Bi-directional freezing affords elastic and durable artificial tooth enamel.

Tooth enamel possesses outstanding viscoelasticity as well as stiffness — a combination of properties often considered a trade-off. Now, a bi-directional freezing method affords a biomimetic composite with mechanical properties superior to those of enamel.

Local order in a disordered Zintl phase boosts its thermoelectric performance.

Understanding heat conduction in solids is fundamental to the design of high-performing thermoelectric materials. Now, a combined computational and experimental study shows how local order paired with long-range disorder leads to a desirable reduction in thermal conductivity while retaining high electron mobility in the Zintl phase EuZnSb.

A granular look at solid electrolyte interfaces in lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries suffer from declining performance when the electrolyte decomposes. Now, low-dosage cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) visualizes how the common solid electrolyte interface component lithium carbonate decomposes and how additives stabilize the interface.

Nanoscale proximity of a free interface and an ice nucleating particle is a sufficient condition for contact freezing.

Contact freezing of water is a very fast and common process that is still not well understood due to challenges in probing this microscopic phenomenon. Now, molecular dynamics simulations help to explain experimental data of contact freezing, showing a connection between water’s suspected propensity to undergo surface freezing and the kinetic enhancement during contact nucleation.

Precise deposition of platinum sub-nanoclusters on Cu-doped CeO for low temperature CO oxidation.

Platinum catalysts are widely employed for vehicle exhaust treatment, but their activity is poor when the catalyst is cold. Now, precise control of the interfacial structure of platinum sub-nanoclusters on copper-doped ceria delivers excellent activity at low temperatures.

Spontaneous void formation in antimony alloy anodes.

Lithium-ion batteries suffer from stability issues. Now, spontaneously formed, stable voids in antimony alloy anodes offer a simple remedy.

An Old Dog with New Tricks - Additions to the Cesium Lithium Chloride System: CsLiCl and the Hydrated CsLiCl · 4HO.

The CsCl/LiCl system has been studied for over a century now. Numerous phases have been predicted - only three have hitherto been found. We present the synthesis and single-crystal structure of the cesium lithium pentachloride CsLiCl, predicted earlier but with a different structure.

Balance between hydration enthalpy and entropy is important for ice binding surfaces in Antifreeze Proteins.

Antifreeze Proteins (AFPs) inhibit the growth of an ice crystal by binding to it. The detailed binding mechanism is, however, still not fully understood. We investigated three AFPs using Molecular Dynamics simulations in combination with Grid Inhomogeneous Solvation Theory, exploring their hydration thermodynamics.