Themed collection Recent Review Articles

Cognitive AI enables scientific reasoning and discovery beyond prediction by integrating causal reasoning, constrained hypothesis generation, experiment planning, and feedback into a closed-loop scientific workflow.

This article exposes the thermodynamic, economic, and environmental unsustainability of sacrificial agent-dependent hydrogen production, and advocates for priority allocation of resources for hydrogen production from overall water-splitting.

A transport coupling framework for 3D-printed single-atom catalysts is proposed to bridge atomic precision and macroscale functionality.

Eutectic systems emerge as a powerful platform to design soft materials with mixed ionic-electronic conductivity, combining biocompatibility, adaptability, and stability, and enabling advanced integration in next-generation bioelectronic devices.

This review presents recent advances in solar thermal conversion gels for atmospheric water harvesting, including design principles and compositions, mechanisms of adsorption/desorption, optimization strategies and diverse application scenarios.

Bridging material design with thin-film engineering, this review highlights strategies to overcome stability and scalability barriers in polymeric membranes for CO₂ separation, accelerating their deployment for industrial decarbonization.

The progress and challenges of nanostructure-doped polymer hydrogels have been reviewed for fog harvesting, emphasizing their mechanical and functional improvements compared with traditional hydrogels for sustainable environment applications.

Hybrid water electrolysis boosts efficiency by replacing OER with anodic oxidation reactions (AORs). This review categorizes AORs and discusses catalysts, design, and techno-economics.

Production of Cl₂ and HOCl from photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical seawater splitting.

N-type molecular semiconductors offer tunable properties, high purity and mobility for low-cost SWIR-OPDs as inorganic alternatives. This review summarizes their progress in molecular design, device engineering, applications, and future perspectives.

This review summarizes the progress in defect-engineered metal–support interactions (DMSIs) towards the acidic OER. It systematically discusses the synthetic strategies and DMSI–OER relationship, and highlights advanced characterization techniques.

This review establishes an integrated research paradigm for CO₂RR, coupling multiscale regulation strategies with operando synchrotron radiation characterization to guide rational electrocatalyst design.

We summarize advances in 2D heterojunction photodetectors, from mechanisms to modulation and integrated applications. 2D semiconductors enable efficient carrier modulation and show promise in imaging, sensing and neuromorphic optoelectronics.

We review the origins, theoretical frameworks, fabrication approaches, characterization and technological applications of isotropic wrinkling, as well as opportunities in next-generation functional surfaces and skins.

A systematic review on photodetectors based on ZnIn₂S₄ has been conducted, providing promising building blocks for implementing next-gen optoelectronic systems.

This review highlights recent advances in optoelectronic memristive synapses, detailing the underlying mechanisms, materials, device architectures, performance metrics, and applications, along with challenges and future trends.

Mixed self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) is a powerful strategy for controlling the surface chemistry of plasmonic nanomaterials. This review presents the recent advances in mixed SAMs for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

This review highlights the recent advances in nanoparticle (NP)-based adhesive systems, analyzing the distinct impact of NPs on adhesive materials from a NP-centric perspective and discussing the opportunities and challenges for future development.

Soft robotic cardiac sleeves integrate advanced actuator materials, biomimetic ventricular mechanics, and emerging disease-modeling capabilities to enable translational non-blood-contact support for heart failure.

By bridging materials innovation and process engineering, this review outlines critical strategies for overcoming microstructural challenges in scalable dry-processed electrode technologies.

With the continuous advancement of intelligent manufacturing and the growing demands in health monitoring, the need for gas sensors with enhanced portability, wearable integration, and signal visualization has become increasingly prominent.

This review highlights the synergistic integration of advanced pressure sensor designs and AI algorithms, emphasizing key challenges and future prospects for intelligent pressure sensing systems in human-centric applications.

Microstructure engineering empowers flexible pressure sensors with enhanced performance, enabling tactile perception for embodied intelligence applications.

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events driven by global climate change has intensified icing-related challenges across critical infrastructure, including transportation, energy systems, and aerospace applications.

Precise metal–ligand chelation moves beyond simple complexation to engineer theranostic nanoplatforms with activatable, targeted, and self-regulated functions for biomedical applications.

In this review, recent advances in narrowband Ir(III) phosphors are summarized, elucidating their structure–property relationship and discussing the molecular design for organic light-emitting diodes with high color purity and excellent efficiency.

This review summarizes the latest progress in the multi-scale structural design of electromagnetic wave absorbers. It analyzes structural design strategies from the atomic/molecular scale to the macroscale and how they affects performance.

A systematic overview of circularly polarized-light-driven chiral optoelectronics, integrating bioinspired material design with information encoding, sensing, and neuromorphic processing from an information-flow perspective.

Photoresponsive hydrogels (PRHs) enable stage-specific chronic wound healing under light activation by integrating photothermal therapy (PTT), photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photoelectric therapy (PET) via heat, ROS and photoelectrons respectively.

Current adhesive hydrogel designs lack multifunctional integration. We propose four key principles derived from holistic tissue pathology analysis to guide next-generation hydrogels and their clinical translation.

Illumination drives carrier migration toward dislocation cores, altering core energetics and mobility, which produces opposite photoplasticity behaviors, such as hardening in ionic semiconductors and softening in covalent semiconductors.

Ball milling is a solvent-free, scalable technique that enhances the structure and properties of carbon nanomaterials, significantly improving their performance in supercapacitors and alkali-ion batteries for advanced energy storage.

Modern advances establish neutrons as vital scientific probes, enabling breakthroughs spanning high-energy physics, industrial manufacturing, materials innovation, heritage conservation, medical diagnostics, and geological prospecting.

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of NFPP, covering its crystal structure, sodium storage mechanisms, and challenges and explores its application potential within solid-state batteries, offering strategic insights for future advancement.

Piezoionic materials rely on mechanical-to-ionic transduction for transient voltage generation with respect to fluid-driven ion transport upon mechanical stimulation.

This review summarizes molecular and device engineering strategies that enable ultranarrow, efficient, and stable deep-blue MR-TADF OLEDs, highlighting sensitization, exciton management, and pathways toward BT.2020 color compliance.

This review highlights descriptor-driven defect engineering in carbon nitride-based photocatalysts. It analyzes how defects regulate electronic structures to optimize their activities for sustainable applications.

Hydrogel-integrated bioelectronics provide stable and adaptive interfaces for multimodal physiological sensing and neuromodulation.

This work outlines six defining characteristics of Self-Driving Laboratory (SDL) 2.0: interoperable, collaborative, generalizable, orchestrated, safe, and creative, forming a framework for next-generation autonomous laboratories.

Methane functionalization is the “holy grail” of chemistry. This review highlights recent progress in heterogeneous photocatalytic methane conversion, focusing on photocatalyst design, structure–activity relationships, and reaction mechanisms.

Electrocatalytic reforming efficiently converts waste PET plastics into high-value chemicals such as formic acid and glycolic acid, creating a 'waste-resource' circular economy path with economic and environmental benefits.

This review highlights advances in lead-based transparent ceramics and single crystals, detailing synthesis strategies, optical–electromechanical coupling, and their emerging roles in next-generation optoelectronic, sensing, and energy devices.

This review covers recent progress in various nanostructural Co-based catalysts for nitrate electroreduction to ammonia, addressing reaction mechanisms, catalyst design, and emerging applications.

Intrinsic structural heterogeneity, surface fluxionality, and multi-site cooperativity influence nanocatalytic behavior and its catalytic activity. Stochastic modeling can efficiently describe how catalytic performance emerges from these phenomena.

This review outlines a roadmap for efficient electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia, analyzing Cu- and Co-based catalyst design, reaction mechanisms and paired electrolysis systems for transformative energy efficiency and process economics.

The storage and management of heat via thermochemical reactions can enhance energy efficiency and expedite decarbonization. Here, materials performance criteria are described for low-temperature applications such as the heating/cooling of buildings.

Patterned bio-inspired cholesteric liquid crystals are reviewed as programmable photonic materials, focusing on helical design, fabrication strategies, stimuli responsiveness, and multifunctional applications.

The synergistic integration of hydrogels (HGs) and cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) represents a transformative advancement in biomaterials and plasma medicine, opening new pathways for next-generation therapeutics.

This review critically examines work at the intersection of machine learning (ML) and metal–organic frameworks (MOFs).

This review thoroughly analyzed the challenge and potential solutions of hydrogel-based PV cooling from lab research to practical applications.

This review focuses on the synthesis, properties, and sensing mechanisms of borophene-derived nanostructures (nanosheets, quantum dots, and nanocomposites), with particular emphasis on their applications in environmental and biomedical detection.

Electrolyte optimization is recognized as a critical strategy for enhancing both the long-term cycling stability and safety performance of lithium-ion batteries.

We systematically elucidate the dynamic interactions between ferroptotic tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME) to establish a holistic mechanistic framework.

The global pursuit of carbon neutrality demands transformative clean energy solutions, with advanced energy storage materials at the forefront.

Predictive design principles based on Hansen solubility parameters for carbon nanotube-based coatings enable scalable, durable, and energy-efficient anti-/de-icing solutions, enhancing safety and climate resilience across critical infrastructures.

Tissue engineering is an emerging and integrated field for the repair of defective tissues, which benefits from the interdisciplinary development of biomaterial and engineering techniques.

This comprehensive review emphasizes the significant role of additive manufacturing (AM) in transforming the production methods of aerospace and aeronautical real components.

Combining green-synthesized 2D nanomaterials with ML for catalytic applications to support sustainability.

The growing demand for sustainable energy has positioned hydrogen (H₂) gas as a promising clean energy carrier.

Hydrogels, with unique 3D network structures and excellent compatibility with diverse biological environments, have attracted widespread interest for applications in biomedicine, drug delivery, soft robotics, tissue engineering, and bioelectronics.

This review systematically explores the directional manipulation of bubble behavior on wettability gradient surfaces: the mechanisms, strategies, and applications.

ML-driven closed-loop pipeline SSE discovery. The cycle integrates AI-based prediction with experiment and application to identify promising candidates, with experimental data continuously refining the models for accelerated materials discovery.

Summary of polymer-based thermal management materials.

Schematic of the thermoelectric conversion process and an outline of the various sensing applications of FTE materials and FTE devices.

The molecular engineering of Y6 has marked a paradigm shift in the development of non-fullerene acceptors for organic solar cells, enabling remarkable enhancements in efficiencies through its distinct architecture and adjusted voltage loss.

This review summarizes the recent progress of supramolecular peptide assemblies, focusing on the molecular design, self-assembly behavior and applications of antibacterial peptide nanostructures.

Additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged as a transformative strategy for translating nanoscale materials into wafer-scale functional architectures, empowering the scalable fabrication of advanced electronics and energy systems.

Confined polymerization, as an innovative polymerization strategy, achieves precise control over the reaction pathway and microscopic structure of the product by confining the polymerization reaction within the physical space of a micro–nano scale.