Themed collection 2023 Materials Chemistry Frontiers HOT articles

Summarized CsPbX₃ QD surface engineering strategies to achieve high-efficiency and high-stability PQD solar cells.

The mechanical properties of binders are emphasized: the intrinsic mechanical properties of binders and the adhesive strength of the binders with current collectors and active materials. The electronic and ionic conductivities of binders are introduced.

Perovskite and layered perovskite oxynitrides are regarded as promising visible-light-responsive semiconductors for efficient artificial photosynthesis to produce renewable value-added energy resources, including H₂, formic acid, and ammonia.

In this review, we discuss progress in the field of pillar[n]arene-based optical response systems, focusing on color, fluorescence, circular dichroism, and circularly polarized luminescence signal changes via host–guest interactions.

Recent advances in 3DOM metal oxide-based photoelectrodes for PEC water splitting are summarized. The advantages of an ordered structure from the perspective of photo-electrocatalysis mechanism and morphological design are also introduced.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising water adsorbents with a controllable absorption humidity range, superior water capacity, and tailorable regeneration conditions.

A schematic illustration of ZIF-90 nanocomposites applied to anticancer therapy, biomedical imaging and other fields for the treatment of different diseases.

This review mainly summarizes the research advances in synthetic strategies, optical properties, and biomedical applications of red-emissive carbon dots in recent years.

We present a comprehensive understanding of the alkaline hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR), ammonium oxidation reaction (AOR), and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) based on metal catalysts for H₂ or NH₃-fueled alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells.

This review presents an overview of the carrier separation and extraction mechanism influenced by the built-in electric field (BEF) in PSCs and various strategies used to enhance the BEF.

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a key anode reaction for many renewable energy devices, such as electrocatalytic water splitting devices, Zn–air batteries and CO₂ electrolyzers.

Recent progress of applications of multifunctional MOFs in achieving efficient, durable and eco-friendly perovskite photovoltaics is systematically reviewed, and the profound prospects of MOFs inadvancing development of optoelectronics are outlined.

In this review, we summarize the recent advances about self-assembled molecules (SAMs) applied as selective hole or electron contacts for perovskite solar cells.

In this review, cosensitization, concerted companion and other strategies, enabling porphyrin sensitizers to achieve panchromatic absorption and the resulting high photovoltaic performance, are briefly summarized and discussed.

This review provides recent progresses in bimetallic carbides (Bi-TMCs) catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in water splitting.

Fundamental theory and monitoring techniques of the OER mechanism: a review.

The recent advance of high-safety separators with high mechanical strength, high thermal stability and good lithium dendritic resistance is the main focus in this review. The future challenges and perspectives of separators are provided for building high safety rechargeable lithium batteries.

In this review, we comprehensively summarize the recent advancements in the controlled fabrication as well as relationship between 2D nanoarchitectures and electrochemical performances in the electro-oxidation of small molecules used in DLFC.

In this review, we systematically provide an overview of anti-freezing multifunctional conductive hydrogel-based flexible electronics and summarize the design strategies, properties, applications and perspectives.

Functional dielectric materials can regulate the migration, diffusion and deposition of cations in solid-state batteries, leading to high performance.

Key issues regarding the syntheses of polypyrrole nanomaterials and their recent application were discussed. Polypyrrole derived dispersions, hydrogels, membranes and composites were outlined by considering improved conductivity and processability.

This review presents recent advances and future challenges of emerging and potential alternative anodic reactions with high energy-efficiency and value-added products in overall CO₂ electrolysis.

This review provides a clear overview of the multi-stimuli responsive properties of tetraphenylethene derivatives in the solid state.

Alkaline electrolysis technology, which enables the production of “green hydrogen,” holds significant importance in the global pursuit of carbon neutrality.

This review highlights the crucial role of organic spacers in the fabrication process and formation mechanism of different types of 2D/3D perovskites for PSCs including the bulk incorporation model, surface treatment model, and the coexisting model.

With the rapid development of n-type and ambipolar OECT materials, OECTs have been widely used in constructing logic circuits, electrophysiological recording, biosensing, and neuromorphic computing.

This review presents comprehensive details on recent developments in the fabrication of different amorphous–crystalline heterostructures, their compositions, and the resulting physicochemical properties for OER, HER, and overall water splitting.

Tuning the metal size in loaded catalysts to increase the activity and selectivity of desirable products in CO₂ hydrogenation is widely investigated in heterogeneous catalysis.

This review presents recent progress in alkaline HERs, covering mechanistic insights, catalyst development, and device performance. It also addresses challenges and future directions for high-performance alkaline HER catalysts.

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) are a new class of electrocatalysts for the electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction.

This review aims to elucidate how the regulation of chiral metal cluster structures affects their circular dichroism or circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) signals, with the ultimate objective of providing a reference for the rational design of CPL materials in the future.

This review aims to provide an overview of existing research on the use of various nucleic acid-based nanocarriers for drug delivery and summarize recent advances, including targeting strategies of DNA-based carriers, and the types of drugs that can be incorporated into the carriers.

Polymer-based electrolytes with regulated molecular structures demonstrate excellent temperature tolerance and are ideal for solid-state lithium batteries.

Acid-scavenging separators are an efficient way to inhibit the acidification of traditional LiPF₆-containing electrolytes. This paper reviews the development and achievements of acid-scavenging separators to enhance their practical application capabilities and future developments.

The recent developments in organic field-effect transistors based on metal–organic coordination materials and related applications are reviewed.

Programmable 3D shape morphing of stimuli-responsive hydrogels is of great interest for the fabrication of soft actuators and robots. The corporation of hydrogel matrices and functional additives is discussed in this review.

To avoid the interlayer erosion challenge in the IJP process and direct patterning process of the QD emissive layer (EML), cross-linking strategies have been introduced to construct solvent-resistant films (hole transport layers or QD EMLs) upon exposure to heat or light.

Challenges and design strategies of electrocatalysts for high-current–density water electrolysis.

This review summarizes the four main synthesis strategies of MOF-derived materials, and the feasibility and challenges of MOF-derived materials in ECO₂RR are discussed.

This review emphasizes how the dimensionality, coordination number and bond length of halide perovskites (HPs) regulate their photoluminescence. HPs have good application potential due to their sensitivity to light, solvent, heat etc., facilitating anti-counterfeiting and encryption/decryption.

This review paper summarizes the current methods to reduce the operating temperature of solid-state lithium batteries.

Several methods are summarized for controlling the excited states of TADF conjugated polymers, covering: (a) maintaining suitable ΔE_ST; (b) localized triplet excited state assisted reverse intersystem crossing; (c) hyperfine coupling facilitates reverse intersystem crossing.

This review highlights recent research progress in MOF materials for the important separation of gaseous hydrocarbons, especially for ethylene, propylene, and butadiene. The uniqueness of MOFs to achieve those progress is also outlined.

This review provides an overview of the progress in the development of AIE-based organic small molecule probes for detecting biologically important molecules, drug molecules, volatile organic compounds, and explosives over the past five years.

This review explores synthetic strategies for macroscopic aligned MOFs, enhancing properties without structural designs or post-synthetic reactions.

The design strategies for improving mass transfer, intrinsic activity, and durability of non-precious catalysts, and the scale-up methods for industrial application are summarized to reduce the cost of hydrogen production.

Fabrication of MXene-based nanocomposites. Photocatalytic properties of nanocomposites. MXene-based membranes for the separation of toxic pollutants, such as antibiotic drugs, dyes, etc. MXene-based nanocomposites as absorbents for heavy metal removal.

This review summarizes the current advancements of Chevrel phases as electrocatalysts, covering the crystalline structures, synthesis methods, and electrocatalysis applications, with a focus on how crystal structure affects the performance.

In this review article, multiple modification strategies for hematite, including controlling the morphology, heterojunction engineering, doping engineering, modification of co-catalyst and other modifications are proposed.

We present a review on the current state-of-the-art of ionic liquids for the development of electrolytes, both conventional and solid-state. This review article provides a thorough summary of the developments achieved in this field.

Rational design of high-performance OER catalyst based on the fundamental electronic structure to industrial requirements.

This review provides an overview of recent advances in nanotechnology that are achieved to improve the therapeutic efficiency for treating Alzheimer's disease.

This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the recent advancements made in gas separations utilizing porous organic cages (POCs).

Fabrication strategies for high quality halide perovskite films in solar cells are reviewed from the aspects of intermediate engineering, reaction-controlled, additive-controlled, and mass-controlled crystal growth.

In this review, basic structural characteristics of spinels are introduced and then the composite effects and methods are highlighted. An overview focusing on different synthesis and modulation methods is given, based on an in-depth understanding of the relationship between structure and activity.

Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) are emerging materials for versatile electronics. This review focuses on the HOIP-based field-effect transistor (FET) and the potential applications of HOIPs in functional FETs.

This review focuses on understanding the role of molecular packing structures and optical properties in π-conjugated organic luminescent crystals. The various applications and future prospects of this research field are also proposed.

We detail the production process of H₂O₂ involving mechanisms, detection methods, and performance evaluation, and also summarize and predict the modifying ways of MOF catalysts for the photocatalytic ORR to H₂O₂, incorporating the challenges faced.

We summarized the development of macrocycle-carbohydrate conjugates and their biomedical application in the past decade, and provided our contention regarding the future trend of this topic.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are solid crystalline materials formed by the self-assembly of organic ligands and metal ions or clusters. Combining the advantages of membrane separation and MOFs, MOFs-based membranes are used in water treatment.

Organic–metal complexes (OMCs) are endowed with new functions and properties due to the characteristics of valence changes of metal ions and the diversity of organic molecular structures.

MOF/COF composites constructed by heterojunction, functionalization, or integration show enhanced performance in photo-, thermo-, and electrocatalysis. This review is informative for rational design and mechanism understanding of MOF/COF catalysts.

Thermoelectric (TE) materials are auspicious candidates for direct thermal–electrical energy conversion applications.

Polymeric nanomaterials with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics have attracted significant attention from the scientific community because of their extensive biomedical applications.

Recent progress and prospects of borate-based short-wavelength NLO crystals with modified boron-oxygen skeleton have been surveyed and analyzed focusing on the crystal structure features, cutoff edges, birefringence and SHG responses.

In this article, we overview the latest advancements in organic near-infrared (NIR) materials, light-emitting devices and their applications. Moreover, we discuss the current limitations and future prospects for the NIR technology.

Modulations of electronic structures of active sites and geometric structures of catalyst supports play important roles in electrocatalytic activity and selectivity for the carbon dioxide reduction reaction.

A comprehensive and critical review of the emerging eco-friendly solar cells such as AgBiS₂ is presented with the goal of further advancing the photovoltaic performance and stability.

This review outlines the fabrication strategies, morphological structures, electronic properties and applications of MXene based materials for photocatalysis in the treatment of recalcitrant organic pollutants (dyes, phenols, antibiotics and pharmaceuticals).

This review summarizes recent advances in polyethersulfone composites membranes, microspheres and fibers, and corresponding applications including hemodialysis, blood perfusion, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation etc.