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While single, dispersed atoms enable efficient atomic utilization, controllably preparing single-atom dimers remains challenging. Here, authors prepare nickel-cobalt single-atom dimers as high-performance pH-universal H₂ evolution electrocatalysts.

Developing active and stable atomically dispersed catalysts is challenging because of weak non-specific interactions between catalytically active metal atoms and supports. A general method for synthesizing these catalysts via photochemical defect tuning for controlling oxygen-vacancy dynamics is proposed.

Excitons have been predicted to form spontaneously—without external excitation—in some materials. Low-temperature ARPES measurements on Ta₂NiSe₅ now provide evidence for such an excitonic insulator and for so-called preformed excitons.

Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂ ferroelectric capacitors undergo a continuous transition from a positive effective to a fully inverted negative piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ upon electrical cycling. With proper ac training, both the net effective and the local piezoresponses can be nullified while the polarization is kept fully switchable.

Achieving long-cycle-life, aqueous, dual-electrode-free Zn/MnO₂ batteries with high energy density is challenging. This work introduces a liquid crystal interphase in the electrolytes with soft templating effects, considerably enhancing performance.

The detection of topological states is restricted to limited experimental tools. Here, the authors apply broadband solid-state ¹²⁵Te nuclear magnetic resonance on Bi₂Te₃ nanoplatelets uncovering signals distinguishing edge Dirac electrons and bulk electrons.

Fuel cells are promising for various applications but need durable electrocatalysts. Here, the authors present a solution-phase derived Pt-Mg alloy endowed with a Pt-rich shell and an intermetallic core, showing high durability and activity.

Exploring the ground state of two-dimensional (2D) magnetic systems enriches the fundamental understanding of magnetism and boosts the applications. The authors here show the suppression of magnetic order and 2D XY behavior in XXZ-type antiferromagnet NiPS₃ when approaching the monolayer limit by Raman spectroscopy.

Transition metal chalcogenides are effective and economical electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media, yet active sites and catalytic mechanisms remain unclear. Here the authors use operando spectroscopy to study the in-situ conversion of NiS to highly active Ni₃S₂/NiO dual-site catalysts for the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction.

Integrating electrochemical CO electrolysers with a bioreactor can yield high-value long-chain carbon products, but the electrolytes for the two systems are mismatched. Now, a porous solid electrolyte reactor, which can produce acetate directly in bioelectrolyte, is demonstrated. Direct integration with a bioreactor produces bioplastic from CO via the acetate intermediate.

Domain walls of topological materials may be good candidates to study topological interfacial states. Here, Huang et al. discover polar domain walls which can be manipulated by electron beams and phase domain walls where possible signature of a conducting hinge state is detected in Weyl semimetal MoTe₂.

The research to utilize chemical potential mismatch for materials synthesis has been limited across the oxide interface. Here, the authors show that directional ionic transport from the VO₂ layers stabilizes the rutile TiO₂ phase at extremely low temperatures, at which epitaxy is difficult, by effectively lowering the activation barrier for crystallization.

Here, the authors present a resonance theory to describe the bonding configuration of flat boron materials without quantum calculation. Like aromaticity theory in carbon, it allows to intuitively understand the stability and properties of boron-related materials

Spin-momentum locking is a fundamental property of condensed matter systems. Here, the authors evidence parallel Weyl spin-momentum locking of multifold fermions in the chiral topological semimetal PtGa.

Controlling phase transitions in solids is crucial for many applications. Ultrafast laser pulses have now been shown to enable the energy-efficient generation of structural fluctuations in VO₂ by harnessing the correlated disorder in the material.

Graphene holds promise as a protective coating; however, lattice defects may hinder its practical applicability. Here, the authors investigate the oxidation behavior of graphene-coated copper foils and unveil the interplay between structural defects and oxygen radicals from water molecules in ambient air.

This work regulates solid/liquid/gas triple-phase interface, facilitating site-selective protonation in carbon monoxide electroreduction. It achieves increased energy-efficiency in acetate production and contributes to the understanding of selectively controlling the electrosynthesis of a single product.

Under conditions of Earth’s deep lower mantle, hydrogen ions diffuse freely through the FeOOH lattice framework and electrical conductivity increases rapidly, according to electrical conductivity experiments and first-principles simulations.

Halide perovskite has been applied for resistive switching memory devices, but there are challenges remained to achieve practical application. By using high-throughput screening based on first-principles calculations, the authors discover that lead-free dimer-Cs₃Sb₂I₉ meets the requirements, which exhibits switching speed of 20 ns.

Dynamic mapping of charge motion across multiple length- and timescales is essential for understanding a variety of phenomena. Here, the authors introduce sparse scanning KPFM, which enables fast nanoscale charge mapping at 3 frames per second to track ion migration.

Designing complex concentrated alloys with targeted properties for high performance remains challenging because of their complex local atomic environments. Here, the authors show how to engineer atomic-level pressure to customize complexity-induced properties such as solid-solution strengthening.

Chemical interaction between metal and oxide supports is an important molecular-level factor that influences the catalytic selectivity of a desirable reaction. Here, using Pt nanowires/TiO₂ catalytic nanodiodes, the authors investigate an enhancement of both selectivity and hot electron generation on metal-oxide interfacial sites.

All-solid-state lithium sulfur batteries may avoid some of the drawbacks of their liquid electrolyte counterparts. Here, the authors elucidate the composition of discharge products in all-solid-state cells using spectroscopic techniques and propose a strategy to control the discharge product.

The complex, multi-component environments found in enzymes induce high catalytic specificity, but are difficult to achieve in synthetic catalysts. Now, researchers report a catalyst comprising a dynamic, ordered layer of ligands above a nanoparticle surface that creates a pocket to facilitate CO₂ electroreduction.

As a new two-dimensional (2D) material, monolayer ruthenium oxide (RuO₂) nanosheets (NSs) have distorted h-MX₂ type crystal structures that lead to semiconducting properties and good optical transmittance. This study suggests that monolayer RuO₂ can be useful in applications of flexible optoelectronics.

Materials with a negative Poisson’s ratio are rare and have been observed in bulk materials. Here, the authors report that a negative value can be seen in nanoscale metal plates under a finite stress, caused by a surface effect and a phase transformation.

Transition metal fluorides have high theoretical specific capacities as cathodes for lithium ion batteries, but low working potentials and poor energy efficiency limit their practical applications. Here, the authors report a group of ternary metal fluorides, which may overcome these problems.

Developing high-performance hybrid energy storage devices requires improved understanding of the mechanism that governs the electrochemical reactions. Here, the authors show the atomic-level working process of cobalt hydroxide electrode for pseudocapacitors.

Vertical integration of two-dimensional materials can open unprecedented possibilities towards design of efficient optoelectronic devices. Here, the authors investigate the photoresponse properties of a graphene/MoS₂/graphene heterostructure, revealing promising quantum efficiency performances.

The only known compound of sodium and hydrogen is ionic NaH, but theory predicts the existence of polyhydrides at high pressure. Here, the authors report observations of the formation of polyhydrides above 40 GPa and 2000 K, supporting the idea of multicentre bonding in a material with unusual stoichiometry.

Solid electrolytes are an attractive alternative to the flammable organic solvents typically used in intercalation batteries. Here, the authors report the computation-assisted discovery and synthesis of Na₁₀SnP₂S₁₂, a sodium electrolyte with room temperature conductivity of 0.4 mS cm⁻¹.

Grain boundaries can degrade the performance of electronic devices made from single atomic layers of transition metal dichalcogenides. Here, the authors combine transport measurements and transmission electron microscopy to find a correlation between field-effect mobility and grain misorientation angle.

Laser beam-induced processing is industrially relevant but often challenging to study in terms of underlying phase transformations. Here authors characterize formation of thin, phase-separated carbon and silicon layers on a silicon carbide substrate by laser-induced melting and solidification.

Two-dimensional metal oxide nanosheets have numerous attractive properties in fields such as photovoltaics and catalysis. Here, the authors show a general approach for the synthesis of these compounds through self-assembly on lamellar reverse micelles.

Monoclinic transition metal dichalcogenides offer the possibility of topological quantum devices, but they are difficult to realize. One route may be through switching from the common hexagonal phase, for which a method is now shown.

In this work, we demonstrated the critical roles of oxygen vacancies and substituted transition-metal atoms in determining the leakage current of epitaxial all-perovskite oxide capacitor, and established a strategy for reducing the leakage current via interface engineering.

Integrating bottom-up and top-down fabrication techniques can overcome limits in nanofabrication. Here authors demonstrate an approach for area selective deposition using Ti as an inhibitor in the atomic layer deposition process to achieve controlled growth of seamless TiO₂ layers on 3D structures.

Subnanometer-confined reaction is the frontier of catalytic chemistry, yet it is challenging to form the angstrom channels with distributed atomic catalytic centers within, and to match the internal mass transfer and the reactive species’ lifetimes. Here, the authors resolve these issues by applying the concept of the angstrom-confined catalytic water contaminant degradation.

High-Ni-content layered cathodes are promising for lithium-ion batteries, but investigating their delithiation-induced phase boundaries is challenging. Intralayer transition motifs at complex phase boundaries in these high-Ni electrodes are now resolved using deep-learning-aided super-resolution electron microscopy.

Sub-ångström-resolution indentation measurements and semi-analytical methods indicate that, for few-layer-thick films, the elasticity perpendicular to the plane is sensitive to the films’ structure and the presence of intercalated molecules.

Precipitation hardening, used as an effective strengthening strategy in various alloy systems, has been usually achieved by coherent precipitates. Here, the authors develop ultrastrong ductile alloys employing structurally dissimilar semicoherent precipitates by shear band-driven precipitation.

In-plane polarized ferroelectric thin films typically exhibit complicated multidomain states, not desirable for optoelectronic device performance. Here, the authors combine interfacial symmetry engineering and anisotropic strain to design single-domain in-plane polarized ferroelectric BaTiO₃ films.

Oxygen reduction reaction provides an environmentally-benign route for hydrogen peroxide production but lacks efficient catalysts to achieve high selectivity and activity simultaneously. Here, the authors report a boron-doped carbon catalyst which shows great promise with outstanding performance.

Developing green and delocalized routes for ammonia synthesis is highly important but still very challenging. Here the authors report an efficient ammonia synthesis process via nitrate reduction to ammonia on Fe single atom catalyst.

The challenge in non-oxidative coupling of methane lies in the activation of the first C–H bond while avoiding further dehydrogenations, which lead to the formation of coke. Here, atomically thin platinum nanolayers on two-dimensional molybdenum titanium carbides are reported as a superior catalyst for this reaction owing to reduced coke formation.

Imaging the electron and hole that bind to form interlayer excitons in a 2D moiré material enables direct measurement of its diameter and indicates the localization of its centre of mass.

Nitrate, a common pollutant in wastewater and groundwater, has been efficiently converted into valuable ammonia products via an electrochemical method using Ru-dispersed Cu nanowire as the catalyst.

The ammonia was synthesized under ambient conditions via a mechanochemical method, reaching a final concentration of 82.5 vol%.

The performance of wide-bandgap perovskite photovoltaics is limited by the undesired phase transition and high density of deep level traps. Here, Tan et al. incorporate dipolar methylammonium cation to make the material defect-tolerant and achieve a high power conversion efficiency of 20.7%.