Nature Materials contents: January 2012 Volume 11 Number 1 pp1-90

TABLE OF CONTENTS January 2012 Volume 11, Issue 1 Editorial Commentary Interview Research Highlights News and Views Review Letters Articles Subscribe   Facebook   RSS   Recommend to library   Twitter   CALL FOR NOMINATIONS Nominations are invited for the DSM Performance Materials Award 2012. Cash prize: EUR 50,000. Theme for 2012: "Chemistry of Materials: from Molecule to Material with Multiscale Control". The award will be granted for major contributions to research in this field. Nomination form can be downloaded from the award website. Closing date: February 15, 2012.   Advertisement Nature Insight: Silicon electronics and beyond The trend of scaling down the silicon transistor, which has driven the revolution in computer technology over several decades, is coming to an end. The semiconductor industry is now considering new transistor concepts to secure the next generation of computers. Access the Insight online.   Editorial Top Patents pending p1 doi:10.1038/nmat3221 Technology-transfer activities have surged since the 1980s, but only few inventions are bound to become a commercial success. Academic patenting requires professional strategies and should be motivated by goals beyond licensing revenue. Full Text | PDF Commentary Top Exploiting carbon flatland pp2 - 5 Quentin Tannock doi:10.1038/nmat3211 Seven years after isolation of the first graphene sheets, an analysis of the densely populated patent landscape around the two-dimensional material reveals striking differences between universities' patenting activities and illustrates the challenges of a fast-moving technology space. Full Text | PDF Interview Top Identifying the top 20 per cent pp6 - 7 doi:10.1038/nmat3208 Tony Hickson, Managing Director of Technology Transfer at Imperial Innovations, talked to Nature Materials about their efforts in stimulating academics at Imperial College London to disclose their inventions, and about trends in the patent system and the challenges of patenting early-stage technology. Full Text | PDF Research Highlights Top Suppressed light | Growing along | Gold nanoparticles afloat | Thermopowerful guidelines | Tiling randomness News and Views Top Plasmonic biosensors: Know your molecules pp9 - 10 Na Liu and Annemarie Pucci doi:10.1038/nmat3199 A new plasmonic sensing platform that not only allows the detection of ultrasmall quantities of biomolecules, but is also sensitive to their identity and conformational state, represents a significant advance in the study of biomolecular interactions. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Wu et al. Polymers for gene delivery: Charged for success pp10 - 12 Enrico Mastrobattista and Wim E. Hennink doi:10.1038/nmat3209 DNA-complexated cationic polymers with reduced charge density, high molecular weight and increased hydrophobicity show a lack of detectable cytotoxicity and efficiently deliver the apoptosis-inducing TRAIL gene to transplanted tumours in mice. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Zhou et al. Spintronics: Electric toggling of magnets pp12 - 13 Evgeny Y. Tsymbal doi:10.1038/nmat3205 Electric-field-induced toggle switching of nanoscale thin-film magnets signifies an important step towards energy-efficient magnetic data storage. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Wang et al. | Letter by Shiota et al. Material witness: Keeping art alive p14 Philip Ball doi:10.1038/nmat3212 Full Text | PDF Quantum dots: A charge for blinking pp14 - 16 Todd D. Krauss and Jeffrey J. Peterson doi:10.1038/nmat3206 No accepted description of luminescent blinking in quantum dots is currently available. Now, experiments probing the connection between charge and fluorescence intensity fluctuations unveil an unexpected source of blinking, significantly advancing our fundamental understanding of this baffling phenomenon. Full Text | PDF Nanoporous ordered materials: Osmotically shocked pp16 - 17 Patrick Theato and Goran Ungar doi:10.1038/nmat3210 Coordinated osmotic shocks within ordered materials lead to nanoperforated multilayer structures that may find application in photonics, optoelectronics and ultrafiltration. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Zavala-Rivera et al. Materials JOBS of the week Tenure-Track Faculty Position Duke University Assistant Manufacturing Technician - Bioprocess Kelly Scientific Resources Manufacturing Manager 1975 Millipore Corp. Energy Modeling PhD Assistantships The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Sr. Engineer / Packaging Development Engineer III (SSF) or Engineering Specialist 3, Non-Steriles Genentech More Science jobs from Materials EVENT META’12, the 3rd International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics 19.-22.04.12 Paris, France More science events from Review Top Li–O2 and Li–S batteries with high energy storage pp19 - 29 Peter G. Bruce, Stefan A. Freunberger, Laurence J. Hardwick and Jean-Marie Tarascon doi:10.1038/nmat3191 The amount of energy that can be stored in Li-ion batteries is insufficient for the long-term needs of society, for example, for use in extended-range electric vehicles. Here, the energy-storage capabilities of Li–O2 and Li–S batteries are compared with that of Li-ion, their performances are reviewed, and the challenges that need to be overcome if such batteries are to succeed are highlighted. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Letters Top Magnetoelastic metamaterials pp30 - 33 Mikhail Lapine, Ilya V. Shadrivov, David A. Powell and Yuri S. Kivshar doi:10.1038/nmat3168 Metamaterials are widely studied for their optical properties offering applications such as perfect lenses or cloaking. As is now shown, the interaction between the individual elements of metamaterials can also be used to design magnetoelastic metamaterials, which are able to change their structure in response to light. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Optical negative refraction by four-wave mixing in thin metallic nanostructures pp34 - 38 Stefano Palomba, Shuang Zhang, Yongshik Park, Guy Bartal, Xiaobo Yin and Xiang Zhang doi:10.1038/nmat3148 Artificial materials that show negative refraction can be used for devices such as perfect lenses. The demonstration of negative refraction in nanostructured metal films, using a nonlinear optical effect—four-wave mixing—therefore opens new possibilities for optical devices. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Induction of coherent magnetization switching in a few atomic layers of FeCo using voltage pulses pp39 - 43 Yoichi Shiota, Takayuki Nozaki, Frédéric Bonell, Shinichi Murakami, Teruya Shinjo and Yoshishige Suzuki doi:10.1038/nmat3172 The possibility of controlling magnetization by spin-polarized current could lead to devices more energy-efficient than traditional ones using external magnetic fields. Now, an even more efficient method has been demonstrated by using electric-field pulses to switch the magnetization in FeCo magnetic cells. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Tsymbal Solution-processed small-molecule solar cells with 6.7% efficiency pp44 - 48 Yanming Sun, Gregory C. Welch, Wei Lin Leong, Christopher J. Takacs, Guillermo C. Bazan and Alan J. Heeger doi:10.1038/nmat3160 Polymer-based bulk-heterojunction solar cells have shown some of the highest photoconversion efficiencies in organic photovoltaics, but polymer polydispersity impacts their performance. A small-molecule donor is now reported that enables the fabrication of bulk-heterojunction devices with low acceptor content and photoconversion efficiencies of up to 6.7%. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Catalytically highly active top gold atom on palladium nanocluster pp49 - 52 Haijun Zhang, Tatsuya Watanabe, Mitsutaka Okumura, Masatake Haruta and Naoki Toshima doi:10.1038/nmat3143 Different mechanistic processes explaining the catalytic activities of supported gold catalysts have been proposed. Au–Pd colloidal nanoclusters are now shown to exhibit high catalytic activity owing to an abundance of negatively charged Au atoms on the surface. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Collective osmotic shock in ordered materials pp53 - 57 Paul Zavala-Rivera, Kevin Channon, Vincent Nguyen, Easan Sivaniah, Dinesh Kabra, Richard H. Friend, S. K. Nataraj, Shaheen A. Al-Muhtaseb, Alexander Hexemer, Mauricio E. Calvo and Hernan Miguez doi:10.1038/nmat3179 Vesicles can rupture as a result of an imbalance in osmotic pressure between their inside and the exterior. Such an ‘osmotic shock’ has now been multiplexed in a coordinated fashion within an ordered material in which a minor component swells and ruptures, thus leading to a porous bicontinuous structure. Such perforated ordered materials may find applications in photonics, optoelectronics and nanofiltration. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Theato & Ungar Articles Top Sunlight-activated long-persistent luminescence in the near-infrared from Cr3+-doped zinc gallogermanates pp58 - 63 Zhengwei Pan, Yi-Ying Lu and Feng Liu doi:10.1038/nmat3173 Persistent phosphors are known from applications such as night-vision goggles where they produce a characteristic green afterglow. The discovery of persistent phosphors that instead operate at near-infrared wavelengths with much longer afterglows may now enable new applications in night-vision surveillance and in bio-imaging. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Electric-field-assisted switching in magnetic tunnel junctions pp64 - 68 Wei-Gang Wang, Mingen Li, Stephen Hageman and C. L. Chien doi:10.1038/nmat3171 The possibility of controlling magnetization by spin-polarized current could lead to devices more energy-efficient than traditional ones using external magnetic fields. Now, an even more efficient method has been demonstrated by using electric-field pulses to switch the magnetization in a CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnelling junction. Abstract | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Tsymbal Fano-resonant asymmetric metamaterials for ultrasensitive spectroscopy and identification of molecular monolayers pp69 - 75 Chihhui Wu, Alexander B. Khanikaev, Ronen Adato, Nihal Arju, Ahmet Ali Yanik, Hatice Altug and Gennady Shvets doi:10.1038/nmat3161 Plasmonic nanostructures are known to be an attractive platform for highly sensitive molecular sensors, although they often lack specificity. A plasmonic device with a sharp optical resonance tuned to biomolecules selectively captured on the surface of the device now offers a versatile yet highly specific platform for molecular sensing. Abstract | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Liu & Pucci Universal energy-level alignment of molecules on metal oxides pp76 - 81 Mark T. Greiner, Michael G. Helander, Wing-Man Tang, Zhi-Bin Wang, Jacky Qiu and Zheng-Hong Lu doi:10.1038/nmat3159 Metal oxides can exchange charges with a wide variety of adsorbed organic molecules, which renders them useful in electronics and catalysis. A study on oxides with a range of electronic properties now shows that energy alignment at metal oxide/organic interfaces is universally governed by electron-chemical-potential equilibration. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Biodegradable poly(amine-co-ester) terpolymers for targeted gene delivery pp82 - 90 Jiangbing Zhou, Jie Liu, Christopher J. Cheng, Toral R. Patel, Caroline E. Weller, Joseph M. Piepmeier, Zhaozhong Jiang and W. Mark Saltzman doi:10.1038/nmat3187 Many synthetic polymer nanoparticles used for non-viral gene delivery contain excess cations on their surface, which makes the particles cytotoxic and the delivery of genes inefficient. Terpolymers with a low charge density, high molecular weight and increased hydrophobicity are now shown to have minimal toxicity, and to efficiently deliver the apoptosis-inducing TRAIL gene to transplanted tumours in mice. Abstract | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Mastrobattista & Hennink Top Advertisement Frontiers in Materials: Spintronics May 13, 2012 • Strasbourg, France This workshop will provide an overview of the most interesting developments in the field of spintronics, a technology that aims at controlling the electron spin beside the electron charge and that could provide efficient electronic devices with potentially new functionalities. www.nature.com/natureconferences/spin12   Natureevents is a fully searchable, multi-disciplinary database designed to maximise exposure for events organisers. The contents of the Natureevents Directory are now live. The digital version is available here. Find the latest scientific conferences, courses, meetings and symposia on natureevents.com. For event advertising opportunities across the Nature Publishing Group portfolio please contact natureevents@nature.com More Nature Events

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