Themed collection 2017 Materials Chemistry Frontiers Review-type Articles

Side reactions occurring during cycling largely hinder the practical application of Li–air batteries. This review article describes the issues and solutions to tackle the problems of side reactions.

Recent developments on late transition metal catalyzed α-olefin polymerization and copolymerization with polar comonomers are reviewed.

This review gives a brief introduction to AIEgen-based MOFs and COFs and focuses on their photoluminescence properties and potential applications.

The recent advances in solution-synthesized thermoelectric materials with hybrid architectures have been briefly summarized.

Design and effective synthesis methods for high-performance polymer semiconductor-based OFETs.

Single and binary metal oxides based on conversion reactions for Li-ion batteries are discussed in this review.

Hierarchically structured zeolites combine the merits of microporous zeolites and mesoporous materials to offer enhanced molecular diffusion and mass transfer without compromising the inherent catalytic activities and selectivity of zeolites.

Mechanochromic fluorescence (MCF) materials are a sort of smart material whose photophysical properties are sensitive to mechanical stimulation, such as photoluminescence color, fluorescence quantum yield and emission lifetime.

The recent developments of metal–nitrogen–carbon catalysts for electrochemical water splitting have been comprehensively summarized.

This review outlines recent progress in the design of catalytic materials for tailoring surface charge states toward enhanced catalytic performance.

ReX₂ can have wide applications in (opto-)electronics due to an unusual distorted octahedral (1T) crystal structure in which each monolayer contains diamond-shaped chains.

A review on small molecule WOLEDs including charge balance, emissive materials, device architectures, and light out-coupling techniques is provided.

Metal organic frameworks are thoroughly reviewed as exemplary precursors for the manufacture of highly catalytically active materials.

Key aspects of Si-based anode materials towards practical applications.

Recent progress of polymeric micelle formulations currently under clinical evaluation for the treatment of cancer.

This review presents a general overview of polymer–nanocrystal hybrid solar cells (HSCs). The device structure and operation mechanism of bulk heterojunction HSCs are introduced, and recent works that have been done to improve the device performance or clarify the operation mechanism are summarized and discussed in detail. Also, the challenges and perspectives of HSCs are presented.

An emerging technology for CO₂ capture is the construction of hybrid adsorbent MOFs via confinement of water inside the pores. This review article describes the recent progress in this field.

Recent advances in the use of nonporous silica nanoparticles as theranostic platforms for various biomedical applications, particularly in drug delivery, bioimaging and bio-adhesives.

This review describes developments of non-fullerene small molecular acceptors in solar cells since 2015, including rylene imide, indacenodithiophene and diketopyrrolopyrrole.

Herein, this review article aims to provide a relatively comprehensive summary of research progress in the dissolution and processing of cellulose with ionic liquids.

Herein, recent progress in interfacial polymerization from the aspects of theory models, fabrication methods, and applications has been summarized.

Ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) is a versatile material providing interconnected channels for the diffusion of electroactive species in electrochemical systems.

Recent advances and progress in redox-responsive polymeric nanosystems for biomedical applications are discussed in this review article.

Innovative salt solutions and liquid salts can advance batteries, supercapacitors, and supercapatteries for stationary, transport, seasonal and regional energy storage.

We present a comprehensive overview of the recent advances in III–V NW-based photodetectors operating in the UV, visible and infrared spectra range.

Emission enhancement and application of GFPc analogs are achieved via chemical modification or physical encapsulation due to conformational motion inhibition.

Multi-shelled hollow micro-/nanostructures as electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries can improve the capacity, stability and rate capability simultaneously.

A simple way to increase MOFs stability in air? Solvent removal. Counterintuitive? No, it is not. The condensation of water is delayed by removing all the solvent (polar) molecules from the pores.

We present a review of the very recent advances in the synthesis of block copolymer (BCP) Janus nanomaterials.

This review investigates relevant topics in the design and fabrication of conducting polymer composites for electrochemical capacitive energy storage.

The developments of a large variety of one-dimensional TiO₂ based heterostructures for extensive photocatalytic applications have been comprehensively summarized.

POSS are nano-sized stable 3-dimensional architectures which consist of alternate Si–O bonds to form cage structures with Si atoms as vertices.

We summarize the recent progress on two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide nanomaterial-based biosensors, including optical sensors, electrochemical sensors, and bioelectronic sensors.

We present a review of graphene papers regarding their smart assembly, functionalization and applications in biomimetics, sensors and energy devices.

The field of reticular chemistry is rapidly expanding and, as is true for any emerging field, there exists ‘folklores’ that permeate through the scientific discourse. It is within this context that we seek to address these ‘folklores’ in order to provide the realities of reticular chemistry.

Nanoarchitectonics can work as a navigator to convert conventional materials into life-like high-level functional systems for materials innovation in the future.