The use of renewable electricity to prepare materials and fuels from abundant molecules offers a tantalizing opportunity to address concerns over energy and materials sustainability. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is integral to nearly all material and fuel electrosyntheses. However, very little is known about the structural evolution of the OER electrocatalyst, especially the amorphous layer that forms from the crystalline structure. Here, we investigate the interfacial transformation of the SrIrO3OER electrocatalyst.

Superconductivity is among the most fascinating and well-studied quantum states of matter. Despite over 100 years of research, a detailed understanding of how features of the normal-state electronic structure determine superconducting properties has remained elusive. For instance, the ability to deterministically enhance the superconducting transition temperature by design, rather than by serendipity, has been a long sought-after goal in condensed matter physics and materials science, but achieving this objective may require new tools, techniques and approaches.

Grain boundaries play a critical role in superconducting applications of Nb3Sn: in dc applications, grain boundaries preserve the material's inherently high critical current density by pinning flux, while in ac applications grain boundaries can provide weak points for flux entry leading to significant dissipation. We present the first ab initio study to investigate the physics of different grain boundary types in Nb3Sn and their impact on superconductivity using density-functional theory.

Vivid, saturated structural colors are conspicuous and important features of many animals. A rich diversity of three-dimensional periodic photonic nanostructures is found in the chitinaceous exoskeletons of invertebrates. Three-dimensional photonic nanostructures have been described in bird feathers, but they are typically quasi-ordered. Here, we report bicontinuous single gyroid β-keratin and air photonic crystal networks in the feather barbs of blue-winged leafbirds ( Chloropsis cochinchinensis sensu lato ), which have evolved from ancestral quasi-ordered channel-type nanostructures.

Achieving lateral integration of articular cartilage repair tissue with surrounding native cartilage remains a clinical challenge. Histological and bulk mechanical studies have identified extracellular matrix components that correlate with superior failure strength, but it is unclear how local changes in geometry and composition at the repair interface affect tissue strains under physiologic loading.

Many unconventional superconductors exhibit a common set of anomalous charge transport properties that characterize them as ‘strange metals’, which provides hope that there is a single theory that describes them1–3. However, model-independent connections between the strange metals and superconductivity have remained elusive. Here, we show that the Hall effect of the unconventional superconductor BaFe2(As1−xPx)2 contains an anomalous contribution arising from the correlations within the strange metal.

Living cells harvest energy from their environments to drive the chemical processes that enable life. We introduce a minimal system that operates at similar protein concentrations, metabolic densities, and length scales as living cells. This approach takes advantage of the tendency of phase-separated protein droplets to strongly partition enzymes, while presenting minimal barriers to transport of small molecules across their interface.

Moiré superlattices offer an unprecedented opportunity for tailoring interactions between quantum particles1–11 and their coupling to electromagnetic fields12–18. Strong superlattice potentials generate moiré minibands of excitons16–18—bound pairs of electrons and holes that reside either in a single layer (intralayer excitons) or in two separate layers (interlayer excitons). Twist-angle-controlled interlayer electronic hybridization can also mix these two types of exciton to combine their strengths13,19,20.