Themed collection 2014 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Hot Articles

The design of functional and stimuli-responsive materials is among the key goals of modern materials science.

The current study focuses on giving a basic understanding of tubular graphene sheets or carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and points towards their role in fabricating elastomer composites.

Recent advances in nitrogen heterocycle-containing materials used for phosphorescent OLEDs with high efficiencies and low operating voltages are reviewed.

The unconventional oxide substrates have been used for the growth of high-quality GaN films due to their relatively small lattice and thermal expansion coefficient mismatches with GaN. This review focuses on the recent progress and discusses the perspectives of the epitaxial growth of GaN films on unconventional oxide substrates.

This paper reviews recent advances and challenges in the use of fluorescent Au nanoclusters for sensing applications, with an emphasis on the various mechanisms of sensing.

This feature article summarizes the progress and future directions of various optical methods (colorimetry, SERS, photoluminescence, light scattering, and chiroptical activity) for the detection of biological, chemical and ionic species based on the aggregation of plasmonic NPs.

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs, C-dots or CDs), which are generally small carbon nanoparticles (less than 10 nm in size) with various unique properties, have found wide use in more and more fields during the last few years. In this feature article, we describe the recent progress in the field of CQDs, focusing on their synthetic methods, size control, modification strategies, photoelectric properties, luminescent mechanism, and various applications.

Describing all the optical and electronic interactions of graphene with poly-aromatic molecules and polymers for electronic devices.

In recent years all-optical switching and logic devices have received extensive attention due to their potential applications in next generation ultrahigh-speed information processing and optical computing.

This feature article highlights different sensing strategies with chemically modified quantum dots (QDs) hybrid structures for the sensing of metal ions in aqueous solution or an in vivo environment, and discusses the photophysical mechanisms in the different sensor systems while comparing their detecting/sensing selectivity.

TiO₂ nanorods hydrothermally prepared from acid-free media show potential as the building blocks of perovskite solar cells.

New CaCrO_3−δ superstructure phases (δ = 0.33, 0.4, and 0.5) have been discovered through ‘soft’ low temperature reduction of the perovskite CaCrO₃ made at ‘hard’ high pressure–temperature conditions.

Metal oxides allow a strong and stable p-type doping and interface modification of graphene electrodes for highly efficient OLEDs.

Hydrogen-bonded photomobile liquid-crystalline polymer fibers with chemically modified single-walled carbon nanotubes were prepared and their photomobile properties were investigated.

A strategy was proposed to control the energy transfer process in a mixed-lanthanide MOF. A novel white-light emission material is thus designed, whose emission can be reversibly switched between blue, white and yellow.

New β-iminoenolate boron complexes exhibit different mechanofluorochromic properties due to the excimer and monomer transformation.

PFM characterization of (K, Na)NbO₃ nanoscale single crystals reveals the piezoelectric composition dependence and the existence of a phase boundary.

Orthogonally conjugated moieties appended to a conjugated polymer backbone are used to control solubility and packing. Here, electronic-structure calculations show how such configurations impact the polymer geometry and the electronic/optical properties.

A zigzag-shaped Dy^III₄ cluster, [Dy₄(μ-bpt)₄(μ-OH)₂(NO₃)₆(EtOH)₂]·EtOH was designed and synthesized solvothermally, which displays multiple properties of single-molecule magnets, ferroelectricity and white-light emission.

A luminescent lanthanide MOF-based thin film was fabricated by electrodeposition in an anhydride system and this film can be used as a highly selective sensor for CO₃²⁻ in aqueous solution.

Porphyrin nanoaggregates for singlet oxygen generation.

Magnetoresistance in a unipolar p-channel field-effect transistor based on low molecular weight 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis(diphenylamino)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (Spiro-TAD) is reported.

Recyclable, fast and visible-light responsive polymer-dispersed liquid crystal/graphene oxide nanocomposite films were fabricated by solution casting and mechanical stretching.

Metamaterial absorber is fabricated using polymer brush–gold nanoassemblies for visualizing the reversible pH-responsiveness.

A remarkable improvement of 7.3% in the PCE is obtained through the spontaneous migration of diblock copolymers during the spin-coating process.

Phosphorescent oxygen sensors produced by localised solvent-crazing of polyphenylene sulphide films are described.

Periodic hole arrays in gold films showing extraordinary transmission of light are fabricated using solely chemical methods. The degree of order of the hole arrays has a strong impact on their transmission properties, which can be utilized for a spectral quality control of the produced plasmonic sensors.

We investigate the effect of the increased molecular bulk in the ‘head’ group for a class of newly synthesized azobenzene chromophores and demonstrate that motifs with larger free-volume changes during isomerization drive photoinduced macromolecular phenomena.

Proposal of two-dimensional CrXTe₃ (X = Si, Ge) nanosheets with intrinsic ferromagnetism and half semiconductor character.

Color-tunable green-red emitting La₃GaGe₅O₁₆:Tb³⁺,Eu³⁺ phosphors were prepared and the energy transfer process was discussed.

We report the theoretical study of the light-induced switching of magnetization in core–shell nanoparticles.

Photoluminescence of CuInS₂ QDs was attributed to the recombination of electrons in the donor level of indium at copper sites or sulfur vacancies and holes in the quantized hole state.

Os(II) complexes bearing tridentate pz2py chelate were synthesized, among which the derivative with two extra phosphine ligands is found to be an excellent yellow dopant for OLEDs.

We propose two molecular designs for a cybotactic nematic (Ncyb) phase. The U-shaped compound exhibits a skewed Ncyb phase, whereas the rod-like compound possessing a terminal hydroxyl group shows a normal Ncyb phase.

The field-effect hole mobility of rubicene having high ionization energy (∼5.5 eV) is 0.20 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and is improved to 0.32 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ with PFBT SAM treatment which reduces the hole injection barrier and induces an edge-on configuration.

The hybridization of porous coordination polymers (PCPs) with electronic devices is a powerful strategy for developing systems that are suitable for advanced applications, such as chemical sensing.

A composite bilayer actuator device which uses spin crossover to convert electrical energy into motion via Joule heating is described.

A modulus-tunable conformal mold can serve as a semi-permanently usable optical phase mask for generating three-dimensional nanostructures with high uniformity.

PtL²Cl (HL² = 5-(p-(NPh₂)styryl-1,3-di(2-pyridyl)benzene) emerges as an excellent candidate for the preparation of NIR-OLEDs.

A red-emissive barbituric acid-functionalized TPE luminogen with TICT, AIE, self-assembly and optical waveguiding properties was synthesized.

Nanosheet seed layers of dangling bond-free nature can promote VDWE-like growth of crystal films with considerable mismatch, realizing advanced design in film deposition.