Anisotropic lattice distortion makes ultrastrong martensitic steel ductile - Nature Materials The brittleness of as-quenched carbon martensitic steel is overcome by introducing severe lattice distortion through the addition of high concentrations of substitutional solutes and carbon. This latt...

Anisotropic lattice distortion makes ultrastrong martensitic steel ductile

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Condensate corona–nanoparticle complexes transfer functional biomolecules between cells - Nature Materials After being internalized by cells, nanoparticles can, in rare events, acquire a biomolecular condensate corona. These complexes can reach the extracellular space, where they can deliver their acquired...

Condensate corona–nanoparticle complexes transfer functional biomolecules between cells

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Rapid sintering of ultrafine-grained refractory metals under mild conditions - Nature Materials The introduction of liquid metals to refractory metals weakens metal bonding, which enables rapid, low-temperature fabrication of refractory metal bulk materials with ultrafine grains, high strength a...

Rapid sintering of ultrafine-grained refractory metals under mild conditions

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Efficient and reversible chirality induction between protein and achiral plasmonic assemblies

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An ultrasound-scanning in vivo light source - Nature Materials A deep-tissue light source made from mechanoluminescent transducers stimulated by focused ultrasound enables wide imaging of live animal vasculature, and modulation of neuronal activity and behaviour.

An ultrasound-scanning in vivo light source

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Orbital-hybridization-induced Ising-type superconductivity in a confined gallium layer - Nature Materials Orbital hybridization and quantum confinement are used to realize Ising-like superconductivity in trilayers of gallium, which alone is probably not strongly enough spin–orbit coupled to host such supe...

Orbital-hybridization-induced Ising-type superconductivity in a confined gallium layer

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All-van der Waals microcavities for low-loss nonlinear photonics - Nature Materials Photonic components fabricated from van der Waals materials and patterned using focused ion beam lithography with aluminium passivation demonstrate quality factors exceeding 106 and an efficient nonli...

All-van der Waals microcavities for low-loss nonlinear photonics

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Bulk nano-heterointerface secures molecular contacts in perovskite solar cells - Nature Materials The weak contact between the oxide electrode and molecular layer in inverted perovskite solar cells is prone to deformation, limiting long-term device stability. A bulk nano-heterointerface is designed to strengthen the binding force between molecules and spherical silicon oxide nanoparticles, increasing the interfacial contact area and improving the operational stability of perovskite solar cells.

Bulk nano-heterointerface secures molecular contacts in perovskite solar cells

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Nanophotonic chip-space interfaces for multidimensional nonlinear optics - Nature Materials Reconfigurable chip-to-free-space interfaces based on thin-film lithium niobate microrings generate on-demand nonlinear structured light, including tunable optical vortices, optical skyrmions and spat...

Nanophotonic chip-space interfaces for multidimensional nonlinear optics

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Static magnetization switching in an artificial antiferromagnetic multilayer driven by a voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy effect - Nature Materials For conventional voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) switching, a small variation in the pulse widths of the order of several picoseconds can cause switching failure. Now, VCMA-driven static...

Static magnetization switching in an artificial antiferromagnetic multilayer driven by a voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy effect

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Cover page of Nature Materials April 2026 issue showing a polymeric bead inside a blood vessel related to a research article about tumour cell viscosity and metastatic extravasation.

Our April issue is live! Featuring articles about cell viscosity of tumour cells, materials failure in active nematics, and stable facets in perovskite photovoltaics. We also feature a Perspective on antiferroelectrics and more. 👇

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Removing aluminium impurities in primary magnesium at an ultra-low cost - Nature Materials Introducing cost-effective CaO removes aluminium impurities in magnesium vapour with over 90% efficiency, enabling the affordable, large-scale production of high-purity magnesium with low aluminium.

Removing aluminium impurities in primary magnesium at an ultra-low cost

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Tuning phonon transmission via single-atom substituents - Nature Materials Atomic-level changes to molecular junctions are found to tune the thermal conductance of the junctions by a factor of two. These observations, performed using high-resolution calorimetric scanning tun...

Tuning phonon transmission via single-atom substituents

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Amino acid-derived ionizable lipids enable inhaled base editing for therapeutic gene correction in the lung - Nature Materials Gene correction in the lung is achieved with inhalable mRNA lipid nanoparticles containing an amino acid-derived ionizable lipid identified from screening and structure–function optimization studies.

Amino acid-derived ionizable lipids enable inhaled base editing for therapeutic gene correction in the lung

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Synthesis of 4H-phase high-entropy alloys for electrocatalysis - Nature Materials Au nanowires with an unconventional hexagonal close-packed (4H) phase stabilize the 4H-phase high-entropy alloys grown epitaxially on their surface through a facile chemical synthesis. The resulting c...

Synthesis of 4H-phase high-entropy alloys for electrocatalysis

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Transition between cooperative emission regimes in giant perovskite nanocrystals - Nature Materials The role of temperature and excitation density in promoting cooperative emission regimes such as superfluorescence and amplified spontaneous emission, as well as the transitions between such regimes i...

Transition between cooperative emission regimes in giant perovskite nanocrystals

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Interlayer exciton flux amplification driven by strong exciton confinement - Nature Materials Nanoscale bandgap tuning in van der Waals heterobilayers using an electro-plasmonic nanocavity provides electrical control of exciton dynamics, producing localized interlayer exciton density gradients...

Interlayer exciton flux amplification driven by strong exciton confinement

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Anodic protection enables moisture-stable Mg3(Sb, Bi)2 for thermoelectric cooling - Nature Materials Mg3(Sb, Bi)2 is a potential next-generation thermoelectric with cost-effectiveness compared with Bi2Te3; however, it suffers from poor moisture corrosion resistance. Here, an anodic protection strateg...

Anodic protection enables moisture-stable Mg3(Sb, Bi)2 for thermoelectric cooling

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Mineral-originated bioelectronics for inhibition via lithium electrochemistry - Nature Materials A bioelectronic device incorporating triphylite (LiFePO4) as electrode is used for lithium-ion-specific inhibition of peripheral and central nervous system activities in rats and in mice.

Mineral-originated bioelectronics for inhibition via lithium electrochemistry

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Narrowband helical emitter with frontier orbital confinement for stable deep-blue hybrid-tandem organic light-emitting diodes

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Observation of Floquet-induced gap in graphene - Nature Materials Floquet engineering in monolayer graphene reveals a gap opening at Floquet band crossings and coherent Floquet sidebands resolved by time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy.

Observation of Floquet-induced gap in graphene

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Mechanisms of active wetting and fluidification in epithelial cell collectives - Nature Materials Active wetting and fluidification of breast cancer epithelia are shown to be controlled by IRSp53 and Afadin, cell adhesion proteins that regulate multicellular viscosity and tensile state during tumo...

Mechanisms of active wetting and fluidification in epithelial cell collectives

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Perovskite–organic tandem solar cells with superior reverse-bias stability - Nature Materials Perovskite–organic-based solar cells typically show poor reverse-bias stability. By modulating the deep trap state in the bulk-heterojunction region, organic and perovskite–organic tandem solar cells ...

Perovskite–organic tandem solar cells with superior reverse-bias stability

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Optically detected nuclear magnetic resonance of coherent spins in a molecular complex - Nature Materials Optical initialization and read-out of nuclear spins with a spin coherence time of 2 ms in a Eu3+ molecular crystal is demonstrated with radio-frequency control, providing coherent nuclear spin manipu...

Optically detected nuclear magnetic resonance of coherent spins in a molecular complex

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Multiscale phase nucleation driven by photoinduced polarons in a volume-changing material - Nature Materials Photoinduced phase transitions in a Prussian blue analogue are studied using femtosecond X-ray techniques, revealing a multistep phase nucleation process with photoinduced polarons triggering the macr...

Multiscale phase nucleation driven by photoinduced polarons in a volume-changing material

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Non-monotonic magnetic friction from collective rotor dynamics - Nature Materials The forces and dissipative losses of an array of rotatable magnets moving above a commensurate array of fixed macroscopic magnets are measured. Modelling and analysis show a maximum of dissipation at ...

Non-monotonic magnetic friction from collective rotor dynamics

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Gold-activated persulfate p-doping of organic semiconductors - Nature Materials Achieving lateral doping gradients in organic semiconductors (OSCs) via solution processing is crucial but remains a challenge. A gold-activated persulfate doping strategy can locally oxidize OSCs and...

Gold-activated persulfate p-doping of organic semiconductors

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Crosslinked ionizable lipids reprogram dendritic cell metabolism for potent mRNA vaccination - Nature Materials Lipid nanoparticles incorporating a crosslinked ionizable lipid are shown to promote efficient endosomal escape of antigen mRNA and glycolysis stimulation in dendritic cells, to elicit robust vaccinat...

Crosslinked ionizable lipids reprogram dendritic cell metabolism for potent mRNA vaccination

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A nanoporous capacitive electrochemical ratchet for continuous ion separations - Nature Materials An ion pump that does not require redox reactions to drive aqueous ions against forces is demonstrated, and may find applications in selective ion separation and water desalination.

A nanoporous capacitive electrochemical ratchet for continuous ion separations

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Grain boundary stabilization of fluorite ferroelectrics - Nature Materials Electron microscopy and spectroscopy, together with electronic structure calculations, are used to show that orbital ordering of ions at grain boundaries can facilitate the stabilization of ferroelect...

Grain boundary stabilization of fluorite ferroelectrics

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