November 2010 Volume 9, Issue 11

Editorial

Awesome allotropy p867
doi:10.1038/nmat2895
The discovery of C₆₀ — a molecular allotrope of carbon — marked a pivotal moment in the field of nanotechnology. Twenty-five years on, carbon remains the element of choice for simple but functional materials.
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Commentaries

The era of carbon allotropes pp868 - 871
Andreas Hirsch
doi:10.1038/nmat2885
Twenty-five years on from the discovery of C₆₀, the outstanding properties and potential applications of the synthetic carbon allotropes — fullerenes, nanotubes and graphene — overwhelmingly illustrate their unique scientific and technological importance.
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Green carbon as a bridge to renewable energy pp871 - 874
James M. Tour, Carter Kittrell & Vicki L. Colvin
doi:10.1038/nmat2887
A green use of carbon-based resources that minimizes the environmental impact of carbon fuels could allow a smooth transition from fossil fuels to a sustainable energy economy.
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Interview

Simply carbon pp876 - 877
doi:10.1038/nmat2884
Jim Heath tells Nature Materials about the discovery of C₆₀ and how the findings catalysed our way of thinking about size and shape on the nanoscale.
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Research Highlights

Our choice from the recent literature p878
doi:10.1038/nmat2894
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News and Views

Letters

Observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in an oxide pp889 - 893
A. Tsukazaki, S. Akasaka, K. Nakahara, Y. Ohno, H. Ohno, D. Maryenko, A. Ohtomo & M. Kawasaki
doi:10.1038/nmat2874
The fabrication of oxide thin-film heterostructures has improved considerably over the past few years. The first demonstration of the fractional quantum Hall effect in an oxide now attests to the potential of these compounds to rival conventional semiconductors.
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See also: News and Views by Schlom & Pfeiffer

Spin Seebeck insulator pp894 - 897
K. Uchida, J. Xiao, H. Adachi, J. Ohe, S. Takahashi, J. Ieda, T. Ota, Y. Kajiwara, H. Umezawa, H. Kawai, G. E. W. Bauer, S. Maekawa & E. Saitoh
doi:10.1038/nmat2856
By using the spin Seebeck effect, the generation of an electric voltage from a heat gradient is demonstrated for the first time in an insulator. This finding extends the range of potential materials for thermoelectric applications, and provides a crucial piece of information for understanding the physics of the spin Seebeck effect.
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See also: News and Views by Sinova

Observation of the spin-Seebeck effect in a ferromagnetic semiconductor pp898 - 903
C. M. Jaworski, J. Yang, S. Mack, D. D. Awschalom, J. P. Heremans & R. C. Myers
doi:10.1038/nmat2860
The generation of an electric voltage from a heat gradient is demonstrated for the first time in the ferromagnetic semiconductor GaMnAs. This allows flexible design of the magnetization directions, a large spin polarization, and measurements across the magnetic phase transition. The effect is observed even in the absence of longitudinal charge transport.
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See also: News and Views by Sinova

Oxygen reduction in nanoporous metal–ionic liquid composite electrocatalysts pp904 - 907
J. Snyder, T. Fujita, M. W. Chen & J. Erlebacher
doi:10.1038/nmat2878
The improvement of catalysts for the oxygen-reduction reaction is an important challenge for fuel cells and other electrochemical-energy technologies. A composite nanoporous Ni–Pt alloy with a tailored geometric architecture is now shown to exhibit high mass activity for oxygen reduction.
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Fractal avalanche ruptures in biological membranes pp908 - 912
Irep Gözen, Paul Dommersnes, Ilja Czolkos, Aldo Jesorka, Tatsiana Lobovkina & Owe Orwar
doi:10.1038/nmat2854
Bilayer membranes encase several biological entities, for example cells and organelles. Their rupture under mechanical stress usually occurs by a pore-formation mechanism. Now, lipid-bilayer membranes spreading on a solid surface are shown to rupture in a series of rapid avalanches causing fractal membrane fragmentation.
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DNA-nanoparticle superlattices formed from anisotropic building blocks pp913 - 917
Matthew R. Jones, Robert J. Macfarlane, Byeongdu Lee, Jian Zhang, Kaylie L. Young, Andrew J. Senesi & Chad A. Mirkin
doi:10.1038/nmat2870
DNA-functionalized, anisotropic nanostructures, such as triangular nanoprisms and nanorods, are shown to assemble by means of DNA hybridization into colloidal crystal structures. The crystallization parameters of these nanostructures, and hence the dimensionality and symmetry of the resultant superlattice, are strongly influenced by particle shape.
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: News and Views by Glotzer & Anderson

DNA-controlled assembly of a NaTl lattice structure from gold nanoparticles and protein nanoparticles pp918 - 922
Petr Cigler, Abigail K. R. Lytton-Jean, Daniel G. Anderson, M. G. Finn & Sung Yong Park
doi:10.1038/nmat2877
The formation of a NaTl lattice structure by DNA-mediated assembly of gold nanoparticles and virus-like protein nanoparticles is reported. The inorganic and organic components each form diamond-like frameworks that interpenetrate to give the NaTl lattice. These diamond-like structures are of interest for potential applications as photonic materials.
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: News and Views by Glotzer & Anderson

Orally delivered thioketal nanoparticles loaded with TNF-–siRNA target inflammation and inhibit gene expression in the intestines pp923 - 928
D. Scott Wilson, Guillaume Dalmasso, Lixin Wang, Shanthi V. Sitaraman, Didier Merlin & Niren Murthy
doi:10.1038/nmat2859
The oral delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA) to diseased intestinal tissue is challenging because of the harsh environment created by gastrointestinal fluids and mucosa. Now, such delivery of siRNA to sites of intestinal inflammation is achieved using polythioketal nanoparticles and gene expression is successfully inhibited in the inflamed tissue.
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Articles

Waterproof AlInGaP optoelectronics on stretchable substrates with applications in biomedicine and robotics pp929 - 937
Rak-Hwan Kim, Dae-Hyeong Kim, Jianliang Xiao, Bong Hoon Kim, Sang-Il Park, Bruce Panilaitis, Roozbeh Ghaffari, Jimin Yao, Ming Li, Zhuangjian Liu, Viktor Malyarchuk, Dae Gon Kim, An-Phong Le, Ralph G. Nuzzo, David L. Kaplan, Fiorenzo G. Omenetto, Yonggang Huang, Zhan Kang & John A. Rogers
doi:10.1038/nmat2879
Flexible electronic devices that can be stretched without losing performance have seen increasing functionality. In particular, the demonstration of light-emitting diodes and photodetectors on flexible electronic substrates now opens the door to applications of flexible optoelectronic sheets in biomedicine and robotics.
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See also: News and Views by Someya

Observation of long-range exciton diffusion in highly ordered organic semiconductors pp938 - 943
H. Najafov, B. Lee, Q. Zhou, L. C. Feldman & V. Podzorov
doi:10.1038/nmat2872
Excitons in polycrystalline films of organic semiconductors typically migrate distances of the order of tens of nanometres. Photoconductivity measurements in highly ordered rubrene now show that exciton diffusion can reach the micrometre range, opening a route to designing excitonic circuitry for applications in photocatalysis, photochemical sensing or photovoltaic energy conversion.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF
See also: News and Views by Silva

Measuring fundamental properties in operating solid oxide electrochemical cells by using in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy pp944 - 949
Chunjuan Zhang, Michael E. Grass, Anthony H. McDaniel, Steven C. DeCaluwe, Farid El Gabaly, Zhi Liu, Kevin F. McCarty, Roger L. Farrow, Mark A. Linne, Zahid Hussain, Gregory S. Jackson, Hendrik Bluhm & Bryan W. Eichhorn
doi:10.1038/nmat2851
In situ spectroscopic analysis of operating solid oxide electrochemical cells has proved to be difficult owing to high-vacuum requirements. Ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy on single-chamber cells now suggests that surface reaction kinetics and electron transport on the electrodes are co-limiting processes.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF