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Abstract Spintronic device is the fundamental platform for spin-related academic and practical studies. However, conventional techniques with energetic deposition or boorish transfer of ferromagnetic metal inevitably introduce uncontrollable damage and undesired contamination in various spin-transport-channel materials, leading to partially attenuated and widely distributed spintronic device performances. These issues will eventually confuse the conclusions of academic studies and limit the practical applications of spintronics. Here we propose a polymer-assistant strain-restricted transfer technique that allows perfectly transferring the pre-patterned ferromagnetic electrodes onto channel materials without any damage and change on the properties of magnetism, interface, and channel. This technique is found productive for pursuing superior-quality spintronic devices with high controllability and reproducibility. It can also apply to various-kind (organic, inorganic, organic-inorganic hybrid, or carbon-based) and diverse-morphology (smooth, rough, even discontinuous) channel materials. This technique can be very useful for reliable device construction and will facilitate the technological transition of spintronic study.

Abstract The spin degree of freedom is an important and intrinsic parameter in boosting carrier dynamics and surface reaction kinetics of photocatalysis. Here we show that chiral structure in ZnO can induce spin selectivity effect to promote photocatalytic performance. The ZnO crystals synthesized using chiral methionine molecules as symmetry-breaking agents show hierarchical chirality. Magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopic and magnetic conductive-probe atomic force microscopic measurements demonstrate that chiral structure acts as spin filters and induces spin polarization in photoinduced carriers. The polarized carriers not only possess the prolonged carrier lifetime, but also increase the triplet species instead of singlet byproducts during reaction. Accordingly, the left- and right-hand chiral ZnO exhibit 2.0- and 1.9-times higher activity in photocatalytic O2 production and 2.5- and 2.0-times higher activities in contaminant photodegradation, respectively, compared with achiral ZnO. This work provides a feasible strategy to manipulate the spin properties in metal oxides for electron spin-related redox catalysis.

Artificial enzymes with reprogrammed and augmented catalytic activity and substrate selectivity have emerged to tackle limitations of noble metals or transition metal oxides. Here, the authors report Au25 clusterzymes which are endowed with high catalytic activity and selectivity in a range of enzyme-mimicking reactions.

Spin-polarized current manipulation of magnetic skyrmions is energy consuming. Here, the authors achieve an electric-field manipulation of individual skyrmions in a nanostructured ferromagnetic/ferroelectrical heterostructure at room temperature via an inverse magneto-mechanical effect.

Photocatalyst activity depends significantly on the material’s electronic structures. Here, authors manipulate the electron spin polarization of TiO2 by tuning the concentration of Ti vacancies and show improved photocatalytic activities.

Induction of complex homochiral architectures by chiral transformation in a mixed enantiomer system has remained largely elusive. Here, the authors report a chirality dominance effect which induces homochiral suprastructures of calcium carbonate by a mixed, heterochiral nonracemic amino acid enantiomer system.

One-dimensional nanoribbons: A platform for probing exotic magnetoresistance Electrically-tunable electron-hole pockets could make antimonene nanoribbons a platform for probing unusual magnetoresistance effects. Some material changes their resistance when a magnetic field is applied—an effect known as magnetoresistance. This phenomenon is harnessed for a range of technological applications but the origin of the recently observed large, non-saturating magnetoresistance in certain materials is somewhat puzzling. Using first-principles calculations, Wenbo Mi and Yan Song from Tianjin University, along with Xiaocha Wang from Tianjin University of Technology, predict that one-dimensional antimonene nanoribbons with a zigzag asymmetric washboard structure could have electron-hole pockets, which are the key features necessary for observing a non-saturating magnetoresistance. As these pockets could be modulated using in-plane electric fields, these nanoribbons could be a tunable platform for probing this exotic phenomenon.