Themed collection Nanoconfinement

Although the term ‘confinement’ regularly appears in electrochemical literature, up until today the various aspects of confinement in electrochemistry are rather scattered individual contributions outside the established disciplines in this field.

This review illustrates molecular-scale confinement, containment, isolation, and related concepts to present MOF-centric catalysts and to realize desired chemical transformations.

A comprehensive review of pioneering experimental and computational methods for exploring molecular transport in metal–organic frameworks.

Time resolved fluorescence follows reaction dynamics in real-time. Study of reaction which are sensitive to their environment allowed the effect of confinement to be observed and studied.

Entrapment of molecules within carbon nanotubes allows investigation of their redox properties in confinement, leading to materials with high electrochemical activity and durability, and with their electrochemical properties at nanoscale still to be fully understood.

Polymers in nanoconfined geometries have their properties altered by the presence of interfaces. Gradients in local glass transition and related properties near different types of interfaces are compared and contrasted.

On-surface synthesized atomically precise graphene nanoribbons are promising candidates for use in future devices. This article reviews atomically precise graphene nanoribbons, in particular focusing on their electronic properties.

This review surveys the application of single molecule fluorescence imaging in understanding the nanoconfinement effect in porous materials, with a focus on the mass transport behaviors and reaction dynamics during the heterogeneous catalysis.

The confinement of phosphines within micro- or nano-environments influences not only their behaviour but also that of their metal complexes. The influence of environment on this reactivity is reviewed and future challenges identified.

This review applies a holistic approach for recognizing a pattern in the photophysics–structure relationship of chromophore in porous crystalline matrices.

This review provides a comprehensive overview of the electronic effects of nano-confinement (from 1D to 3D geometries) on optoelectronic materials and their applications.

This tutorial review highlights the role of nanoconfinement in selecting for orientations and polymorphs of organic semiconductor crystals that are optimized for optoelectronic processes, including charge transport and light emission.

Lateral confinement at the nanoscale impacts the kinetics and thermodynamics of on-surface self-assembly, enabling fundamental insights in the assembly process as well as control over network morphology and reaction products.