Nature nanotechnology最新文献

This Review provides a perspective on tandem catalysis schemes applied to the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂). We define and classify microscopic and macroscopic site and cell tandem concepts pursued so far and provide a critical assessment and performance comparison against non-tandem systems. Our analysis demonstrates that tandem approaches generally seem to improve the selectivity for oxygenates compared with CO₂-fed copper-based or non-tandem systems. However, tandem approaches are typically inferior in terms of ethylene production compared with non-tandem approaches. The tandem electrolyser concept seems to be the most promising tandem concept owing to the reduced materials complexity and possibility of individual tuning of microenvironments for the CO-producing and CO-CO-coupling catalytic phases. We conclude our Review by addressing key remaining challenges and promising future research directions in the field of tandem CO₂ electrocatalysis.

The development of micro- and nanorobots has amplified the demand for intelligent multifunctional machines in biomedical applications, but most microrobotic systems struggle to achieve the attributes needed for those applications. Here we introduce enzymatic microbubble robots that exhibit steerable motion, enhanced biodegradability, high in vivo imaging contrast, and effective targeting and penetration of disease sites. These microrobots feature natural protein shells modified with urease to decompose bioavailable urea for autonomous propulsion, whereas an internal microbubble serves as an ultrasound imaging contrast agent for deep tissue imaging and navigation. Magnetic nanoparticle integration enables imaging-guided magnetically controlled motion and catalase functionalization facilitates chemotactic movement towards hydrogen peroxide gradients, directing robots to tumour sites. Focused ultrasound triggers robot shell collapse and inertial cavitation of the released microbubbles, creating mechanical forces that enhance therapeutic payload penetration. In vivo studies validate the tumour-targeting and therapeutic efficacy of these robots, demonstrating enhanced antitumour effects. This multifunctional microbubble robotic platform has the potential to transform medical interventions and precision therapies.

Stacking two-dimensional layered materials offers a platform to engineer electronic and magnetic states. In general, the resulting states-such as moiré magnetism-have a periodicity at the length scale of the moiré unit cell. Here we study magnetic order in twisted double-bilayer chromium triiodide by means of scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscopy. We observe long-range magnetic textures extending beyond the single moiré unit cell, which we dub a super-moiré magnetic state. At small twist angles, the size of the spontaneous magnetic texture increases with twist angle, opposite to the underlying moiré wavelength. The spin-texture size reaches a maximum of about 300 nm in 1.1° twisted devices, an order of magnitude larger than the underlying moiré wavelength, and vanishes at twist angles above 2°. The obtained magnetic field maps suggest the formation of antiferromagnetic Néel-type skyrmions spanning multiple moiré cells. The twist-angle-dependent study, combined with large-scale atomistic Monte Carlo simulations, suggests that the magnetic competition between the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, magnetic anisotropy and exchange interactions-which all depend on the relative rotation of the layers-produces the topological textures that emerge in the super-moiré spin order.

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) technologies that rapidly identify pathogenic bacteria and their resistance phenotypes are critical in addressing the antimicrobial resistance crisis, enabling timely and precise antibiotic treatment decisions. We present a modular automated platform based on nanoplasmonic colorimetry in microfluidics for parallel bacterial identification and phenotypic profiling of AST (QolorPhAST), achieving an eightfold enhancement in detection rapidity. QolorPhAST reduces drug susceptibility profiling times in direct specimens from days to minutes, bypassing overnight cultures and pathogen isolation typically required in standard clinical AST workflows. The approach was validated with a broad range of microbial pathogens, spanning 10 bacterial species and 34 strains across various antibiotic concentrations to identify pathogens and antibiotic minimal inhibitory concentrations in a multiplexed fashion. In a proof-of-concept clinical study, QolorPhAST was tested with a cohort of blinded patient samples suspected of urinary tract infections, achieving 100% accuracy in species identification, an average categorical agreement of 91.81% and an average essential agreement of 86.4%, with a turnaround time of 36 min from specimen introduction to result. The study suggests that QolorPhAST, with its ease of use and cost-effectiveness, can be a transformative solution to address the antimicrobial resistance burden.

Surgical resection remains the primary treatment for most solid tumours, yet metastatic tumour cells remaining after surgery substantially contribute to cancer-related mortality and recurrence. Here we identify syntaxin 11 as a key regulator that enhances the expression of MHC I and co-stimulatory molecules CD80/CD86 on tumour cell membranes, enabling cancer cells to acquire dendritic-cell-like features. By overexpressing syntaxin 11 in autologous tumour cells obtained from surgical resections, we generated MHC I^high/CD80^high/CD86^high dendritic-cell-like cells. Utilizing the cell membranes of these modified cells, we engineered artificial dendritic-cell-like cell-derived vesicles as a personalized autologous nanovaccine for the immunotherapy of postoperative metastatic cancer. This nanovaccine substantially improves antigen delivery to lymphoid organs and enhances antigen presentation efficiency through tumour self-presentation, thereby disrupting traditional vaccine development paradigms. Our work provides a promising avenue for developing effective metastatic cancer immunotherapies and offers hope for personalized postoperative immunotherapy.