Themed collection Prof. Amitava Patra's 60th birthday: Current advancements in photonic materials and spectroscopy
Recent advances in atomically precise metal nanocluster-based electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction
Atomically precise metal nanoclusters have emerged as efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). This review features the key strategies that can be employed to improve HER performance.
Nanoscale, 2026, Advance Article
https://doi.org/10.1039/D5NR05333A
Moiré-pattern-assisted thermoelectric enhancement in tungsten diselenide bilayer
We investigate the thermoelectric performance of a twisted tungsten diselenide bilayer, showing twist engineering as an effective strategy to optimize electron and phonon transport.
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2026, Advance Article
https://doi.org/10.1039/D5CP04805B
Magneto-catalytic bio-hybrid bacterial bots efficiently eradicate and remove biofilms in catheters
Biohybrid microbots, which combine biotic moieties with nanoscale functional components, offer to accomplish multifunctional tasks in theranostics while also being guided by external forces.
Nanoscale, 2026, Advance Article
https://doi.org/10.1039/D5NR05025A
Optical spectra of plasmonic Au clusters and nanoparticles obtained using the TDDFT+U method
Modeling plamons in gold clusters is challenging due to the influence of the d electrons. We demonstrate that RT-TDDFT+U accurately captures the plasmonic response, yielding plasmon energies in agreement with jellium calculations and experiment.
Nanoscale, 2026, Advance Article
https://doi.org/10.1039/D5NR04178C
About this collection
This Nanoscale and PCCP themed collection “In honour of Prof. Amitava Patra's 60th birthday: Current advancements in photonic materials and spectroscopy” is guest edited by Prof. Ayan Datta (Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India), Dr. Tapasi Sen (INST, Mohali, India) and Prof. Rodolphe Antoine (Universite Claud Bernard, Lyon, France).
This collection celebrates 30 years of advancing photonic materials and spectroscopy to honour Prof. Amitava Patra’s 60th birthday and fetures articles on all aspects of spectroscopy; in particular, those that touch closely on Prof. Amitava Patra’s scientific interests in ultrafast excited state dynamics, energy transfer, and electron transfer in light-harvesting nanomaterials. This special collection aims to highlight cutting-edge research in multidimensional quantum dots, metal nanoclusters, perovskites, 2D nanoplatelets, carbon dots, semiconducting polymer, graphene and porphyrin based luminescent nanoparticles, and up- and down- converted luminescent materials for advancements in photonic materials and spectroscopy.