Outstanding Paper Awards 2021
Our annual Outstanding Paper Awards celebrate some of the incredible work published in two of our journals – Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Horizons.
Articles were placed on a shortlist based on a variety of metrics including article downloads, citations and reviewer comments. Members of the journals’ Editorial and Advisory Boards then selected winners from the shortlist. They based their decision on the science presented and their potential future impact.
Please join us in congratulating this year’s winners – for papers published in 2021 – whose work is described below.
All the winning papers are free to access until the end of June.
To see all winning papers, and read editorials with full descriptions of each paper and author biographies, please visit our web collection.
Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Article joint winner 2021
Synthesis of monodisperse high entropy alloy nanocatalysts from core@shell nanoparticles
Yifan Chen, Xun Zhan, Sandra L. A. Bueno, Ibrahim H. Shafei, Hannah M. Ashberry, Kaustav Chatterjee, Lin Xu, Yawen Tang and Sara E. Skrabalak
This article reports the synthesis of high entropy alloy nanoparticles from core@shell nanoparticles. These nanoparticles consist of five metals mixed at the atomic scale, where traditional co-reduction routes to such alloy nanoparticles results in a mixture of ill-defined structures. By preparing core@shell nanoparticles first and annealing them to facilitate mixing of the core and shell components, uniform alloy nanoparticles were obtained. These nanoparticles were shown to be durable electrocatalysts. We envision that this nanocrystal conversion pathway to high entropy alloy nanoparticles can be used to make new compositionally complex nanoparticles with structural precision.
Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Article joint winner 2021
Ferroelectric polymer-based artificial synapse for neuromorphic computing
Sungjun Kim, Keun Heo, Sunghun Lee, Seunghwan Seo, Hyeongjun Kim, Jeongick Cho, Hyunkyu Lee, Kyeong-Bae Lee and Jin-Hong Park
In this paper, the authors investigated the effects of the formation temperature of the ferroelectric material, P(VDF-TrFE), and the nature of the contact metals on the operation of a FeFET-based artificial synapse in terms of various synaptic performance indices. Excellent ferroelectric properties were induced by maximizing the size and coverage of the β-phase domains in the P(VDF-TrFE). A high barrier metal improved the dynamic range and nonlinearity by suppressing the contribution of the tunneling current to the post-synaptic current. Subsequently, the authors studied the influence of the synaptic characteristics on the training and recognition tasks by using MNIST fashion and handwritten-digit datasets.
Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Review winner 2021
Nanoarchitectonics: what's coming next after nanotechnology?
Katsuhiko Ariga
This review outlines an emerging concept, nanoarchitectonics, as a concept coming next to nanotechnology. Production of functional material systems using nanoscale units can be achieved by fusion of nanotechnology with other research disciplines such as molecular synthesis, atom/molecular manipulation, self-assembly/self-organization, field-applied assembly, micro-fabrication, and bio-related process. The concept of nanoarchitectonics is supposed to architect functional materials using nanoscale units on the basis of nanotechnology. In this focus article, essences of nanotechnology and nanoarchitectonics are first explained together with their historical backgrounds. Then, several examples of materials productions based on the concept of nanoarchitectonics are introduced according to several approaches.
Materials Horizons Outstanding Article 2021
Biohybrid plants with electronic roots via in-vivo polymerization of conjugated oligomers
Daniela Parker, Yohann Daguerre, Gwennaël Dufil, Daniele Mantione, Eduardo Solano, Eric Cloutet, Georges Hadziioannou, Torgny Näsholm, Magnus Berggren, Eleni Pavlopoulou and Eleni Stavrinidou
In this outstanding article the authors developed biohybrid plants with an electronic root system. They demonstrate that by simply watering plants with a conjugated oligomer solution, the oligomers polymerize on the roots forming an extended network of easily accessible conductors. The plant’s biocatalytic machinery drives the polymerization and templates the polymer along its tissue. The integrated mixed ionic–electronic conductors maintain their functionality over weeks and as a proof of concept, energy storage was demonstrated. Biohybrid plants with electronic roots pave the way for autonomous systems with potential applications in energy, sensing, and robotics.
Materials Horizons Outstanding Article runner-up 2021
Riku Enomoto, Megumi Hoshi, Hironaga Oyama, Hideki Agata, Shinichi Kurokawa, Hitoshi Kuma, Hidehiro Uekusa and Yoichi Murakami
In this outstanding article an organic system that upconverts lower energy photons into those with higher energy (i.e., shorter wavelength) efficiently and stably in air was developed and the mechanism was elucidated. The authors’ new concept lies in the explicit use of bi-component solid-solution crystals formed by van der Waals dispersion force, which has a versatility for broad range of organic systems. They created the first thermodynamically-stable photon upconverting solids with long triplet-exciton diffusion length (over 1 micrometer) and unprecedentedly low excitation threshold (below terrestrial sunlight intensity), opening a new materials realm that significantly widens the possibility of future photon-related technologies.
Materials Horizons Outstanding Review 2021
Catalytic methods for chemical recycling or upcycling of commercial polymers
Sophia C. Kosloski-Oh, Zachary A. Wood, Yvonne Manjarrez, Juan Pablo de los Rios and Megan E. Fieser
In this outstanding review, the authors describe the various catalytic methods studied to either reprocess common commercial polymers into their original monomers (recycling) or into value-added small molecules and fuels (upcycling). As polymer pollution is reaching a global environmental crisis, the development of improved recycling/upcycling methods for these accumulating materials is an emerging field for future generations of scientists. The use of a catalyst can often lead to more efficient reactions with strong polymer backbones and higher product selectivity. The methods covered include the heavily studied fields of pyrolysis, solvolysis, and hydrogenolysis, as well as other developing topics.
