Themed collection Recent Review Articles

We focus on the new horizons in operando/in situ characterisation techniques in electrocatalysis, providing a critical analysis of how advanced in situ techniques help us to deepen our understanding of reaction mechanisms and material evolution.

Surface acoustic wave (SAW)–matter interaction provides a fascinating key for inducing and manipulating novel phenomena and functionalities in two-dimensional (2D) materials.

Integration of several functionalities into one isolated electrochemical body is necessary to realize compact and tiny smart electronics.

The conversion of CO_x into value-added green aromatics is considered as a promising route to achieve the world's decarbonization due to its considerable thermodynamic driving force and atomic economy where low H/C ratio aromatics are chosen as a product.

This review covers two-dimensional vdW material-based functional inks and their emerging electronic applications.

This Minireview mainly focuses on the effects of LiNO₃ in Li–S batteries, aiming to come to a consensus on the important effects of LiNO₃ as an additive in the Li–S battery system, thus further presenting unique insights into the future development of Li–S batteries.

This minireview highlights the recent progress on sequential solution-processed fullerene-free OPVs, which can improve the power conversion efficiency, stability, and drive the industrial applications in semitransparent and large-area OPVs.

The graphic displays various biomaterial design functionalities along with the developed fabrication technologies to enhance the wound healing process in patients with chronic wounds.

DNA-based finite state machines enable the development of smart nanodevices that can process temporally ordered information in living systems.

Hybrid inorganic/organic nanoparticles with exosomes can be applied as a novel platform for drug delivery systems. This biomimetic nanoplatform combines the functions of natural biomaterials to efficiently carry drugs to the center of cancer cells.

The criteria for evaluating lithium–air batteries in laboratory-based experiments are proposed for accurately predicting the performance of practical cells in industry.

Using a feedback loop between computational modeling probing electronic transitions and experimental work, the colors, transmissivity, and redox switching properties of a family of anodically coloring electrochromic molecules are reviewed.

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.

Electrochemical power tools, fabricated using the natural-based electrospun fibers, are regarded as essential keys in a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on fossil fuels in order to meet the challenges of rapidly depleting fossil fuel supplies.

The cross-fertilisation between the listed disciplines with a long standing knowledge on the application of artificial intelligence protocols and electron microscopy for materials science can entail the next breakthroughs in the field.

Collagen occurs in nature with a dedicated triple helix structure and is the most preferred biomaterial in commercialized medical products. Recombinant collagen emerge as sustainable alternate source that overcomes existing demerits.

A critical review of zinc anodes and Zn metal-free anodes for future zinc-based battery application.

We summarise chemical approaches to modify the properties of conjugated polymers by post-polymerisation functionalisation directly on the backbone.

The applications of electrospun nanofiber in cancer research, including cancer models, drug delivery, and cancer diagnostics, are reviewed. The current barriers to and the outlook for clinical translation of these applications are discussed.

This paper presents an all-inclusive review of assembly strategies of MNWs, discusses the underlying mechanisms, assesses the developed techniques, and summarizes the representative applications in flexible and stretchable electronics.

Isolated metal atoms on supports tend to migrate and agglomerate in the processes of catalyst design and construction, thus achieving precise control of high metal loading and single-atomic dispersion is significant.

Surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) leads to improved detection of polar molecules. Engineering of plasmonic substrates and combination with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) leads to multi-resonant detection and enhanced sensing.

This review summarizes the advances in water remediation of natural polyphenolic composites, focusing their structures, functions, and versatile applications, which provide guidance for design of polyphenolic composites for environmental remediation.

This review discusses the impact of various laminatiion methods on the photovoltaic characteristics and stability of perovskite and organic photovoltaics as well as the future challenges toward roll-to-roll production.

This Review highlights recent advances in the synthesis, unique properties, and most prominent applications of cyclic polymers, and discusses the major challenges and future opportunities in this field.

Polysaccharides (PSA) have taken specific position among biomaterials for advanced applications in medicine.

Doped metal oxide nanostructures with tunable plasmonic features enable a variety of high-performance biological applications.

This review will help readers to have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the research field of two-photon absorption of halide perovskites from microscopic mechanisms to applications.

In this review, we present the state-of-art progress in halide perovskite-based PENG and TENG devices, focusing on their different performance optimization strategies and prospective applications in the future.

Oleic acid and oleylamine are added in a solution containing suitable precursors and they can often form complexes with metal ions. These complexes may be thermally decomposed to yield ligand-coated nanoparticles with a tendency to form assemblies.

Spatial confinement or a crowding environment offers an important approach to control entropy effects, allowing a conceptually new approach for designer nanomaterials.

Non-biological complex drugs (NBCDs) are an emerging class of therapeutics that show multi-mechanistic antimicrobial activity and hold great promise as next generation antimicrobial agents.

Recent developments in enabling technologies for strain-engineered elastic platforms are highlighted, which can be utilised for realising further reliable stretchable thin-film electronics.

Self-doping is an essential method of increasing carrier concentrations in organic electronics that eliminates the need to tailor host—dopant miscibility, a necessary step when employing molecular dopants.

Nanoscale engineering in 2D layered materials have attracted profound interest and opened multifarious avenues for novel physics and real-life applications.

We discuss materials and design strategies for stretchable electroluminescent (EL) devices. We categorize stretchable EL devices into two types: (i) structurally stretchable and (ii) intrinsically stretchable EL devices.

The progress in wearable biomemristor devices is reviewed, and the existing challenges are revealed during the development of wearable systems.

This is a comprehensive review of the electrochemical synthesis of nano/microstructure transition metal-based materials for oxygen evolution reaction from the aspects of ‘Fundamentals, Structural design and Classification’.

We review recent advances in 4D printing of LCEs, with emphasis on synthesis and processing methods that enable microscopic changes in the molecular orientation and hence macroscopic changes in the properties of printed objects.

Engineered EVs containing an intelligent core have been designed to interact with a living host environment and function in an ideal situation. This review provides a new insight into design of next-generation EV-based theranostic platforms.

This work reviews the recent advancements of microneedle-based cell therapies, which have been shown to be promising for regeneration therapy, cancer immunotherapy, skin immune monitoring, and targeted cell delivery.

This review describes recent developments in printable ink formation, printing techniques, and the structural design for deformable passive- and active-matrix array devices.

Phonon anharmonicity contributes to the low κ_L and high ZT in binary chalcogenides. Here we review complementary experimental techniques to measure anharmonicity and describe new machine learning approaches to enable the design of better TE materials.

Permanently polarized hydroxyapatite is a new material with electrical enhanced properties. This review discusses the advances in this material in terms of structure, properties and catalytic activity of green processes.

The possibility of creating well-controlled empty space within liquids is conceptually intriguing, and from an application perspective, full of potential.

Comprehension of bone–implant, gingiva–abutment and implant–abutment interfaces is necessary in material development. Mechanical complications of the implant–abutment interface provoke biologic complications of the other two interfaces.

Effective exciton separation and transfer dynamics by the synergistic effect of photon and mechano-acoustic energy, termed as piezo-photocatalysis, wherein water molecules are split to produce hydrogen, is an emerging technology for sustainable fuels.

Organohydrogels are attractive for constructing various flexible devices with good environmental tolerance and smart materials. Their significant developments in preparation, performance optimization and application are systematically reviewed.

The most recent significant concerns of 2D materials for the synthesis, yield, and mechanism behind device-to-device variability, reliability, and durability benchmarking under memristor characteristics have been discussed.

A summary of the design strategies of electrodes and electrocatalysts for ultrasensitive electrochemical H₂O₂ sensors with the nanomolar detection limits required in disease diagnosis and to avoid harmful exposure.

This review summarizes the recent progress on lanthanide-based upconversion materials, focusing on the emerging approaches to the smart control of upconversion, and their frontier applications.

An overview of the cellular fate of different RNAs, RNA-delivered drugs that have entered clinical trials, and a classification of nano-drugs in development.

DNA can be rationally designed, synthesized, and modified/functionalized to enable pH, light, or ion-responsive self-assembling mechanism. These DNA bioinks can be used for the bioprinting of biological constructs by utilizing specific triggers.

Recent challenges of layer-structured cathodes for sodium-ion batteries and their corresponding structural and compositional modification strategies have been comprehensively studied in this review aiming at high-performance battery technology.

This review summarizes relevant literature on scCO₂-assisted decellularization, and discusses major topics dominating the field, such as mechanism of action, effect of cosolvent and operational parameters, and range of results across different works.

Microcarriers presenting biophysical cues regulate cell fate via cell–substrate interactions and activation of mechanotransduction pathways.

The construction of artificial cells using a giant vesicle model helps to explore and mimic complex biological processes and cell functions of natural cell systems. Various materials and fabrication processes for giant vesicles are reviewed here.

Molecular packing of semiconducting polymers is often critical to the performance of devices using these materials. The degree and quality of ordering are revealed by grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering and thermal analysis.

This review summarizes the achievements in the photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to C1 and C2 fuels over various nanostructured photocatalysts.

This review summarizes the continuous-flow syntheses of alloy nanoparticles. The details of flow reactors and their chemistry to synthesize core–shell, segregated, solid-solution types of alloy NPs, and high-entropy alloy NPs are introduced.

Recent advances of metal telluride anodes for high-performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), which is important electrochemical energy storage technologies with high energy density and environmental benignity.

2D magnetic atomic crystals show many fascinating physical properties and have potential device applications in many fields. In this paper, the preparation, physical properties and device applications of 2D magnetic atomic crystals are reviewed.

2D material-based functional aerogels with tailored structure and function exhibit high potential for treating hazards with high sustainability.

This review presents the fascinating properties and emerging applications of liquid metals and alloys at the nanoscale.

This review provides an overview and recent advances of how biological systems guide the design, engineering, and implementation of bioelectrical interfaces for biomedical applications in nervous, cardiac, and microbial systems.

Organic photodetectors can achieve narrowband photodetection within a single optoelectronic device. This comprehensive review summarizes and compares the different approaches, introduces their application fields, and outlines current challenges.