Nature Materials contents: November 2011 Volume 10 Number 11 pp807-896

TABLE OF CONTENTS November 2011 Volume 10, Issue 11 Editorial Research Highlights News and Views Progress Review Letters Articles Erratum Advertisement Recommend to your library Web feed Available online only Subscribe Advertisement Frontiers in Electronic Materials: Correlation Effects and Memristive Phenomena June 17-20, 2012 • Aachen, Germany This conference will bring together leaders in the field to discuss breakthroughs and challenges in fundamental research as well as prospects for future applications. To register and for more information, visit: www.nature.com/natureconferences/fem2012   Editorial Top Poisson's ratio at 200 p807 doi:10.1038/nmat3167 An understanding of a material's microscopic architecture is important to improve its mechanical properties. Poisson's ratio, which celebrates its bicentenary this year, continues to provide a good metric for that. Full Text | PDF See also: Progress by Ritchie | Review by Greaves et al. Research Highlights Top Particles with memory | Three for one | Electrons in-between | Not-so-rare LEDs | Screening for topographies News and Views Top Crystal nucleation: In a tight corner pp809 - 810 Richard P. Sear doi:10.1038/nmat3157 Surfaces are known to act as catalysts for the nucleation of crystals. Using polymer films patterned with nanopores, it is now shown that the shape of the pores can control the kinetics of surface-induced crystal nucleation. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Diao et al. Biomineralization: Micelles in a crystal pp810 - 811 Lara A. Estroff and Itai Cohen doi:10.1038/nmat3156 Inclusion of organic molecules in inorganic crystals is thought to enhance their mechanical properties, yet obtaining high occlusion levels has been a challenge. It is now shown that synthetic calcite single crystals incorporating a significant amount of copolymer micelles have mechanical properties similar to biogenic calcite crystals. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Kim et al. Quantum information: Noisy neighbours under control pp811 - 813 Guido Burkard doi:10.1038/nmat3154 The ability to control the nuclear spins in a semiconductor quantum dot is an important step towards a long-lived and controllable electron spin qubit. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Makhonin et al. X-ray imaging: A coherent look at stress pp813 - 814 Frank Schreiber doi:10.1038/nmat3155 Molecular ligands are widely used to functionalize gold nanoparticles, but their influence on the particle structure has been difficult to probe. Coherent X-ray diffraction has now reached sufficient sensitivity to resolve adsorption-induced near-surface stress in a single nanocrystal. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Chirilă et al. Material witness: A quick fix p814 Philip Ball doi:10.1038/nmat3153 Full Text | PDF Colloidal self-assembly: Interlocked octapods pp815 - 816 Sara M. Rupich and Dmitri V. Talapin doi:10.1038/nmat3158 Suspensions of octapod-shaped nanocrystals are seen to spontaneously interlock into chains, which in turn aggregate side-by-side to form three-dimensional crystals. The observed hierarchical self-assembly can be explained by the octapod's shape and the solvent-tunable van der Waals interactions. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Miszta et al. Materials JOBS of the week Post-doctoral research associate Working at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate Dayton, US A Tenure Track Associate Professor in Energy-Conversion Materials Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo, JP Postdoctoral & Graduate Students in Multiphase Microfluidics Iowa State University - Department of Mechanical Engineering Ames, US Postdoctoral Fellow Vanderbilt University Nashville, US PhD Student City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, HK More Science jobs from Materials EVENT Annual International Conference on Materials Science, Metal & Manufacturing (M3 2011) 12.-13.12.11 Singapore More science events from Progress Top The conflicts between strength and toughness pp817 - 822 Robert O. Ritchie doi:10.1038/nmat3115 It is often assumed that there is a conflict in structural materials between strength (resistance to non-recoverable deformation) and toughness (resistance to fracture), which cannot be optimized at the same time. In this review, new fundamental insight and lessons from nature demonstrate how this conflict can be resolved through a design on different length scales. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Review Top Poisson's ratio and modern materials pp823 - 837 G. N. Greaves, A. L. Greer, R. S. Lakes and T. Rouxel doi:10.1038/nmat3134 Poisson's ratio describes the resistance of a material to distort under mechanical load rather than to alter in volume. On the bicentenary of the publication of Poisson's Traité de Mécanique, the continuing relevance of Poisson's ratio in the understanding of modern materials is reviewed. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Letters Top A micromechanical model to predict the flow of soft particle glasses pp838 - 843 Jyoti R. Seth, Lavanya Mohan, Clémentine Locatelli-Champagne, Michel Cloitre and Roger T. Bonnecaze doi:10.1038/nmat3119 Toothpaste, mayonnaise and other systems are soft particle glasses. In these, the soft particles are jammed so that the glasses behave like weak solids at rest but at sufficient stress flow like liquids. This has made their theoretical understanding difficult. A new micromechanical model is now able to predict the rheology of these soft particle glasses. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Fast control of nuclear spin polarization in an optically pumped single quantum dot pp844 - 848 M. N. Makhonin, K. V. Kavokin, P. Senellart, A. Lemaître, A. J. Ramsay, M. S. Skolnick and A. I. Tartakovskii doi:10.1038/nmat3102 The interaction between electron and nuclear spins in quantum dots is often seen as detrimental for the use of electron spin for quantum information processing. It is now shown, however, that such interaction can be used to coherently control the polarization of tens of thousands of nuclear spins, opening the way to experiments using nuclear rather than electron spin. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Burkard Spin-filter Josephson junctions pp849 - 852 Kartik Senapati, Mark G. Blamire and Zoe H. Barber doi:10.1038/nmat3116 Josephson junctions have been intensely studied from a fundamental and technological point of view. It is now shown how by using ferromagnetic insulators for the barrier it is possible to strongly affect the superconducting current and in particular its magnetic and spin properties. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Electrical control of the ferromagnetic phase transition in cobalt at room temperature pp853 - 856 D. Chiba, S. Fukami, K. Shimamura, N. Ishiwata, K. Kobayashi and T. Ono doi:10.1038/nmat3130 The electrical control of magnetic properties is a key requirement for the development of spintronic devices. The demonstration that the ferromagnetic phase transition in cobalt can be changed by applying an electric field at room temperature represents a significant step towards devices that can switch magnetism on and off electrically. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Highly efficient Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells grown on flexible polymer films pp857 - 861 Adrian Chirilă, Stephan Buecheler, Fabian Pianezzi, Patrick Bloesch, Christina Gretener, Alexander R. Uhl, Carolin Fella, Lukas Kranz, Julian Perrenoud, Sieghard Seyrling, Rajneesh Verma, Shiro Nishiwaki, Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Gerhard Bilger and Ayodhya N. Tiwari doi:10.1038/nmat3122 The use of flexible polymer substrates not only reduces weight and fabrication costs of solar cells, but their bendability also enables new applications. A careful design of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells grown on polymer substrates now solves earlier fabrication issues, leading to conversion efficiencies matching those grown on rigid substrates. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Differential stress induced by thiol adsorption on facetted nanocrystals pp862 - 866 Moyu Watari, Rachel A. McKendry, Manuel Vögtli, Gabriel Aeppli, Yeong-Ah Soh, Xiaowen Shi, Gang Xiong, Xiaojing Huang, Ross Harder and Ian K. Robinson doi:10.1038/nmat3124 Self-assembled monolayers of thiols have applications ranging from surface coatings to nanomechanical sensors, where they transmit analyte-induced stress to a cantilever detector. For gold nanocrystals it is now shown that the adsorption of propanethiol alone can induce large chemical stress, with different directionality on curved and flat surfaces. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Schreiber The role of nanopore shape in surface-induced crystallization pp867 - 871 Ying Diao, Takuya Harada, Allan S. Myerson, T. Alan Hatton and Bernhardt L. Trout doi:10.1038/nmat3117 Crystallization of a liquid usually starts at a solid surface — for instance, that of impurities or of a container's walls — and surface roughness is known to enhance crystal nucleation rates. It is now shown with polymer films patterned with spherical nanopores 15–120 nm in size that the shape of the pores can either enhance or hinder crystal nucleation. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Sear Hierarchical self-assembly of suspended branched colloidal nanocrystals into superlattice structures pp872 - 876 Karol Miszta, Joost de Graaf, Giovanni Bertoni, Dirk Dorfs, Rosaria Brescia, Sergio Marras, Luca Ceseracciu, Roberto Cingolani, René van Roij, Marjolein Dijkstra and Liberato Manna doi:10.1038/nmat3121 Monodisperse octapod-shaped inorganic nanocrystals suspended in suitable solvents are shown to self-assemble into chains of interlocked octapods, which in turn aggregate to form three-dimensional crystals. Such hierarchical self-assembly is supported by a simulation model of the octapods, which shows that the favourable interlocked configuration is encoded in the octapod’s shape. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Rupich & Talapin Digitally tunable physicochemical coding of material composition and topography in continuous microfibres pp877 - 883 Edward Kang, Gi Seok Jeong, Yoon Young Choi, Kwang Ho Lee, Ali Khademhosseini and Sang-Hoon Lee doi:10.1038/nmat3108 The fabrication of composite microfibres with tunable topography and chemical composition is now possible with a microfluidic method that mimics the fibre-spinning process of spiders. The method allows for the synthesis of a variety of structurally and spatially coded fibres for multiple applications, such as directional water harvesting and the co-culture of encapsulated cells. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Articles Top Turning aluminium into a noble-metal-like catalyst for low-temperature activation of molecular hydrogen  pp884 - 889 Irinder S. Chopra, Santanu Chaudhuri, Jean François Veyan and Yves J. Chabal doi:10.1038/nmat3123 Activation of molecular hydrogen is an important step for many applications such as fuel cells and ammonia synthesis, but has so far required high temperatures and expensive noble-metal catalysts. Aluminium doped with small amounts of titanium is now shown to activate molecular hydrogen at temperatures as low as 90 K. Abstract | Full Text | PDF An artificial biomineral formed by incorporation of copolymer micelles in calcite crystals pp890 - 896 Yi-Yeoun Kim, Kathirvel Ganesan, Pengcheng Yang, Alexander N. Kulak, Shirly Borukhin, Sasha Pechook, Luis Ribeiro, Roland Kröger, Stephen J. Eichhorn, Steven P. Armes, Boaz Pokroy and Fiona C. Meldrum doi:10.1038/nmat3103 Biominerals exhibit properties, morphologies and hierarchical ordering that invariably surpass those of their synthetic counterparts. Artificial biominerals consisting of calcite crystals incorporating copolymer micelles have now been produced. The synthetic crystals show analogous texture and defect structures to biogenic calcite crystals and are harder than pure calcite. Abstract | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Estroff & Cohen Erratum Top In vivo and in vitro tracking of erosion in biodegradable materials using non-invasive fluorescence imaging p896 Natalie Artzi, Nuria Oliva, Cristina Puron, Sagi Shitreet, Shay Artzi, Adriana bon Ramos, Adam Groothuis, Gary Sahagian and Elazer R. Edelman doi:10.1038/nmat3147 Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Artzi et al. Top Advertisement Miami 2012 Winter Symposium: Nanotechnology in Biomedicine February 26-29, 2012 • Miami, FL, USA The 45th Miami Winter Symposium will bring together leaders in the field to discuss breakthroughs in new nanomaterials and the challenges in translating these materials into products for the clinic and laboratory. For more information and to register, visit: www.nature.com/natureconferences/miami/mws2012   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

You have been sent this Table of Contents Alert because you have opted in to receive it. You can change or discontinue your e-mail alerts at any time, by modifying your preferences on your nature.com account at: www.nature.com/myaccount (You will need to log in to be recognised as a nature.com registrant) For further technical assistance, please contact our registration department For print subscription enquiries, please contact our subscription department For other enquiries, please contact our customer feedback department Nature Publishing Group | 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor | New York | NY 10013-1917 | USA Nature Publishing Group's worldwide offices: London - Paris - Munich - New Delhi - Tokyo - Melbourne San Diego - San Francisco - Washington - New York - Boston Macmillan Publishers Limited is a company incorporated in England and Wales under company number 785998 and whose registered office is located at Brunel Road, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. © 2011 Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved.