Nanoscale materials articles from across Nature Portfolio

Monodisperse perovskite nanocrystals are formed by using a diffusion-mediated growth mechanism that controls converted monomer concentration such that premature termination or secondary growth processes are prevented.

Grain boundary engineering, by electrodeposition and demoulding of elemental metal from a van der Waals gap, gives rise to nanosheets with high electrical anisotropy.

Direct visualization of polymer semiconductor structure in electrolyte environments and across length scales facilitates mechanistic understanding of this versatile but complex class of materials.

Ultrathin films of gallium oxide with a dielectric constant of around 30 can be formed on the surface of molybdenum disulfide using a liquid metal-based approach and used as the gate insulator in transistors.

Highly sensitive and selective gas-sensing materials are important for applications ranging from environmental monitoring to breath analysis. Here, the gas sensing response of the heterointerface between graphene and nickel phthalocyanine is investigated by first-principles calculations and tested in a chemiresistor device exposed to NH₃ and NO₂ at room temperature.

Phase-switchable preparation of two-dimensional WS₂ is achieved through an electrochemical Li⁺ intercalation-based exfoliation strategy. A low discharge current density with high cutoff voltage produces pure semiconducting 2H phase WS₂ bilayers, while a higher discharge current density with a lower cutoff voltage favours semimetallic 1T′ phase WS₂ monolayers.

This manuscript presents a method for reversible and controllable friction reduction in two-dimensional materials through high-stress pre-rubbing, driven by enhanced graphene adhesion strength to the substrate via interfacial charge transfer.

Monodisperse perovskite nanocrystals are formed by using a diffusion-mediated growth mechanism that controls converted monomer concentration such that premature termination or secondary growth processes are prevented.

Grain boundary engineering, by electrodeposition and demoulding of elemental metal from a van der Waals gap, gives rise to nanosheets with high electrical anisotropy.

Direct visualization of polymer semiconductor structure in electrolyte environments and across length scales facilitates mechanistic understanding of this versatile but complex class of materials.

The rapid advances in van der Waals magnets provide a platform for exploring spintronics in the 2D limit. Leveraging the unique properties of 2D magnets with new tuning knobs could see 2D spintronics find its applications in both quantum and classic information processing.

Complex oxides have competing phases with different spin, electronic and orbital order. Now it has been shown that growing thin films on different facets of a low-symmetry substrate can be used to control the phase of the ground state.

Chirality at the nanoscale has emerged as a key area of interest in materials science and engineering, with significant implications for various fields such as spintronics, photonics, optoelectronics, quantum computing, and biomedicine. With their unique properties such as enantioselective interactions with light and spin-polarized electron transport, chiral nanomaterials are opening a new window of opportunities for the design of advanced functional devices. This editorial provides an overview of the current state of research in chirality in nanomaterials. We also showcase several papers from this collection that exemplify the breadth of current work, offering insights into the future directions of this rapidly evolving field.