Themed collection Nanoscale 2021 Lunar New Year Collection

The integration of patterning technologies and functional hydrogel nanocomposites enables their advanced device applications such as sensors, actuators, energy devices, and tissue engineering scaffolds.

Organic photovoltaics are a promising candidate for indoor applications. Recent progresses in optimization of indoor photovoltaic materials and devices, and the key strategies to optimize the indoor photovoltaic characteristics will be discussed.

MXenes are a new type of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbide or carbonitride material with a 2D structure similar to graphene.

The recent advances in 2D ferromagnets are reviewed, including materials synthesis, ferromagnetism modulation, physical properties, and potential device applications.

Recent advances in nanotechnology, especially the development of integrated nanostructured materials, have offered unprecedented opportunities for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction.

This review covers CBRAM-based artificial synapses and neurons towards emerging computing applications from the operation principles of CBRAMs to state-of-the-art experimental demonstrations.

A systematic summary of the acidic OER catalytic mechanism and catalysts is given, and some experimental phenomena are explained.

Various strategies to functionalize SBA-15 mesoporous silica have been reviewed with a view to evaluating its efficacy in different catalytic transformation reactions.

Low dimensional materials based sensors have improved the detection strategy for sensing complex substances present in environment and human body.

The self-healing mechanism and applications of conductive self-healing hydrogels are summarized and their future development direction is presented.

We demonstrate a novel signal amplification technique that can amplify the signal intensity of immunofluorescence staining via simple cyclic staining of secondary antibodies.

Confinement of van der Waals materials inside 1D carbon nanotubes leads to properties not observed in the bulk.

A novel core–shell structured MOF-GC@COF heterostructure was synthesized with high sensing performance toward formaldehyde is presented.

Lithium metal is promising anode material for next-generation battery system. Here, mesoporous carbon material is applied as a host material and it extends Li metal's cycle life.

Compared with the traditional Haber–Bosch process, electrochemical ammonia synthesis has attracted much attention owing to its low energy consumption, low pollution potential, and sustainability.

As a durable electrocatalyst for water oxidation, a hierarchical heterostructured CuO@ZnCo layered double hydroxide nanowire array on a copper foil requires a low overpotential of 270 mV to attain 10 mA cm⁻² in 1.0 M KOH.

We proposed a strategy of employing water-induced Cs₃Bi₂Br₉/BiOBr nanocomposites to achieve a substantial enhancement in photoluminescence quantum yield by ∼130%.

Hot charge carriers created by plasmons break the C–B bond of 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid, transforming it into benzenethiol in nanogaps.

A NO-release platform based on upconversion dendritic mesoporous silica nanocomposites was invented for combined imaging-guided synergistic chemodynamic/photodynamic/gas therapy.

We find that the solar energy absorption efficiency is high under a solar spectrum at AM 1.5, and it also has polarization-independence and incidence insensitivity. Our absorber has the widest operating band compared with similar absorbers reported previously.

We designed a security-enhanced anti-counterfeiting tag using chiral photonic crystal films, which has polarization-dependent transmission color changes.

Periodic mesoporous organosilicas with precisely controlled pore sizes (>10 nm) were prepared using silica colloidal crystals as a template.

Reverse osmosis membranes of aromatic polyamide (PA) reinforced with a crystalline cellulose nanofiber (CNF) were synthesized and their desalination performance was studied.

A two-dimensional (2D) layered material-based p–n diode is an essential element in the modern semiconductor industry for facilitating the miniaturization and structural flexibility of devices with high efficiency for future optoelectronic and electronic applications.

To overcome current serious energy and environmental issues, photocatalytic water splitting holds great promise because it requires only solar energy as an energy input to produce hydrogen.

Luminescent solar concentrator-photovoltaic systems (LSC-PV) harvest solar light by using transparent photoluminescent plates, which is expected to be particularly useful for building-integrated PV applications.

Both generalized atomic doping and localized contact decoration using transition metal, Cu, can significantly improve the contact condition and enhance the carrier transport of two-dimensional semiconductors.

Micro/meso-porous Bi@C nanoplates are synthesized by pyrolyzing Bi-based MOFs prepared by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method to overcome huge volume expansion and pulverization of anode materials during battery operation.

Design an in-situ semi-transformation strategy for the development of Fe-Ni LDH/MOF hierarchical architecture exhibiting large accessible surface, open electron transport channel and multiple active sites to promote the electrocatalytic capacity.

Coexistence of threshold and memory switching characteristics of ALD HfO₂ memristor synaptic arrays for energy-efficient neuromorphic computing.

Biological synaptic behaviors such as short-/long-term plasticity were implemented by ferroelectric polarization switching dynamics of Al-doped HfO₂ ferroelectric gate insulators.

Fe₃GeTe₂ is found to have antiferromagnetic ground state spin order in its stoichiometric phase. It is a defect and doping that make this material ferromagnetic.

Lead-halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) are receiving much attention as a potential high-quality source of photons due to their superior luminescence properties in comparison to other semiconductor NCs.

Multilayer NiCo-MOF nanosheet assemblies hold great potential as an electrode material for EES equipment. A facile one-pot synthesis procedure, high capacity and stable performance are prominent features of multilayer NiCo-MOF materials.

A macrophage exosome coated nanoplatform for targeted chemotherapy of triple-negative breast cancer.

Results of this study provide clear design guidelines for developing highly active electrocatalysts using thiolate-protected gold and alloy clusters.

Recently, hafnia ferroelectrics with two spontaneous polarization states have attracted marked attention for non-volatile, super-steep switching devices, and neuromorphic application due to their fast switching, scalability, and CMOS compatibility.

Considerable efforts have been undertaken in the domain of air quality management for the removal of hazardous volatile organic compounds, particularly carbonyl compounds (CCs).

Herein, pathogen-targeting phototheranostic nanoparticles, Van-OA@PPy, are in situ developed for efficient elimination of MRSA infection, which is reflected by dual-modality magnetic resonance and photoacoustic imaging.

Synthesis procedure of a Mn@FeNi-S/GO nanocomposite and its characterization and electrocatalytic performance.

A 3D electrocatalyst designed by ginkgo-nut derived porous carbon with CoS₂ nanoparticles decoration exhibits a high Li–S battery performance. This is ascribed to a high binding energy towards LiPSs and a low Li⁺ diffusion energy barrier of CoS₂.

Biomorphic Co₂P-Co₃O₄/rGO/C, consisting of Co₂P-Co₃O₄ heterogeneous particles and rGO sheets on a C substrate, is in situ fabricated using G+ bacteria as both a P source and template, which leads to good electrocatalytic performances for the ORR.

The kinetics and dynamic studies demonstrate that the superior sodium storage capability of FeP@C/rGO is attributed to the rational designed hierarchical porous nanoarchitecture with a high capacitive contribution and a small volume expansion.

We report a simple, flexible and substrate-independent method for pumpless under-oil directional transport of water.

We describe a novel antibiotic delivery system based on magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) conjugated to a cell-penetrating peptide (CPP).

Lithium ion capacitors (LICs) are regarded as one of the most promising energy storage devices since they can bridge the gap between lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors.

Exosomes are membrane nanovesicles carrying molecular information that may reflect the biological and genetic characteristics of their parent cells.

We proposed a new full-color display framework QD-OLEDs, where blue OLEDs are used as pump light, and red and green QDs are printed on color filters as color conversion layers.

PM type OPDs are firstly achieved based on electron tunneling injection with electron-only transport properties.

Porous PtPd NPs with reversed bimetallic structures from Pd-on-Pt to Pt-on-Pd can be one-pot prepared in aqueous solution under the modulation of [C₁₆mim]Cl and glycine and show superior catalytic activities for AB hydrolysis to produce hydrogen.