Themed collection Recent Open Access Articles

In this Minireview, we discuss several appealing approaches that have been developed in the last few years for the fabrication of MOF thin films, highlighting their assets and the challenges still faced.

We propose a timeline classifying self-healing polymers in generations based on the healing mechanism, and correlated with historical development.

In this minireview, we discuss the progress of polymersome formulations towards clinical translation and highlight key opportunities and challenges.

The range of possible nanostructures is so large and continuously growing, that collating and unifying the knowledge connected to them, including their biological activity, is a major challenge.

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

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

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 review revisits the state of the art of research efforts on the design of mechanical materials using machine learning.

Sorption, size-selective & catalytic film or particle-bed filters dramatically enhance gas sensor selectivity. We critically review 300+ articles and tutorially give guidelines for systematic filter design in air quality, health & food applications.

In this review, types and mechanisms of dual emission, as well as recent new insights for the design and applications of efficient novel dual emissive organic materials are presented.

Here, we review the physics and the technology of the recombination junction in perovskite-based tandem solar cells, with a summary of the most successful works.

This review focuses on recent progress in defect-engineered novel functionalities of complex oxide thin films for electronics and energy applications, and current challenges and perspectives.

The electron transport layer plays an essential part for high-performing perovskite solar cells, on which successful extraction of charges from light harvester and the transfer to the electrode are critically dependent.

Lignin-based smart materials are emerging into advanced material applications as stimuli-responsive actuators, sensors, controlled release systems, and more.

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate), PEDOT:PSS, has been widely used as an effective hole transporting material in many different organic semiconductor devices for well over a decade.

Trivalent erbium, Er³⁺, with its 4f¹¹ electronic configuration, was the first lanthanide cation for which linear upconversion could be induced in a molecular complex. The reasons for this success and its perspectives are discussed in this review.

A systematic comparison between electrochemical and organic bioelectronic sensors reveals a unified rational description for a transistor amplified detection.

The present review highlights the combination of graphitic carbon nitride and polymers for materials with outstanding properties.

The recent surge of scientific interest for lead halide perovskite semiconductors and optoelectronic devices has seen a mix of materials science sub-fields converge on the same “magical” crystal structure.

A review on the recent developments in controlling the structural, photophysical and electronic properties of conjugated porous polymer (CPP) photocatalysts is presented.

A comprehensive review on designs and mechanisms of semiconducting metal oxides with various nanostructures for room-temperature gas sensor applications.

This review summarizes the advantages of non-fullerene acceptors and their applications in ternary blend organic solar cells.

Dislocations are mobile at low temperatures in surprisingly many ceramics but sintering minimizes their densities. Enabling local plasticity by engineering a high dislocation density is a way to combat short cracks and toughen ceramics.

The fine equilibrium between photodamage and self-healing determines the defect density in halide perovskites. Here we analyze the chemistry of the processes on the surface and in the bulk of APbBr3 single crystals. (A = MA, FA, Cs).

Metal- and halide-free, solid-state polymeric water vapor sorbents are developed with improved water sorption capacity, reduced corrosivity, and solid state, leading to efficient water-sorption-driven cooling and atmospheric water harvesting.

X-ray radiation induced unit-cell contraction and phase transition selection in the negative thermal expansion material cadmium cyanide.

Molecular blocks (4-MB) were designed to circulate as a single molecule or as a few molecules in blood vessels and self-assemble in response to a tumor specific conditions, as a cancer therapeutic agent.

The newly established polycationitrile chemistry was used as a powerful molecular crosslinking strategy to engineer ultratough and ultrastrong GO/polymer hybrid films.

The vascular bioactivity/safety of nanomaterials is typically evaluated by animal testing, which is of low throughput and does not account for biological differences between animals and humans such as ageing, metabolism and disease profiles.

Plasma thin film deposition assisted with acoustic waves renders a patterned structure due to sheath ions local bombardment effects.

The proposed H₂S gas sensor is a novel heterojunction combination that can readily absorb toxic gases, changing the channel resistance of the device. The OFET device is a highly stable and selective tool that can help in taking preventive measures.

Direct-writing of droplets onto fluid surfaces by inkjet printing to dial-in a required pattern, structure and function into a polymer film.

Core/shell nanohelices with VIS-CD are grown using FIBID, with the Ga⁺ source shaping the metallic core and the gas precursor the dielectric shell

We present an all-graphene based open microfluidic manufacturing technique by manipulating the surface wettability of spin-coated graphene ink films via laser-controlled patterning. The approach is rapid, flexible, and opens diverse applications in fluid transport.

A 3D laser printing technique for realizing unprecedented stereo-chiral-luminescent silver nanostructures was developed to achieve a record-high fluorescent anisotropic factor.

Directional interlayer charge transfer in TMD heterostructure probed by time- and polarization-resolved second-harmonic imaging microscopy.

Bandgap from individual orthorhombic thin CsPbBr₃ nanosheets, measured with electron energy-loss spectroscopy as a function of thickness.

Chirality amplification in mesomorphic gold nanoparticles (NPs) functionalized with chiral ligands and liquid crystal (LC) groups in LC matrices is detected. Attaching LC groups to NPs leads to a significant increase of the helical twisting power.

Large amplitude motions in molecular solids are responsible for anomalous electrical characteristics in amphidynamic crystals. Here we explore the implications for charge transfer excitons photophysics.

SiNWs are continuously grown in the gas phase and directly collected as tough, macroscopic sheets that are flexible and free-standing.

Dynamic intermolecular forces through hydrogen bonding between water and polymer chains are shown to enhance thermal transport in soft materials.

A system of amorphous gallium phosphide nanopatches is shown to be a flexible, cheap and efficient platform for ultrafast and nonlinear nanophotonics.

Using linearly birefringent structure and induced transmission, asymmetric transmission with arbitrary polarization pair has been realized through metasurfaces, with impartment of two different phases into transmission and reflection space.

The biomolecule corona spontaneously adsorbed onto lipid-based nanoparticles (NPs), upon incubation with human plasma, contains circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA).

We demonstrate a giant magnetoelectric effect in perpendicularly magnetized Pt/Co/Ta ultrathin films on a ferroelectric substrate.

An n-type, accumulation mode, microscale organic electrochemical transistor monitors the activity of a pore-forming protein integrated into a lipid bilayer.

Durable hydrophobic coatings are created by adding amphiphilic Janus particles to binder polymers through the unique self-stratification behaviours, which offer a novel and cost-effective solution to challenges in waterborne emulsion coatings.

Multi-information source Bayesian optimization and how it can be used to capture relevant information from cheap approximations to accelerate research in the materials sciences.

Our work demonstrates the local enhancement of antiferromagnetic phase stability in FeRh films by strain nanopatterning.

The article reports that graphene oxide nanosheets (s-GO), by interfering with synapses, have the potential to be used as behavioural modulators.

Light-emitting diodes with an inkjet-printed active layer based on MAPbBr₃ perovskite are produced for the first time.

This work presents a new family of bio-hybrid light-emitting diodes (Bio-HLEDs) using all-bio color down-converting coatings that combine silk fibroin (SF) as a packaging matrix and fluorescent proteins (FPs) as emitters.

The origin of line-widths of electro-luminescent charge-transfer states in photovoltaic blends is evaluated and discussed in terms of vibrational theory.

Saline-tolerant PISA synthesis is developed, to generate poly(vinyl alcohol) based nanoparticles, which are potent ice recrystallisation inhibitors.

Photochromic microresonator arrays with whispering gallery mode fingerprints are successfully prepared, which function as high-security optical authentication microdevices.

Depth-resolved structural analysis reveals strong size selectivity of self-assembled iron oxide nanoparticles.

Molecules with silent orbitals deliver high thermoelectric performance.

We demonstrated strong full-space modulation of visible intensities based on Fano resonances in all-dielectric VO₂ metasurface gratings.

The crystallization and film formation of organic semiconductors are controlled by the meniscus shape during meniscus guided coating for field-effect transistors.

We report a microfluidic approach for superfast melanin-like nanoparticle preparation with tunable size and monodispersity.

We use chemical force microscopy with high spatiotemporal resolution to study the nanoscale distribution of hydrophobicity on living mycobacterial cells.

We introduce a nature-inspired coating for SEM imaging of hydrated soft biomaterials by aerobic oxidation of polyphenols.

Using vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy, we investigate the behaviour of organic cations at the surface of a series of multilayer lead halide perovskite systems, finding that the behaviour of the organic cations changes dramatically close to the interface.

Gas-MacEtch of Si with a Pt catalyst allows vertical etching nanostructures with an extreme aspect ratio up to 10 000 : 1.

The air–water interface can be textured according to the same self-assembly packing criteria that determine the wealth of 3D structures found in micellar and other amphiphilic meso-phases.

We show a novel concept for the design of graphene-based materials via diazonium-mediated functionalization and subsequent laser treatment for flexible electronics.

This study demonstrates that controlling intra-cluster ligand interactions is important to obtain an assembled structure with the desired connecting structures.

A new method is proposed to determine charge diffusion coefficient and transfer velocity to extraction layers. Hole diffusion coefficient in MAPbI₃ is constant between 10¹⁶ – 10¹⁷ cm⁻³, a hallmark of band transport but overall extraction is interface limited.

Click-crosslinked microperiodic hydrogels scaffolds from polymer melts: soft but surprisingly robust.

A novel nano-thermometer composed of butter and AIE molecules can be used for intracellular temperature mapping using fluorescence lifetime imaging.