Electronic materials articles from across Nature Portfolio

Semiconductors that are insensitive to defects hold considerable promise for advancing photovoltaics. This Perspective highlights the importance of combining theoretical predictions with experimental validation to identify viable non-toxic, earth-abundant and cost-effective alternatives to existing materials.

Organic memory devices, with small dimension, fast speed and long retention are promising candidates for data archiving. Here, the authors present a molecular hard-disk logic scheme capable of executing in-situ encryption of data in pW/bit power-consumption range.

Unconventional water resources are becoming increasingly important particularly in waterstressed regions. This review highlights the fundamental physical processes and improvement strategies of atmospheric water harvesting using electrostatic technology, and provides insights into future research directions towards practical applications.

Research on composite electrolyte membranes composed of polymer nanofibers and a polymer matrix has attracted significant interest because of their improved ion conductivity, excellent membrane durability, and ability to fabricate thinner membranes. Polymeric nanofiber-containing polymer electrolyte membranes are expected to be applied not only to electrolyte membranes for fuel cells and water electrolysis but also to all-solid-state Li-ion batteries. This focus review presents the latest information on these topics.

Amita Ummadisingu, a lecturer at University College London, discusses her career path and thoughts on the long-term use of perovskite materials in solar cells.

Hydrogen bonds get a bad rap in electronic materials because their weak, transient structure often results in poor performance. Now, this dogma has been turned on its head by intercalating molecules into two-dimensional superlattices to generate hydrogen-bonded organic–inorganic structures that feature significantly enhanced electrical conductivity.

Malika Jeffries-EL is the Senior Dean of the Graduate School in Arts and Sciences and Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science at Boston University. Professor Jeffries-EL’s research focuses on the development of organic semiconductors—materials that combine the processing properties of polymers with the electronic properties of semiconductors.

Tricia Breen Carmichael (she/her) is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Windsor.

A method called flash-within-flash Joule heating (FWF) has been developed based on a dual reactor design, enabling the gram-scale synthesis of diverse inorganic materials within seconds. Comparison with commercially available materials suggests that FWF products can offer comparable, or superior, electronic characteristics and tribological performance.

An article in Nature presents large-area, high-performance intrinsically stretchable electronics thanks to innovation in materials selection, fabrication processes, device engineering and circuit design.