Themed collection Focus article collection

Contextualising the promise of nanoscience and nanotechnology for water pollution remediation.

This focus article primarily discusses solid dual-ion conductors, summarizes the design principles for building solid dual-ion conductors, and anticipates several potential applications based on their functional characteristics.

In this focus article, we provide a scrutinizing analysis of transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering as the two common methods to study the sizes of nanoparticles with focus on the application in pharmaceutics and drug delivery.

We present an overview of the opportunities provided by bimetallic core–shell nanocrystals, followed by a discussion of the challenges and promising solutions regarding the elucidation of the true surface composition and its dynamics.

Generalized energy diagrams facilitate the understanding of the ionic and electronic charge carrier equilibrium in the bulk and at interfaces of devices based on mixed conductors, such as hybrid perovskite solar cells.

Inorganic–organic interfaces: a tutorial on using organic functional groups to enhance the performances and/or enable new functionality of inorganic nanomaterials.

An effective framework for the band engineering in 2D covalent organic frameworks is revealed by describing the fundamental relationships among the electronic structures, the lattice symmetries, and the frontier molecular orbitals of building units.

The effects of mixing in organic photovoltaics are unclear partly due to challenges in characterization. X-Ray and neutron scattering techniques have been successful in quantifying mixing but meet new challenges with emerging non-fullerene systems.

Plasmons have been widely studied over the past several decades because of their ability to strongly absorb light and localize its electric field on the nanoscale, leading to applications in spectroscopy, biosensing, and solar energy storage.

Metal halide perovskites exhibit complex electronic properties. The presently identified fundamental concepts and phenomena governing the electronic behavior of this material class are addressed in this article.

We survey the most important kinds of structural complexity in Prussian blue analogues and their implications for materials function. In particular, we explore the challenges for K₂Mn[Fe(CN)₆], the leading cathode material for K-ion batteries.

Vibrational parameters fare better in correlating with local properties than purely static structural parameters.

The nanoarchitectonics concept has the ability to bridge nanoscale science and visual size materials. The final goal of nanoarchitectonics approaches is the creation of living-creature-like functional material systems from simple nanoscale objects.

This article focuses on state-of-the-art technologies used in the research on materials, devices and processes to achieve high-performance QD-LEDs.

Due to their low weight, small size and low power consumption, two-dimensional materials are expected to be used in space applications. This brings about the issue of their radiation hardness, which is briefly discussed in this article.

Composite materials, especially carbon fiber-reinforced polymers, are a class of structural materials now commonly used in aircraft, marine, and other applications, with emerging large-scale use in the automotive and civil engineering applications.

The structure and biocatalytic activities of Au NCs are discussed from the perspective of the ligands, with particular emphasis on the exploration of the undisclosed and neglected roles of shell ligands in the biocatalytic activities of Au NCs.

This Focus article clarifies that hollow multishelled structure-based electrode is indispensable to realize practically high energy density of rechargeable batteries.

Water modulates the nucleation, growth and stability of halide perovskites, which can be rationally controlled.

Solid-solution alloy scattering of phonons is a demonstrated mechanism to reduce the lattice thermal conductivity.

Thermally assisted delayed fluorescence (TADF) allows for efficient collection of both singlet and triplet excitons with both emitting through the singlet channel.  TADF opens the door to photo- and electroluminescence efficiencies close to 100%.

Evolution of heterogeneous catalysts with steady down-sizing: from small particles, clusters, dots to single atoms, and now the “surface heterocompound”.

Automated Glycan Assembly produces well-defined oligosaccharides for detailed structural characterization. These glycans can assemble into supramolecular materials with different morphologies.

The thickness of monolayers is a fundamental property of two-dimensional (2D) materials that has not found the necessary attention. Since the boundary is not well-defined and it changes its value with the surrounding, the thickness is difficult to grasp.

Schematic of the general process of small-angle X-ray scattering acquisition, fitting, and modeling to determine material parameters of nanoporous materials.

The ultra-wide band gap semiconductor Ga₂O₃ has advantages for power electronics applications in the automotive industry, data center power management and industrial systems but attention must be paid to its surface sensitivity to the environment.

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

The quantum-confined superfluid concept is introduced, and its applications in chemistry and biology are summarized.

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.

When materials’ characteristic dimensions are reduced to the nanoscale regime, their mechanical properties will vary significantly to that of their bulk counterparts.

In-depth discussion on recent progress of fundamental understanding of AIE mechanisms, identifying the existing challenges and opportunities for future developments.

Negative thermal expansion (NTE) is the counterintuitive material property of volume contraction on heating. We compare different systems with contrasting mechanisms for isotropic NTE using the metric of NTE capacity.

For hundreds of years, scientists have magnified images of objects to reveal their detailed composition and structure. Now, scientists are beginning to physically magnify objects themselves.

This article describes the functions and mechanisms of particle and electron ratchets, and the interplay between theory and experiment in this field of non-equilibrium transport.

Systematic engineering of PAMAM dendrimer CNDPs (i.e., surface chemistry and interior compositions) produced hyperpolarizable substrates that generated terahertz radiation when exposed to a pump laser.

This focus article addresses fundamental and practical aspects of investigating polymers with lower critical solution temperature behavior.

Well-designed defects can lead to unprecedented properties and interesting applications. For example, heteroatom-doped graphene exhibits enhanced Raman scattering for ultrasensitive detection of certain molecules.

We illustrate common misconceptions and errors when interpreting polymerization data from ‘Living/controlled’ radical polymerization, preferably termed ‘reversible deactivation radical polymerization’ (RDRP). Avoiding the discussed errors leads to better defined materials for soft matter materials applications.

This brief focus article shows you how to prepare functional fibers with controllable morphology, alignment and composition via an electrospinning technique.

Efforts to develop renewable sources of carbon-neutral fuels have brought a renewed focus to research and development of sunlight-driven water-splitting systems.

Combining advances in digital technology and modern methods in statistics with a detailed understanding of nano-structure/property relationships can pave the way for more realistic predictions of nanomaterials performance.

Electronic levels and energies of a solid, such as Fermi level, vacuum level, work function, ionization energy or electron affinity, are of paramount importance for the control of device behavior, charge carrier injection and transport.

Tiny metal nanogaps may offer a unique platform for achieving extremely larger spontaneous decay rate with high quantum yield.

The authors provide a simple tutorial-style introduction to do-it-yourself flow chemistry, emphasising the advantages of well designed, self-built kit over expensive off-the-shelf commercial equipment.

The energy gap is a critical material parameter. Here, we illustrate the concepts behind the various flavors of energy gaps relevant for organic materials and call for a more consistent use of appropriate terminologies and procedures.