Themed collection Materials Horizons 10th anniversary regional spotlight collection: Asia-Pacific

A paradigm shift from nanotechnology to nanoarchitectonics has been proposed.

This focus article looks at how nanoparticle shape affects cellular internalisation of nanoparticles and what different analysis methods can tell us.

If defects in materials cost more (energy) than decomposing them, defect densities will be low and thermodynamically controlled, with the right kinetics, as for halide perovskites.

An emerging trend in the application of metal–organic frameworks is to engineer mobile devices to possess chemical detecting capabilities for environmental monitoring, point-of-care testing, artificial intelligence, food security and defence.

This paper comprehensively reviews methods and approaches to enhance the piezoresistive effect, ranging from the quantum physical effect and new materials to nanoscopic and macroscopic structures, and from conventional rigid to soft electronic applications.

The review focuses on recent developments in the synthetic methodologies of COFs and their applications in the field of organocatalysis, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. Future scope of COFs in the field are also described.

Solar-driven photothermal conversion by nanostructured materials is a direct solar energy conversion process that has been used as a novel strategy to augment vaporization and catalysis performance.

The state-of-the-art developments in the photocatalytic reduction of N₂ to NH₃ are presented by classifying the photocatalysts based on chemical composition. Additionally, the correlation between the modification of catalysts and their photocatalytic activity is highlighted.

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are hybrid crystalline materials, exhibiting high specific surface areas, controllable pore sizes and surface chemistry.

Polymeric carbon nitride (CN) has emerged as an attractive material for photocatalysis and photoelectronic devices.

We report a new paradigm, via a decoupled approach, in the design of acousto-mechanical multifunctional metamaterials.

A triboelectric nanogenerator based on bismuth tungstate (Bi₂WO₆):polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)) is fabricated. It delivers an output voltage (open circuit) of 205 V and current density (short circuit) of 11.91 mA m⁻² at ∼0.15 kgf without any electric poling.

Linearity range of a crack-based strain sensor is dramatically enhanced while maintaining its ultrahigh mechanosensitivity by introducing an intermediate superaligned carbon nanotube sheet.

An n-type, accumulation mode, microscale organic electrochemical transistor monitors the activity of a pore-forming protein integrated into a lipid bilayer.

Designing new glasses requires a priori knowledge of how the composition of a glass dictates its properties such as stiffness, density, or processability. Developing multi-property design charts, namely, glass selection charts, using deep learning can enable discovery of novel glasses with targeted properties.

Ultimate device performances of blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes, an external quantum efficiency of 27.6%, a device lifetime over 10 000 h at 100 cd m⁻², and CIE (0.12, 0.13), were achieved by employing an electroplex host.

Ionic conduction in a ferroelectric leads to anomalous polarization switching kinetics but prevents retention failure.

Metal–organic framework/polypyrrole hybrids are synthesized and directly used in capacitive deionization for the first time.

Serotonin-conjugated hyaluronic acid hydrogel inspired by platelet coagulation provides a multifunctional hemostatic adhesive mediating highly effective hemostasis and preventing abnormal tissue adhesion.

The high pseudocapacitance contribution in boron-doped graphite sheets for anion storage is demonstrated, and then utilized to fabricate Na-ion hybrid capacitors.

A series of D–A′–π–A type photosensitizers were designed and synthesized to show strong aggregation-induced far red and near infrared emission and very effective ¹O₂ generation simultaneously, and have been successfully used for image-guided photodynamic anticancer therapy.

Chiral organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites exhibiting circular dichroism were prepared as a new class of chiral semiconductors.

We demonstrate a promising molecular design approach to achieve short exciton lifetime, small singlet and triplet energy splitting and high photoluminescence quantum yield in thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters for high quantum efficiency and low efficiency roll-off characteristics in OLEDs.

The generalized Einstein relation (GER) can unify various theoretical models and predict charge transport in OSCs with various crystallinities, by altering the variance of the density of states and the delocalization degree in a Gaussian-distributed density of states.

Binary crystalline solids via solution casting under rapid drying conditions were found to show efficient triplet–triplet annihilation upconversion by suppressing the segregation of the components.

Post-annealing of MAPbI₃ perovskite films with methylamine improves both efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells.

Non-volatile and flow properties of ionic liquids allow for simple ‘fill and seal’ approach to fabricate high-performance wearable sensors without materials delamination or cracking.

A wearable wristband from knittable two-ply yarn supercapacitors with high specific length capacitance.

VO₂ nanoarrays are grown on graphene foam and the surface is coated with HMB for performance enhancement as LIB and supercapacitor electrodes.

Ultra-large graphene oxide sheets exhibit unique viscoelastic properties, making them a new class of soft material. We provide fundamental insights enabling development of various fabrication techniques utilizing this 2D material.

A high triplet energy (E_T) host material, hexakis(9H-carbazol-9-yl)cyclotriphosphazene (PzCz), is used in high-efficiency organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). PzCz (E_T = 3.00 eV) functions as an effective host for thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecules, resulting in high external electroluminescence quantum efficiencies.