Research articles

This study presents an oral CRISPR–Cas9 delivery system that precisely disrupts the TRAP1 gene in colorectal cancer, enhancing chemo-immunotherapy with robust antitumour effects.

The FDA-approved nanodrug ferumoxytol can relieve reactive oxygen species in haematopoietic stem cells, facilitating their post-injury regeneration.

Microscale ferroelectric topological textures in freestanding BaTiO₃ nanomembranes enable dynamic vortex light manipulation via nonlinear spin-to-orbit conversion.

Piracetam improves wide-bandgap perovskite crystallinity and uniformity, enabling monolithic all-perovskite tandem solar cells with efficiencies of 28.71% (0.07 cm²) and 28.20% (1.02 cm²), ensuring minimal efficiency loss during scale-up.

This study reveals that the synergistic effect of proton-limited environments and multi-site cooperative activation coupling substantially improves the electrocatalytic co-reduction of CO₂ and N₂ towards urea production, enabling gram-scale synthesis.

Lewis acid additive semicarbazide hydrochloride improves the formation of α-phase FAPbI₃-based films and promotes a homogeneous vertical distribution of A-site cations through a deprotonation–reprotonation process. The upgraded device performance reaches up to 26.12% with high stability, and mini-module perovskite solar cells achieving 21.47% (area, 11.52 cm²) demonstrate great scalability.

Caesium cations promote the coagulation of 2D and 3D perovskite colloids, synchronizing their nucleation kinetics and enabling the formation of homogeneous 2D/3D heterostructured lead-free photovoltaics with a certified power conversion efficiency of 16.65%.

A nanoporous photocatalyst producing low levels of hydrogen peroxide is shown to modulate intracellular stress granules, enhancing resilience against oxidative stress and providing cardioprotection in an ex vivo rodent model of myocardial ischaemia–reperfusion injury.

By controlling the contribution of secondary nucleation in the self-assembly of chiral photoswitch molecules using light, it is possible to preferentially generate metastable aggregates, thereby reversing the supramolecular chirality.

In battery research, the areas of the electrodes and cell dimensions affect the energy storage performance. Here the authors discuss the factors that influence the reliability of electrochemical measurements and battery performance in lithium-ion cells with different electrode areas.

In situ mechanical testing and simulations unveil a reversible shuffle twinning mechanism enabled by bond switching, which gives rise to anisotropic tensile superelasticity in GeSe ceramics.

Aqueous and non-aqueous Li-based electrolyte solutions have narrow electrochemical stability windows, which hinder the operation of batteries at high cell potentials. Here, to circumvent this limitation, the authors propose the combined use of tailored aqueous and non-aqueous electrolyte solutions in various Li-based cell configurations.

X-ray synchrotron measurements reveal heterogeneities at electrode|electrolyte interfaces of lithium metal batteries operating at high potentials. Here the authors demonstrate the rearrangement of ionically conductive phases in polymer electrolytes that lead to battery performance degradation.

A three-site Kitaev chain, constructed from three semiconducting quantum dots coupled by superconducting segments in a hybrid InSb/Al nanowire, shows enhanced robustness of edge zero-energy modes against variations in the coupling strengths or electrochemical potentials compared with a chain containing only two quantum dots.

The authors present a photocatalytic method to selectively oxidize glycerol to hydroxypyruvic acid over rubidium–iridium catalytic pairs on poly(heptazine imides) under visible-light illumination.

A graphene-nanopocket-protected pure Pt nanocatalyst has been reported for heavy-duty-vehicle fuel cells that deliver high power density, high efficiency and exceptional durability with >200,000-h projected lifetime.

Carbon–hydrogen and carbon–deuterium bonding in organic polymers were mapped in real space with single-nanometre spatial resolution using a monochromated transmission electron microscope.

A zeolite-confined Cu single-atom cluster was developed for the electrochemical CO reduction application, which can achieve stable CO-to-acetate conversion at an industrial current density of 1 A cm⁻² at 2.7 V with a high acetate Faraday efficiency for over 1,000 h at atmospheric pressure.

In an interferometer using the ballistic propagation of electrons in a quantum Hall conductor, the phase of a single-electron wavefunction can act as a sensor for the detection of fast electric fields of small amplitude.

This study introduces RNA origami nanotubes as self-assembling cytoskeleton mimics for synthetic cells. Expressed in vesicles from DNA templates, these RNA structures reach micrometre lengths, deform membranes and exhibit different phenotypes.