Themed collection Recent Review Articles

Na_2/3[Ni_1/3Mn_2/3]O₂ (NNMO) Na-ion battery cathodes cycle well between 2 and 4 V (a) but suffer from severe decay when cycled above 4 V (b) due to P2–O2 transition. Doping strategies used to overcome this issue are discussed in this article.

Many materials exhibit static and functional properties.

Lost in translation: no targeted nanoparticle has reached the clinic due to poor targeting efficacy, and overcoming this will require rethinking pharmacokinetics, optimizing dosing regimens, and addressing issues like antigen depletion.

Garnet-type cubic Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (c-LLZO) is a single-ion conductor, but the electrochemically generated charged vacancies make it a binary ionic electrolyte, which explains the current- and thickness-dependent lithium dendrite initiation dynamics.

Debonding-on-demand adhesives enable the disassembly of multilayer electronic devices under external stimuli, facilitating efficient recycling and reuse of valuable components.

This article highlights recent advances in the rational design of uniform afterglow SiO₂ microparticles, facilitated by pseudomorphic transformation-assisted doping, identifies key challenges, and explores opportunities in this field.

A comprehensive overview of recent advances in stretchable soft antenna systems, emphasizing material innovations, structural strategies, and system-level integration to enable robust performance in next-generation wearable and robotic platforms.

This minireview highlights recent breakthroughs and outstanding challenges in the programmable self-assembly of dynamic DNA superstructures with emergent, collective behaviors.

The recent significant advances in biphasic liquid metal-based soldering systems for stretchable hybrid devices are systematically reviewed, offering insights into their potential for advanced electronic integration.

The reaction mechanism and various biological functions of rolling circle replication (RCR).

This minireview explores the fundamental principles and recent advancements in ChB-directed on-surface synthesis, highlighting its strong directionality and tunable interaction strength in engineering well-defined low-dimensional architectures.

Aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries (AZBs) are becoming promising candidates for grid-scale energy storage because of their inherent safety, cost-effectiveness, and high theoretical capacity.

This mini review summarizes the recent progress of Zn–V static battery and Zn–V redox flow battery. Mechanisms, classification and structures, problems and modification strategies are discussed for future developments of these batteries.

An overview of MeSNs for photo-enhanced chemodynamic theranostics of tumors is provided in this review, offering insights into their potential for next-generation cancer treatments.

Tissue engineering is an emerging and integrated field for the repair of defective tissues, which benefits from the interdisciplinary development of biomaterial and engineering techniques.

Spinels represent promising candidates for clean energy electrocatalysis due to their abundance and electronic structure adjustability.

Bacterial infections threaten global health. This work highlights bacterial membrane-coated nanoparticles (BMCNs) as safe, multifunctional nanoplatforms for efficient drug delivery, antibacterial applications, and tissue regeneration.

This review highlights pathological mechanisms of lubrication failure in osteoarthritis and explores nano/micro particle strategies—covering material design, particle types, modifications, and translational potential for OA therapy.

This review summarizes advances in in situ formed hydrogels for soft bioelectronics, highlighting formation mechanisms, application methods, functions with design considerations, emerging applications, and future perspectives for the field.

The TOC highlights the integration of triboelectric nanogenerators for powering soft robotic systems. The illustration emphasizes self-powered actuation, eliminating the need for external energy sources by mimicking natural movement, soft robotics.

Theoretical methods connecting chemical composition, structure, electronic properties and charge transport properties are reviewed with focus on the approaches used to connect between models at different resolutions.

This review systematically presents practical strategies for designing and fabricating carbon dot gels, while providing a comprehensive analysis of their applications in visual information storage.

This review highlights in situ SERS/Raman for dissecting complex reactions via spectral analysis. It covers species transformation and substrate evolution in various systems, and discusses statistical methods and future perspectives.

This review charts the rise of 2D ferroelectrics and their shift from fundamental physics to devices, enabling energy-efficient in-sensor computing, logic-in-memory, reservoir computing, and hardware security primitives like TRNGs and PUFs.

The storage and management of heat via thermochemical reactions can enhance energy efficiency and expedite decarbonization. Here, materials performance criteria are described for low-temperature applications such as the heating/cooling of buildings.

Optimization of lipid nanoparticles targeting by three strategies: surface modification, formulation optimization, and design of novel lipid molecules.

The electrochemical properties of alloy-type anode materials for alkali metal ion batteries can be improved by graphene and/or its derivatives.

The growing demand for sustainable energy has positioned hydrogen (H₂) gas as a promising clean energy carrier.

The tissue engineering strategy represents a balanced and dynamic approach that utilizes various tissue cells, bio-scaffolds and bio-agents (such as cells and drugs) to facilitate tissue repair and regeneration.

Nanozymes, an innovative class of biocatalytic nanomaterials, have emerged as transformative tools in cancer theranostics.

This review highlights recent advances in flexible OLED technologies tailored for biomedical applications, with emphasis on their current use in phototherapy and prospects in wearable healthcare.

Ensuring access to safe drinking water is a key global priority.

The piezoelectric phenomena observed in a wide range of materials from crystalline solids to 3D liquids are reviewed. Special emphasis is given to recent measurements of the piezoelectric responses of fluid ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals.

Insightfully connects low-cost poly(3-alkylthiophene) design with tailored morphology strategies for high-performance organic solar cells and photodetectors.

This review explores 3D-printed solvent-impregnated polymeric gels for advanced flexible sensors, emphasizing their fabrication, versatility, and future potential.

This review systematically explores the directional manipulation of bubble behavior on wettability gradient surfaces: the mechanisms, strategies, and applications.

This review surveys research on solid-state battery materials and examines how various micro- and nanoscale characterization techniques can be used to diagnose degradation phenomena and guide strategies to mitigate degradation.

A comprehensive review of multifunctional MEMS/NEMS devices enabled by piezoelectric and ferroelectric effects, spanning sensors, resonators, energy harvesters, memory, and optoelectronic modulators.

Nanoformulation-based drug delivery systems for various gastric cancer treatment strategies.

This review explores laser-induced graphene as a versatile sensing material for multifunctional biomedical sensors, emphasizing its synthesis, properties, and advances in health monitoring and diagnostics.

Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) can be categorised into decoctions and active ingredients. Nanotechnology and effective cerebral delivery strategies unlocked the potential of CHMs to treat central nervous system (CNS) diseases.

Hearing loss is a global health concern affecting hundreds of millions of individuals, with current interventions like hearing aids and cochlear implants offering only functional improvements rather than addressing the root causes.

Aptamer-based electrochemical biosensors (AEBs) have emerged as a highly promising platform for disease diagnostics, offering high specificity, sensitivity, and real-time detection capabilities.

Hydrogels, with unique 3D network structures and excellent compatibility with diverse biological environments, have attracted widespread interest for applications in biomedicine, drug delivery, soft robotics, tissue engineering, and bioelectronics.

Combining green-synthesized 2D nanomaterials with ML for catalytic applications to support sustainability.

Schematic of the thermoelectric conversion process and an outline of the various sensing applications of FTE materials and FTE devices.

Conceptual overview of 2D materials-based flash memory: architectures, materials, and applications.

Advances in chronic wearable biosignal acquisition are reviewed, emphasizing biointerfaces, wireless power, multimodal sensing, analytics, and challenges in epidermal turnover, accuracy, power and clinical translation.

MOFs, as cathodes, photocathodes, and solid-state electrolytes, greatly boost Li–O₂ battery performance by enhancing catalytic efficiency, safety, and energy density—paving the way for advanced, practical energy storage solutions.

This review categorizes PC-based structural color switches into four distinct approaches, establishing a mechanistic framework to analyze their stimulus-responsive behaviors and applications in sensors, anticounterfeiting, and display.

Recent advances in clay-based proton exchange membranes are reviewed, focusing on microstructural design and regulation of proton transport channels.

Polyimide-based “inert” components in LIBs include separators, solid-state electrolytes, protective layers, and binders.

Bridging biological neural systems and halide perovskite-based neuromorphic hardware for next-generation intelligent applications.

Surface engineering strategies, including surface modifications and surface composites, were classified and illustrated to promote photocatalytic H₂O₂ production.

This review provides a comprehensive overview of the latest breakthrough in 2D material-decorated devices in soft robotics: working principles, manufacturing approaches, challenges and opportunities.

We review how the motion of π-conjugated organic molecules on surfaces is shaped by physicochemical factors such as friction and molecule–surface interactions, revealing mechanisms that govern diffusion, dissipation, and nanoscale assembly.

The molecular engineering of Y6 has marked a paradigm shift in the development of non-fullerene acceptors for organic solar cells, enabling remarkable enhancements in efficiencies through its distinct architecture and adjusted voltage loss.

This review summarizes the recent progress of supramolecular peptide assemblies, focusing on the molecular design, self-assembly behavior and applications of antibacterial peptide nanostructures.

Summary of polymer-based thermal management materials.

This review provides a comprehensive overview of sodium plating on hard carbon (HC) anodes in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), focusing on its mechanisms, detection methods, and mitigation strategies, highlighting the resultant battery safety hazards.

Additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged as a transformative strategy for translating nanoscale materials into wafer-scale functional architectures, empowering the scalable fabrication of advanced electronics and energy systems.

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) is a crucial step toward a sustainable carbon economy, enabling the conversion of greenhouse gases into valuable fuels and chemicals.

Selective-damping materials in skin-interfaced bioelectronics can absorb and dissipate vibrations, reducing motion artifacts and enhancing stability. This review highlights biosensing and shock-absorption applications and current challenges.

Inkjet printing offers a precise, scalable method for integrating perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) into LEDs. This review covers advances in PQD ink formulation, printing factors, film stability, and future prospects for industrial applications.

Synergy of carbon-based photo-bio-electrocatalysts and photocatalysis in fuels of the future, MFCs and MECs, is vital for sustainable living. This merging will revolutionize energy systems, paving the way for cleaner and efficient power generation.