Themed collection Emerging Investigators 2016: Novel design strategies for new functional materials

Journal of Materials Chemistry C profiles contributors to the Emerging Investigators issue.

In this Highlight, we review recent developments in colloidal perovskite nanocrystals, including the chemical synthesis, characterization and optoelectronic applications.

We review experimental and theoretical research on ScN- and CrN-based transition-metal nitride materials for thermoelectrics, drawing parallels with piezoelectricity.

Bottom-up, chemical methods to control the morphology of semiconductor nanostructures are a promising complement to the top-down fabrication techniques that currently dominate the semiconductor industry.

In this review, we present a unique perspective of polymorphism as a design tool to enhance electronic performance and fundamental understanding of the relationship between charge transport and molecular packing in organic electronics.

Taking advantage of dichalcogenide precursors, a simple, single-step heat-up method for obtaining Mn²⁺-doped ZnSe_1−xS_x nanocrystals (NCs) is presented.

Hybrid organic–inorganic metal perovskites have emerged as highly promising materials for solar energy conversion. In this study the influence of excess energy on the initial photo-products in CH₃NH₃PbI₃, as well as the hole injection into spiro-OMeTAD have been investigated.

We report a general, modular, and high yield route to quinoline-based functional materials for applications in organic electronics.

The chain length and branching of the organic backbone of poly(oxyalkylene)/siloxane ureasils can be used to control the placement and orientation of a covalently-grafted perylene, leading to tunable photoluminescence.

Using benzodithiophene as a model compound, the concept of the disordermer is introduced to discuss how intermolecular isomerism in the solid state can result in a wide range of available molecular packing arrangements that in turn influence the magnitude of the electronic coupling, a key parameter of importance to the performance of organic semiconductors.

Spectroscopic investigation of electrochromic moving fronts enables the study of ion transport in complex conducting polymer film morphologies.

We report the phase diagram for the superconducting system (⁷Li_1−xFe_xOD)FeSe and contrast it with that of (Li_1−xFe_xOH)FeSe both in single crystal and powder forms.

A suite of four volatile aminosilanes, cyclic azasilanes, was used to deposit silicon dioxide (SiO₂) films by atomic layer deposition (ALD) over the temperature range 100–300 °C by reaction with O₃.

The relative stability and accessibility of atropisomers plays a prominent role in the efficacy of diarylethene-based photochromic materials.

A strategy towards photochromic SI-ROMP homopolymers based on spiropyran and spirooxazine in mesopores is presented and photochromism is systematically investigated using UV-VIS spectroscopy and NMR.

We present a detailed crystal-chemistry approach to lift inversion symmetry in inorganic crystals.

Free electrons suppress the ferroelectric instability of BaTiO₃, but not that of CaTiO₃ or the recently synthesized ‘ferroelectric’ metal LiOsO₃.

In this work, five new eumelanin-inspired indole small molecules have been synthesized which differ by the substituents attached to the para position of the phenylene ring.

Surface plasmonic spectroscopy reveals the oxidation dynamics of copper nanowires embedded in polycarbonate ion-track templates. A method is proposed to prevent natural oxidation of metal nanostructures in general.

Top-down surface patterning technique, interferometric lithography, is combined with bottom-up magnetite nanoparticle biomineralisation using Mms6 to form magnetic nanoscale arrays.

The synthesis, characterization, and ring-opening metathesis polymerization of a norbornene-functionalized boron difluoride formazanate complex is reported. The spectroscopic and electrochemical properties of monomer/polymer are compared and discussed in detail.

The melt-shear organization technique for tailor-made polystyrene-co-polyacrylonitrile (PSAN) shell and silica core particles is investigated yielding easy-scalable carbonaceous porous films after etching and appropriate thermal treatment.

Rough 2D plasmonic crystals pose as inexpensive and easily processed SERS substrates exhibiting enhancement factors up to 1.6 × 10¹⁰.

A palladium-catalyzed cyclopentannulation provides access to contorted aromatics that afford solubility benefits while maintaining pi–pi stacking motifs.