Themed collection Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators

Journal of Materials Chemistry C profiles contributors to the Emerging Investigators issue.

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are the perfect link between biology and microelectronics. This highlight backtracks the development of tissue-like OECTs (stretchable and healable) for applications at soft bioelectronic interfaces.

The development of new organic ferroelectrics has encountered some challenges and opportunities. In this perspective, we have summarised synthetic and computational design principles for high-performance organic ferroelectrics.

This perspective focuses on the new capabilities of single-molecule junctions beyond electrical conductance measurements and how they have enabled the investigation of crucial physical and chemical processes at the atomic and molecular scale.

This perspective focuses on the key challenges blocking the development of photoresponsive materials, and shows a guidance value for systematically designing solid-state photoresponsive materials.

The trends in octahedral tilting in Prussian blue analogues are reviewed as a function of various structural factors. The link between tilting and functionality is discussed.

The promising roadmap for boosting the performance of TMD FETs, circuitry applications, perspective of the computing scheme and challenges of current integration technologies have been reviewed.

Quantum sensing with shallow nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond offer promise for chemical analysis. Preserving favorable NV spin and charge properties while enabling molecular surface functionalization remains a critical challenge.

Interfacial engineering of perovskite solar cells and its key roles are highlighted, and an overview of the recent advances in their related strategies using different materials in improving the photovoltaic performance and stability is given.

This review focuses on the morphological evolution of films for organic photovoltaics from the perspective of in situ measurements, showing factors governing the final morphology during liquid–solid transitions.

This review analyses predominant pathways of non-radiative recombination losses in perovskite light-emitting diodes, followed by a summary of recent advances in reducing such losses as well as future directions toward the radiative limit.

This review summarizes the current prospect of FAPbBr₃ nanocrystals – from synthesis to applications in light emitting diodes and highlights the challenges and promising strategies to mitigate the concerns.

This review summarizes the application progress of conducting redox polymers with energy storage capability for different types of rechargeable batteries.

pH is emerging as a powerful control of electron transport through molecular junctions due to its direct manipulation of chemical structures and frontier orbitals of the molecules.

Transistor photomemories have been vastly progressing along with their potential applications utilized in IoT and AI fields. Hence, it is essential to classify the device working principles with device operations to ease further development.

This review was aimed to analyze existing polymer-based technologies for electrets used in memory devices and artificial synapses. We categorize five types of electrets and analyze their performance, characteristics, applicability, and limitations.

This review covers recent advances in multiple boron–nitrogen doped π-conjugated systems including their synthetic strategies and applications in optoelectronic devices.

Herein, the effects of impurities (e.g., donors, acceptors, co-doping impurities, Al and In, and surface passivators) and defects (e.g., intrinsic defects and deep-level defects) on the material properties of Ga₂O₃ are summarized.

Illustration of strain-, pressure-, temperature-, humidity- and gas sensor.

Recent advances in the controllable growth of bilayer 2D single crystals via the chemical vapor deposition method are comprehensively presented.

This review summarizes the development and applications of polymer-based organic photodiodes and organic phototransistors, and provides an outlook on their development prospects and obstacles, aiming to propose new design strategies.

Transitional compositions or phase-changing structures in specific layers can respond to environmental changes differently and show intelligent behaviors.

2D metal thiophosphate SnP₂S₆ was discovered as a new dielectric layer with a high dielectric constant (≈23), realizing a low subthreshold slope down to 69.4 mV dec⁻¹ in the field effect transistor device geometry.

Diamond microparticles containing SiV centers with superior properties are fabricated on a Si substrate by CVD using salt-assisted air-oxidized nanodiamond seeds. Ultrasensitive all-optical thermometry is demonstrated by the high-quality sample.

Five phenothiazine 5,5-dioxide derivatives were designed to reveal their different RTP properties and inherent mechanism. The results show that the large π–π overlap within molecular dimer is beneficial for persistent RTP effect.

We demonstrate that changes in the surrounding environment of the triplet chromophore play a crucial role in changing the organic room-temperature phosphorescence lifetime, with a range from 0.84 ms (ET) to 325.26 ms (MT).

Hoop-shaped π-conjugated macrocycles constitute a new family of π-conjugated systems displaying unique properties induced by their radially directed π-orbitals.

The formation of supramolecular dyads that can form ordered, 2D-assemblies on graphene is an intricate process. Using different molecular components allows us to control the positioning of the emissive unit in relation to the graphene substrate.

Urushiol is infiltrated into carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers, and the urushiol infiltrated CNT (U-CNT) fibers are cross-linked by thermal or photochemical treatment. The cross-linked U-CNT (CL-U-CNT) fibers exhibit considerably enhanced properties.

Association of C₃-symmetric pyrene- and naphthalene diimide-based derivatives afforded gels through aromatic interactions. The corresponding (xero)gels displayed original spectroscopic features in comparison to the corresponding one-component materials.

The optical and magneto-chiral optical properties of a 3D chiral molecular ferrimagnet based on Cr^III and Mn^II building blocks have been investigated to unveil the role of structural dimensionality on magneto-chiral dichroism.

An investigation into the impact of soft donors on the optomagnetic and thermal sensing properties of lanthanide-based luminescent single-molecule magnets.

PEDOT:PSS hydrogel is used as soft, conductive gate electrodes for low-voltage hygroscopic insulator field effect transistors (HIFETs). HIFETs are sensitive to aqueous solutions of KCl, NaCl and H₂O₂, introduced through the hydrogel gate electrode.

Nanostructures formed from chiral Eu(III) complexes exhibit enhanced chiral luminescence and antibacterial activity.

Internal organization and composition of plasmonic colloidal array unit cells are engineered exploring both pre- and post- assembly modifications.

PEDOT deposition on 1D to 3D textiles is achieved by an on-site vapor polymerization and their application in human–machine interfaces is then explored.

By varying the solvent and concentration of PEG based electrolytes, we tuned the molar conductivity and revealed the correlation with the Seebeck coefficient, which follows the theory of the thermoelectric ratchet effect in ions with hopping dynamics.

n-Type conjugated polymers were synthesized by environmentally benign direct arylation polycondensation. With these polymers, OTFTs with μ_e of up to 0.72 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ were fabricated.

Cation off-centering is crystallography frustrated in the pyrochlore but exhibits local ordering.

The synergistic self-assembly behavior of the rod-like mesogenic monomers and the effects of their composition and concentration on the BP lattice are revealed during soft crystal growth and transformations, providing tunable photonic properties.

Efficient molecular dynamics simulations with electronic continuum correction show that ion clusters form inside covalent organic frameworks, resulting in noncontinuous pathways detrimental to Li⁺ transport.

Conjugated ladder polymer forms highly robust, temperature-insensitive aggregation in the solution due to low entropy change of rigid backbone, which is promising for highly robust intermolecular interaction at high temperature.

Three luminescent donor–acceptor compounds were prepared based on the Dimroth rearrangement of tris(triazolo)triazines (TTT).

We report semitransparent NIR perovskite photodetectors based on tin–lead hybrid perovskites, by using very thin film perovskite layers and transparent indium tin oxide electrodes.

Electronic structure calculations unveil structure-property relationships in doped polymers: dopants inserted in the alkyl chains are stronger electron acceptors than those in conjugated backbones, leading to integer charge transfer complexes.

The degree of mixing of intramolecular charge transfer excitations can be used to brighten the lowest doublet excited state of TTM.

Boltzmann or not? Most luminescent thermometers rely on a configurational crossover between two excited states with high mutual non-radiative transition rates and relative sensitivity. It is shown that these materials follow a “quasi”-Boltzmann law as is demonstrated for the case of Sm²⁺.

A facile design strategy based on the structural control of intramolecular hydrogen bonding and push–pull electron effects was proposed to construct highly efficient UORTP materials.

A gel electrolyte-based thermogalvanic device with I⁻/I₃⁻ as a redox pair is fabricated, which shows a preferred temperature tolerance and superior anti-drying capacity. Thus, a gel-based temperature monitoring system was developed.

A strategy to transfer chirality via host–guest interaction to shape-persistent metallacycles with potential chiroptical applications is established.

The thermoelectric performance of the insulator SrTiO₃ was improved through synergistically enhanced electrical transport properties via Fermi level regulation and modulation doping.

Three-dimensional all-inorganic dual halogen emitter Cs₂Cd₂BrCl₅ exhibits broadband white-light emission, which is originated from self-trapped excitons.

The magnetoresistance of HgTe quantum dot films, exhibiting a well-defined 1S_e state charging and a relatively high mobility (1–10 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹), is measured with controlled occupation of the first electronic state.