Themed collection 2021 Nanoscale HOT Article Collection

Photoredox organic transformation have been growing, and this perspective highlights recent advances in mechanistic understanding, providing strategies to construct high efficiency and low-cost photocatalytic systems.

This review discussed the typical high ZT materials, traditional optimized strategies, and focused on the Rashba-type thermoelectric (TE) materials, which highlights the development and challenges of Rashba effect in breaking the bottleneck of ZT.

Here, we summarize our previous efforts and reports from other groups on P containing noble metal catalysts for direct liquid fuel cells, including synthetic methods, composition, shape and electrochemical performance.

This minireview provides a comprehensive discussion on recent advances in plasmon-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for catalytic reactions on bifunctional metallic nanostructures.

By rationally designing and modifying their heterostructures, carbon dots have the potential to be used as solar absorbers for solar evaporation. The roles of carbon dots to improve solar-to-vapor efficiency are thoroughly discussed.

Hierarchically constructed metal–organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks toward emergent electrochemical applications.

In this minireview, we summarize recent advances in electrocatalysis in confined spaces. Emerging electrochemical reactions are covered and discussed.

In this review, we evaluate and summarize the application of expanded graphite-based materials in rechargeable batteries, including alkaline ions (such as Na⁺, K⁺) storage and multivalent ion (such as Mg²⁺, Zn²⁺, Ca²⁺ and Al³⁺) storage batteries.

Current popular transition metal-based electrocatalysts developed for HER/OER in water splitting at high current density are critically reviewed and discussed.

In this manuscript, we review progress and problems related to magnetism in transition-metal chalcogenides and provide an outlook for this research field.

Electrolyzing water technology to prepare high-purity hydrogen is currently an important field in energy development.

This Review presents an overview of methods used to deposit top-contact electrodes on electrode-supported monolayers to create ‘large area’ molecular junctions, highlighting the challenges and solutions identified to date.

Nanoparticle self-assembly at water–oil interfaces has emerged as a convenient and efficient method to construct stable, active and reproducible plasmonic substrates for SERS. In this review we summarize the progress that has been made in this field.

This review systematically sums up the design principles and strategies for MOF precursors and discusses the relationship between MOF precursors and the target porous carbon for the accurate architecture of high-performance supercapacitors.

This review highlights recent advancements in defect engineering and characterization of both metal-free carbons and transition metal-based electrocatalysts.

We reviewed the recent research on information processing with the DNA toehold-mediated strand displacement reaction, including the basic principles and applications in logic circuit, analog circuit, combinational circuit, and information relay.

The recent advances in the adsorption and conversion of LiPSs are summarized and discussed from the viewpoint of theoretical calculation.

The surface temperature on catalytically active magnetic nanoparticles (Fe_2.2C@Ru) was estimated from their catalytic performances under magnetic induction. In different solvents, surface temperatures well-above the boiling point were determined.

We experimentally and theoretically investigated the propagation and subwavelength coupling of surface plasmons in carbon nanotube pairs (CNTPs). We found symmetric and anti-symmetric modes formed by plasmon coupling in CNTPs.

Combining SERS and statistical analysis, we demonstrated that an aptamer is a flexible molecule that is blocked in a specific conformation to capture its analyte and we provided evidence for the dynamics of the aptamer/protein interaction.

The tumor targeting efficiency of a viral nanoparticle is negatively correlated with the tumorigenesis stage in mouse models.

1D cowpea-like CNTs@Bi/S composites were synthesized by a facile method. Under the collaboration of the physical detention of CNTs and the chemical adsorption of bismuth nanorods, the polysulfide shuttling can be effectively curbed.

Perovskite nanocrystals with an insulating metal sulfate shell are synthesized. These novel core/shell structured nanocrystals show highly reduced energy transfer in film and suppressed halide exchange in solution.

Molecular nanomedicine (BthB NPs) is developed for effective superoxide radical (O₂˙⁻) generation for hypoxia-overcoming photodynamic therapy (PDT), upon irradiation with an 808 nm laser with a high tissue penetration depth.

Using NMR proton relaxation to rapidly identify surface chemical functionalisation changes of carbon nanomaterials in liquid.

Iron labeled CTCs home to previously established mammary fat pad tumours and can be visualized using magnetic particle imaging and magnetic resonance imaging.

The study of composition-dependent electrocatalysis reveals that Ag₆₀Pd₄₀ alloy nanoparticles allow the selective reduction of furfural to furfuryl alcohol.

Here, we introduce a catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA)-based DNA walker on cell membranes. Driven by DNA strand exchange, catalytic strands move on cell membranes and hairpin strands (H2) in the solution are loaded on cells.

The thermal conductivity of hybrid perovskites can be tuned by more than an order of magnitude through application of hydrostatic pressure, thus emphasizing the potential in enhancing their efficiencies in photovoltaic applications.

Plasmonic reactions with relatively positive oxidation potentials occur locally at resonance sites, while reactions with more negative potentials proceed nonlocally.

A novel theranostic nanoplatform DPtFIP exhibited outstanding tumor targeting ability, imaging and photothermal properties, increased cellular uptake, selective drug release, and potent antitumor effect with decreased toxicity.

Marrying highly luminescent Au nanoclusters (NCs) to TiO₂ achieves long-lasting yet visible-light-driven antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

Photoactivated Gold decorated iron oxide nanoflowers induce a hot tumor immune microenvironnment in triple negative breast cancer model.

Formation of cage-like 144-atom gold cluster is due to thermodynamic selectivity.

A Co/N co-doped binary carbon@silica@carbon hydrophobic nanoreactor with a hollow structure and Co–N_x active sites shows excellent performance in the selective oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenone (the conversion of ethylbenzene is 96.9%).

Mono-/bi-layer V-doped MoS₂ were synthesized via CVD growth. The second harmonic generation (SHG) response in bilayer 2H and 3R phase V-doped MoS₂ indicated the broken inversion symmetry regardless of stacking order and layer numbers.

Heterogeneous CTCs in whole blood can be efficiently captured and self-released by multifunctional metal–phenolic networks without using any labeling molecules and additional interventions.

Metastable m-NiSe₂/CFC films are realized to promote chemisorption, accelerate reaction kinetics and suppress the shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides, resulting in high rate capability and superior cycling stability for lithium–sulfur batteries.

We have developed a feasible approach to establish a freestanding air-cathode based on Co–N_x species trapped in hierarchical porous carbon nanofibers with reduced charge-discharge polarization (0.36 V) and high initial specific capacity (12.12 mAh cm⁻²) for Li–O₂ batteries.

Our study constructs a novel gill-raker like interface for label-free transport and deposit pathogens rapidly into microcavity instead of introducing active agents to binding bacteria.

Ab initio Bayesian active learning method was proposed to generally accelerate prediction of desired advanced functional materials with the ultrahigh efficiency and accuracy.

This paper reveals the proximity effect of 2D vdW magnets on the magnetism of ferromagnetic films. Both the out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy and Gilbert damping of the Ni film are enhanced by integrating with 2D Fe₃GeTe₂.

The network-like CoP-based electrodes are legitimately designed and tailored for 3-D interconnected conductive network, thus providing rich accessible active sites, facilitating reactants diffusion, and reducing accumulation of hydrogen bubbles.

A nanostructured microfluidic device, featuring a series of self-organized gold nanocavities, enhanced with graphene nanosheets, for ultrasensitive, quantitative, and plasmon-assisted electrochemical detection of H₂O₂ released from cancer cells.

Precise control of thermal conduction of nanowires, both magnitude and direction, has been demonstrated, providing novel access for nanoscale thermal manipulation.

A liquid-crystalline hexaphenylene amphiphile and an aluminosilicate precursor were co-assembled and pyrolyzed to form carbon-aluminosilicate nanocomposites with controlled lamellar orientation and macroscopic order.

Dielectric properties are improved by fabrication of a Ferroelectric Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂/Antiferroelectric ZrO₂ nanolaminate structure. The new design increases the density of morphotropic phase boundary, which consequently enhances the dielectric constant.

Topological defect-containing carbons (or high-entropy carbons), which are synthesized from an azulene-enriched precursor, show strong relationship between topological defects and Fe sites for oxygen reduction.

MOFs with high tunability are considered ideal candidates as microwave-absorbing materials.

Transition metal atom embedded antimonene monolayers can be trifunctional electrocatalysts for the HER/OER/ORR.

A biocompatible epitope imprinted polymer based on fluorescent calcium peroxide was used for targeted fluorescence imaging and H₂O₂ self-supply chemodynamic therapy.

Tunable synthetic methodology for several Cu nanoparticle shapes is presented along with detailed analysis of their plasmonic and non-plasmonic optical response.

The inclusion of low-acetylated Gellan Gum and κ-carrageenan into amyloid fibril gels reinforces them mechanically, while preserving the surface functionality of the amyloid fibrils.

Interlayer engineering of graphite anodes in alkali metal ion (M = Li, Na, and K) batteries is carried out based on the first-principles calculations.

A metal–organic framework material with an alkaline hydrolysis property was used as a sensitive fluorescent probe for double-site recognition of Staphylococcus aureus.

In this work, we proposed a strategy for using fullerenes as building blocks for the synthesis of novel 2D materials.

A flower-like structure Mn-doped NiCoP is demonstrated to be an outstanding hydrogen evolution electrocatalyst with highly efficient and long-durable.

We explore biocompatible fluorescent silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) as a Hedgehog pathway inhibitor to suppress the growth and metastasis of tumors with abnormal activation of the pathway.

The commercial application of Lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) is impeded by the shuttle effect. We report zinc (Zn) and nitrogen (N) co-doped ZIF-8 derived hollow carbon (ZHC) as a promising separator coating for LSBs to control the shuttle effect.

Surfactant-mediated morphology evolution of CeO₂ nanocrystals is fully investigated at the atomic scale and it was found that the exposure of {100} facets largely affects the concentration of Ce³⁺ and subsequently the OSC performance.

We report nanoscale Eu_0.5Ba_0.5TiO₃, a multiferroic in the bulk and candidate in the search to quantify the electric dipole moment of the electron.

Yolk–shell structured CoSe₂/C as multifunctional anode materials show superior performances for both full/half sodium-ion and full/half potassium-ion batteries.

A comprehensive test of the local field model was achieved by immersing YAG:Ce nanoparticles in different alcohols at different temperatures.

Remodeling tumor mechanical microenvironments using TGFβ blockade significantly promotes the delivery of nano-photosensitizers to stroma-rich solid tumors and boosts the antitumor effect of photodynamic therapy.

An electrode composed of defective NiO nanostructures supported on carbon nanofibers and immersed in an Li⁺-based aqueous electrolyte is studied using Raman spectroscopy under dynamic polarization conditions to address the charge-storage phenomenon.

A method to enhance the electrical outputs of the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is proposed and theoretically/experimentally analyzed. The non-/contact surfaces of the air-gap embedded TENG are polished by the optimum grit number of sandpapers.

Exposure to micro/nanoplastics (M/NPLs) deteriorates the intestinal barrier by disturbing the bacterial composition in the gut.

An innovative strategy to transarterial infusion photothermal therapy (TAIPPT) of VX2 tumor implanted in rabbit is reported.

A multifunctional molecular delivery substrate was confirmed to promote molecular releases, molecules/proteins storage and ROS elimination in drug delivery.

Design of fully boron-sheet-based FETs in the real 2D atomically-thin limit.