Physical sciences articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present nonvolatile optical phase shift induced by ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide deposited on a SiN waveguide. This finding paves the way for largescale programmable photonic circuits for communication, computing, and sensing.

    • Kazuma Taki
    • , Naoki Sekine
    •  & Mitsuru Takenaka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of subcellular thermogenesis during neuronal differentiation remains poorly understood. Here, the authors employ methods to monitor local intracellular temperature, and they investigate the effects of non-invasive temperature changes on cell differentiation using neuron-like cells.

    • Shunsuke Chuma
    • , Kazuyuki Kiyosue
    •  & Yoshie Harada

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Enzymes involve structural flexibility in their function, but understanding enzyme catalysis as connected to protein motions is a major challenge. Here, the authors obtain energetic description of C-H activation in nicotinamide coenzyme-dependent UDP-glucuronic acid C4 epimerase based on temperature kinetic studies and isotope effect measurements.

    • Christian Rapp
    • , Annika Borg
    •  & Bernd Nidetzky

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    The knowledge gained from industrial catalysis benefits advancements of nanocatalytic medicines. Here the authors review the similarities, differences and connections in catalytic reactions between industrial and medical applications to support deep understanding and rational design of nanocatalytic medicines.

    • Zhaokui Jin
    • , Lingdong Jiang
    •  & Qianjun He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The synthesis of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) by a soft-template methodology is challenging. Here, the authors attach the soft templates to the COFs backbone via ion bonds, avoiding crystallization incompatibilities and allowing subsequent removal of the template by ion exchange for enhanced U(VI)/Th(IV) adsorption performance.

    • Ningning He
    • , Yingdi Zou
    •  & Lijian Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The inherent instability of poly(sulfur) renders the conversion of elementary sulfur into sulfur-rich polymers challenging which limits the use of this industrial by-product. Here, the authors demonstrate that inorganic sulfur can be utilized by copolymerizing with cyclic disulfides, producing high-performance thermoplastic elastomers with self-healing ability and degradability.

    • Yuanxin Deng
    • , Zhengtie Huang
    •  & Da-Hui Qu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    So far, only homoleptic N2 complexes of silicon have been reported under matrix-isolation conditions including but the activation of more inert nitrogen by silylenes remains challenging. Here the authors report on the activation of dinitrogen by silylenes under cryogenic conditions.

    • Liyan Cai
    • , Bing Xu
    •  & Xuefeng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving acoustic waveguides with low loss, tailorability, and easy fabrication is a considerable challenge. Here, the authors introduce suspended anti-resonant acoustic waveguides with superior confinement and high selectivity of acoustic modes, supporting both forward and backward SBS on chip.

    • Peng Lei
    • , Mingyu Xu
    •  & Xiaopeng Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing water compatible synthetic methods for Sulfur(VI) fluoride exchange (SuFEx) chemistry is of paramount importance. Here the authors demonstrate a catalytic dearomative [2+2] photocycloaddition that significantly speeds up the synthesis of heterocyclic alkyl SuFEx hubs, leveraging the unique reactivity at the water-oil interface.

    • Soo Bok Kim
    • , Dong Hyeon Kim
    •  & Han Yong Bae

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dual wavelength vat photopolymerization has emerged as a powerful approach to create multimaterial objects but require changing the resin during the printing process. Here, the authors develop a method of dual-wavelength 3D printing that can directly access multicolor parts without requiring changing of resin feedstocks or introduction of new materials during the printing process.

    • Kyle C. H. Chin
    • , Grant Ovsepyan
    •  & Andrew J. Boydston

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Creating accurate digital twins and controlling nonlinear systems displaying chaotic dynamics is challenging due to high system sensitivity to initial conditions and perturbations. The authors introduce a nonlinear controller for chaotic systems, based on next-generation reservoir computing, with improved accuracy, energy cost, and suitable for implementation with field-programmable gate arrays.

    • Robert M. Kent
    • , Wendson A. S. Barbosa
    •  & Daniel J. Gauthier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Terminal hydroxyl groups on γ-Al2O3 surfaces serve as anchoring sites for Ag. Based on the surface energy of different crystal planes of γ-Al2O3 at various temperatures, the authors propose a high-temperature-induced crystal plane transformation method to construct terminal hydroxyl anchoring sites.

    • Jiaxin Li
    • , Kai Li
    •  & Hong He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low-dimensional ferroelectric systems are predicted to have topologically nontrivial polar structures, such as vortices or skyrmions. Here authors present atomic-scale 3D topological polar structures in BaTiO3 nanoparticles using atomic electron tomography and revealed their size-dependent transitions.

    • Chaehwa Jeong
    • , Juhyeok Lee
    •  & Yongsoo Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Experimental characterization of the transition state in chemical reactions is challenging due to its transient nature. Here, Zhang et al. observe quantum states near the activated complex region of the F + NH3 → HF + NH2 reaction via a dipole-bound state of the FNH3- anion formed upon photodetachment, which allows probing regions of reactive potential energy surfaces out of the Franck-Condon-active areas.

    • Rui Zhang
    • , Shuaiting Yan
    •  & Chuangang Ning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report the observation of an interlayer plasmon polaron in heterostructures composed of graphene and monolayer WS2. This is manifested in the ARPES spectra as a strong quasiparticle peak accompanied by several carrier density-dependent shake-off replicas around the WS2 conduction band minimum.

    • Søren Ulstrup
    • , Yann in ’t Veld
    •  & Jyoti Katoch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, authors propose a flash Joule heating-based process for meat preservation, enabled by the formation of a thin, microbe-inactivated, and dehydrated layer on the surface. The method is energetically efficient and shown to significantly extend the food shelf life while maintaining food freshness.

    • Yimin Mao
    • , Peihua Ma
    •  & Liangbing Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors study a YbCoIn5/CeCoIn5/YbRhIn5 heterostructure. Using non-reciprocity in the second harmonic transport response, they demonstrate the existence of a specific form of finite-momentum pairing called a helical superconducting state, where the phase of the order parameter is spontaneously spatially modulated.

    • T. Asaba
    • , M. Naritsuka
    •  & Y. Matsuda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite the use of amine-functionalized polymers as metal adsorbents, they are generally ineffective at recovering precious metals. Here the authors prepare a star-shaped, hydrazide-functionalized polymer as a recoverable standalone adsorbent with high precious metal adsorption capability/selectivity and practical feasibility.

    • Seung Su Shin
    • , Youngkyun Jung
    •  & Jung-Hyun Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The BHMbot provides an efficient running gait and a novel actuation mechanism for insect scale legged microrobots to solve the bottleneck problem of the severe running speed degradation after carrying essential payloads for untethered locomotion.

    • Zhiwei Liu
    • , Wencheng Zhan
    •  & Xiaojun Yan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plastics, chemical production, and fertilizers commonly rely on fossil fuels. Here the authors examine these uses in China and find that in 2017, 5%, 15%, and 7% of China’s total coal, crude oil, and natural gas were used as feedstocks in the chemical industry.

    • Meng Jiang
    • , Yuheng Cao
    •  & Bing Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventional chemical engineering has limitations on heat transfer, leading to large setups. Here, authors propose a distributed electrified heating method, realizing fast and uniform heating of gaseous reactants, promising an energy-concentrated and compact reactor design.

    • Hanmin Yang
    • , Ilman Nuran Zaini
    •  & Tong Han

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Granular materials exhibit yielding behaviors rather different from glasses that can be elastic. Here, Yuan et al. show a cross-over from creep to diffusive dynamics in three-dimensional granular systems under cyclic shear and that the relaxation process depends on the roughness of the constituent particles.

    • Ye Yuan
    • , Zhikun Zeng
    •  & Yujie Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solving ill-posed inverse problems require regularisation based on prior knowledge, which is formulated mathematically or learned from data. Here, the authors demonstrated the concept of semantic regularisation based on large language model to circumvent the current limitation.

    • Hongrui Zhang
    • , Yanjin Chen
    •  & Lianlin Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For the carbonylation reactions to synthesize aldehyde, ester, amide, and other carbonyl derivatives, a transition metal-free and CO- free reaction was challenging but highly demanded. Here, the authors report a transition metal-free and CO- free method for deoxygenetive/denitrogenetive conversion of phenols and anilines to aldehydes and ketones.

    • Kanak Kanti Das
    • , Debasis Aich
    •  & Santanu Panda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite the established C − H deuteration of pyridine derivatives synthetic methods with good D-incorporation, under milder conditions with easy operation procedures is still on the way. Here, the authors develop a straightforward, metal-free, and acid-/base-free electrochemical C4-selective C − H deuteration of pyridine derivatives with high selectivity and excellent D-incorporation at room temperature, which use D2O as economic and convenient D-source.

    • Zhiwei Zhao
    • , Ranran Zhang
    •  & Youai Qiu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Improving mass transfer through hierarchically porous synthetic materials is a great challenge. Here the authors address this by expanding the original Murray’s law, a biomimetic principle defining the branching of veins in living structures.

    • Binghan Zhou
    • , Qian Cheng
    •  & Tawfique Hasan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lightweight and flexible thin crystalline silicon solar cells have huge market potential but remain relatively unexplored. Here, authors present a thin silicon structure with reinforced ring to prepare free-standing 4.7-μm 4-inch silicon wafers, achieving efficiency of 20.33% for 28-μm solar cells.

    • Taojian Wu
    • , Zhaolang Liu
    •  & Wenzhong Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stabilizing non-trivial magnetic spin textures at room temperature remains challenging. Here, the authors propose introducing magnetic atoms into the van der Waals gap of 2D magnets Fe3GaTe2 to stabilize the magnetic spin textures beyond skyrmion.

    • Hongrui Zhang
    • , Yu-Tsun Shao
    •  & Ramamoorthy Ramesh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polarization reversal dynamics in sliding ferroelectrics is important for the application in slidetronics. Here, the authors observe the interlayer directional sliding induced polarization switching with simultaneous hysteresis response in γ-InSe:Y.

    • Fengrui Sui
    • , Haoyang Li
    •  & Chungang Duan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous measurements of FeSe0.45Te0.55 found one-dimensional (1D) defects that were interpretated as domain walls hosting propagating Majorana topological modes. Here, the authors reveal that these 1D defects correspond to sub-surface debris and show that the filling of the superconducting gap on these defects is topologically trivial.

    • A. Mesaros
    • , G. D. Gu
    •  & F. Massee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sublattice symmetry has long been synonymous with chiral symmetry when it comes to topological classification. Here, the authors challenge this notion by systematically investigating sublattice symmetry and revealing its spatial nature with a precise description in terms of symmetry algebra and representation.

    • Rong Xiao
    •  & Y. X. Zhao

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Physical sciences across other nature.com journals