reverse bias.

Iridium-based electrocatalysts are traditional anode catalysts for proton exchange membrane water electrolysis but suffer from high cost and low reserves. An alternative, nickel-stabilized ruthenium dioxide catalyst with high activity and durability in acidic oxygen evolution reaction for water electrolysis is reported.

Samples of NdNiO_2+x are prepared with meticulous control of the oxygen content. Their X-ray scattering and spectroscopy measurements then reveal that the previously reported charge density wave in undoped infinite-layer nickelates is, in fact, a spurious effect.

There has been a hot competition to optimize the device performance for all-inorganic perovskite solar cells. Here Wang et al. employ a Lewis base molecule to suppresses the non-radiative recombination in the inverted device and achieve a champion efficiency of 16.1%.

The presence of ferroaxial domain states is recently experimentally demonstrated by a nonlinear optical technique, which lacks high spatial resolution to visualize ferroaxial domains. Here, the authors visualize spatial distributions of ferroaxial domains in NiTiO₃ showing an order-disorder type ferroaxial transition.

Measurements of a superconducting infinite-layer nickelate show that its upper critical field is largely isotropic despite its quasi-two-dimensional structure. This indicates that, unusually for layered oxides, the superconductivity is Pauli-limited.

Signatures of superconductivity in La₃Ni₂O₇ thin films are demonstrated, facilitated by the application of epitaxial compressive strain, suggesting that the observed low zero resistance T_c of around 2 K can be attributed to several factors.

Many predicted topological quasi-particles still await experimental discovery. Here, Horio et al. reveal the existence of two-dimensional type-II Dirac fermions in the high-temperature superconductor La_1.77Sr_0.23CuO₄, promoting layered oxides as promising topological materials.

Catalyst screening is an important process but it’s usually time-consuming and labor intensive. Here the authors report the prediction of oxygen vacancy for perovskites using machine learning techniques to develop suitable oxygen electrocatalysts for solid oxide fuel cells at reduced temperatures.

The authors utilize both static and ultrafast terahertz conductivity spectroscopy to address the character of the superconducting state of infinite-layer nickelates.