Introduction to ‘Nanomaterials for a sustainable future: from materials to devices and systems’

Guohua Jia

Guohua Jia is an associate professor at Curtin University, Australia. His research interests focus on the chemistry and physics of colloidal nanocrystals, with a particular emphasis on their shape-dependent properties and application in catalysis and optoelectronic devices. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI), Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow, ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow and serves as the chair of the Materials Chemistry division of the RACI since March 2024.

Hongxia Wang

Hongxia Wang is a professor and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellow at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her main research interest is on the development of new routes for low-cost solar cells and energy storage devices with current research focusing on perovskite solar cells, supercapacitors, batteries and their integrated devices. She was the recipient of several prestigious fellowships, including the ARC Laureate Fellowship (2024), ARC Future Fellowship (2012) and ARC Postdoctoral Fellow (industry, 2007).

Xuyong Yang

Xuyong Yang is a professor at Shanghai University, China. He joined Shanghai University in 2015 and is currently a full professor of the Key Laboratory of Advanced Display and System Applications, Ministry of Education at Shanghai University. His research focuses primarily on the design and fabrication of low dimensional luminescent semiconductor nanomaterials, such as quantum dots and perovskites, as well as their application in light-emitting devices.

Lina Quan

Lina Quan is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in the US. Her research centers on exploring the optical and electronic properties of emerging organic–inorganic hybrid semiconductors, with a focus on advancing their applications in next-generation photonic and electronic technologies. She has been selected for the NSF Early Career Award (2025), DOE Early Career Award (2024), was an RCSA Scialog Fellow (2021–2023) and has been recognized as a highly cited researcher (2019–2024).

Yun Liu

Yun Liu is an applied materials chemist. She is an Australian National University Distinguished Professor, ARC Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellow, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. Her pioneering research focuses on multiscale defects and crystal chemistry, functional materials and device applications. She is internationally renowned for her application of complex materials chemistry to design new materials and achieve novel properties and functions for new generation electronic technology, emerging quantum technology, energy and the environment. She has served as chair of the Materials Chemistry division of the RACI, and President of the Australian Nuetron Beam Users Group (ANBUG).

As modern society's demand for energy continues to grow, the development of nanomaterials with tailored properties for use in energy conversion and storage systems, reducing energy consumption while generating and storing energy, is becoming increasingly important. With advancement in synthesis methods and theoretical simulations of nanomaterials, attention has been turned to the study of how to rationally design, synthesize, and integrate nanomaterials into energy devices, and ultimately, how to increase performance of devices such as solar cells, batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, light-emitting diodes and photodetectors and their integrated systems, to tackle real global challenges. This new themed collection in Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Nanoscale, captures the cutting-edge innovations in nanomaterials synthesis, simulation, device fabrication, and system integration, that are driving this field forward. The scope of this collection loosely aligns with the 1st Australian Materials Chemistry Conference (AMCC23), held in Fremantle, Western Australia in November 2023. This conference witnessed the participation of about 200 scientists at all levels from various countries, and was one of the most influential conferences in the area of materials chemistry in Australia. Supported by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the programs of this conference covered a wide area under the umbrella of ‘materials chemistry’.

The research topics covered included: multifunctional materials for electronics, optics and biomedicine, quantum materials for optoelectronics, energy materials for catalysis, CO₂ reduction, batteries, hydrogen and solar energy conversion, density functional theory simulation and molecular dynamic simulation and modelling in mechanistic studies of nanomaterials, and machine learning in the rational design and materials screening, and advanced characterization methods for materials. This collection brings together the latest research from the attendees of the conference and other researchers across the world who are working in the aforementioned areas. Research articles and reviews of the collection are broadly classified into nanomaterials for many stimulating applications in energy production and storage, rechargeable batteries, sensing, light-emitting diodes, pollutant removal and degradation, CO₂ reduction, and bioimaging, especially in optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting diodes and solar cells.

A large portion of this collection is focusing on recharging batteries using nanocomposites. Cai et al. doped vanadium (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA08073D) and nickel ions (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA03739A) into metal oxides which acted as an anode to boost the performance of lithium-ion batteries; whereas Sun et al. incorporated FeSiF₆ to promote the stability of the anode materials (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA02532F). Other metal-ion batteries including sodium and zinc ions were reported by Wu et al. (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA06069E) and Chen et al. (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA04112G) who employed Na₄MnV(PO₄)₃ and ammonium vanadate nanoflowers, respectively, to improve the capacities of these rechargeable metal-ion batteries. Pradhan et al. demonstrated nanocomposites containing Pt nanoparticles, ZnO and carbon quantum dots are promising trifunctional electrocatalysts for both methanol fuel cells and zinc–air batteries (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA05630B).

This collection also showcases a handful of research that uses nanoparticles for hydrogen production and storage. Li et al. optimized the reaction kinetics of hydrogen production in the full pH range using Pt-decorated Ni₃S₂/MoS₂ nanorod arrays; while Ruiz-Santacruz et al. used Mg₂Ni composites with carbon nanofibers for hydrogen storage, which provide insights into the effect of nanosizing on hydriding reactions (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4NR01725K).

Another interesting section of this collection is related to pollutant removal and degradation using nanocomposites as the photocatalysts. Feng et al. developed a molten salt-assisted synthesis approach to prepare N-doped biochar for degrading acetaminophen (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA07221A), whereas Chen et al. utilized amorphous carbon coated on carbon textiles, as the photocatalysts to degrade dye wastewater (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA07813F).

In addition to the aforementioned applications, nanomaterials are also excelling in optoelectronic devices including light-emitting diodes, transistor and solar cells. Yang et al. gave an insightful review on the most recent advances in direct optical lithography of nanomaterials (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA06618A). Ma et al. developed a new approach using in situ amino alcohol hybrid ZnMgO nanoparticles to reduce exciton quenching at the quantum dots/electron transfer layer interface and enhance electron injection of blue ZnSeTe quantum dots (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4NR01515K) while Sun et al. used ZnMgO/PEDOT:PSS as the interconnecting layer to fabricate tandem quantum dot light-emitting diodes with an EQE exceeding 35% (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TC01175A). He et al. passivated the surface of perovskite films using 4-aminophenyl sulfone to increase the stability and external quantum efficiency of perovskite solar cells (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA01039F).

This themed collection is dedicated to showcasing some of the latest advancements in all aspects of materials chemistry for nanomaterials. We are delighted to highlight these exciting and timely research advances, and sincerely hope this collection could act as a catalyst to inspire more fascinating and excellent future research.

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