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Soil life relies on microbial nutrient exchange to maintain ecosystem balance. This study shows that cobamide-producing microbes act as essential connectors in soil food webs, supporting host health and highlighting cross-kingdom links central to One Health.

This study employs single-cell spatial transcriptomics to dissect the interaction between potato and Phytophthora infestans, revealing cellular heterogeneity at the infection site and providing a resource to enhance potato disease resistance.

The fabrication of two-dimensional covalent organic framework films with uniform thickness, ordered structure and excellent semiconducting performance directly on substrates for applications in electronic devices remains challenging. Here, the authors address the challenge and produce out-of-plane oriented two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks by a Marangoni flow-aided interface synthesis method.

While it is possible to synthesize two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks with reversible stacking phases and thus pore sizes, it is challenging because the slipped AA-stacking is the most thermodynamically stable phase. Here, the authors report shape memory 2D covalent organic frameworks with reversible interlayer stacking sequences.

The preparation of high quality crystalline covalent organic framework (COF) films without polymer contamination and controllable thickness is desirable for optoelectronic applications. Here, the authors report a diffusion-limited synthesis strategy for wafer-scale COF films with a controlled structure, thickness, patterning, and crystallization degree based on the adjustment of the precursor building block films.

An acceptor–donor–acceptor organic semiconductor enables near-infrared organic light-emitting diodes with reduced efficiency roll-off over six orders of magnitude of excitation current density, enabling a maximum luminance of 2,000 W sr⁻¹ m⁻².

Kinetic Wulff-shaped heteroepitaxial growth in halide perovskites enables the realization of well-defined 2D halide perovskite epitaxial heterostructures with deterministic slab thickness (n = 1–3) and high phase purity. Optoelectronic devices based on these heterostructures demonstrate substantial rectification ratios and reliable switching behaviours under optical or electrical inputs.

Advances in our ability to manipulate genetics leads to deeper understanding of biological systems. In this perspective, the authors argue that synthetic genomics facilitates complex modifications that open up new areas of research.

2D MOFs have a variety of applications, including molecular separation and atomically thin electronics. Here authors demonstrate the preparation of monolayer and few-layer MOF single-crystals using a self-condensation-assisted CVD method.

All-in-one multi-task photoperception is desirable for artificial vision systems. Wen et al. present wafer-scale high density integration of artificial photoreceptors that combine photoadaptation and circular polarized light vision, enabled by chiral-nanocluster-conjugated molecule heterostructures.

In this work, the large-scale growth of lateral G-h-BN heterostructure with controlled morphology together with growth mechanism have been studies. 2D h-BN lateral heterostructures with tunable morphology ranging from regular hexagon to highly symmetrical star-like is demonstrated for the first time on a liquid Cu surface by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) approach. Morphology evolution of the G-h-BN heterostructure as a function of gas flow rate and growth time is directly observed and extensively simulated based on phase field and density functional theory calculations.

2D and 3D conductive MOFs have performed well in the fields of energy and catalysis. Here, authors synthesise a 1D conductive MOF in which DDA ligands are connected by double Cu ions, forming nanoribbon layers with π-d conjugated nanoribbon planes and out-of-plane π-π stacking, which facilitates charge transport along two dimensions.

A competitive-chemical-reaction-based growth mechanism by controlling the kinetic parameters can easily realize the growth of transition metal chalcogenides and transition metal phosphorous chalcogenides with different compositions and phases.

Solution-based synthesis of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) often leads to insoluble powders or fragile films on solution surfaces. Here, the authors report large-area two-dimensional (2D) COF films with controllable thicknesses via vapour induced conversion.

The heteroepitaxial growth of crystalline 2D materials is usually based on single-crystal substrates. Here, the authors demonstrate that single-crystal graphene and hexagonal boron nitride films can be successfully grown on wafer-scale copper foils with tailored twin boundaries.

The unique properties of 2D materials are affected by the discontinuities posed by the structure’s edge. Here, using atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, the authors image and explain the formation of specific edge structures on Mo_{1 − x} W _x Se₂ monolayers under different chemical conditions.

Large-area single-crystal high-index copper and nickel foils with several types of facet are fabricated using mild pre-oxidation of the metal foil surface followed by annealing in a reducing atmosphere.

The fluorination of graphene sheets in bilayer graphene grown by chemical vapour deposition on a single-crystal CuNi(111) surface results in a fluorinated diamond monolayer.

Controlled preparation of few-layer graphene is a promising, yet challenging technological protocol. Here, the authors perform real-time imaging during chemical vapour deposition growth and hydrogen etching, to gain insight into layer-dependent growth mechanisms and graphene-substrate interaction.

In this article, we propose several kinds of simple nano-structures constructed by BP and SiC nanoribbons, which show peculiar electronic properties and might have promising applications in nano-electronics. SiC-BP-SiC nanoribbons are found to exhibit not only significant field-effect characteristics but also tunable negative differential resistance. ‘Y’- and ‘Δ’-shaped SiC-BP structures show significant spin polarization at their edges. Under the transverse electric field, the non-magnetic direct bandgap zigzag BP nanoribbons can change to non-magnetic indirect bandgap semiconductors, ferrimagnetic semiconductors or half-metals depending on the field strength and direction. These findings reveal the possibility of using SiC-BP nano-structures to construct multi-functional electronics.