Themed collection Recent Review Articles

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.

This review highlights the potential of solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SIE) technology to simultaneously produce clean water and extract valuable ions from water, addressing both water scarcity and resource recovery challenges.

This review explores the potential of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) as a solution to mitigate the voltage deficits in tin perovskite solar cells (TPSCs).

This review highlights the advancements in flexible silicon-based photovoltaics, photodetectors, and bio-interfaced electronics, identifying key design principles through control of geometry, morphology, and composition.

This article provides an overview of the advancements in atmospheric water collection driven by solar energy. The roles of materials, surfaces, equipment, and systems in enhancing water collection efficiency are discussed.

This review includes synthetic methods, characterization techniques, electronic structure-regulating strategies, and electromagnetic wave absorption applications of high-entropy materials.

This review provides a summary of the latest advancements in sulfide solid-state electrolytes for all-solid-state sodium batteries. It emphasizes the various preparation methods, modification strategies, and enhancements in interfacial stability.

Polarization-sensitive photodetectors based on two-dimensional (2D) materials have garnered significant research attention owing to their distinctive architectures and exceptional photophysical properties.

The applications and performance enhancement strategies of Ni_xP_y with different crystal phases in the field of electrocatalysis are discussed.

This review provides a systematic review and perspective of the challenges and opportunities in scaling memristive hardware for spiking neural networks (SNNs), focusing on device innovations, system integration, and algorithm-hardware co-design.

This review summarized lignin/lignocellulose materials for various 3D printing techniques and their related applications, where lignin is used in an isolated state, as part of lignocellulose biomass or chemically modified to better bind with a matrix.

An overview of the MENP biological applications discussed in this paper, which have the potential to form theranostic systems in the treatment of various diseases.

This review elucidates the use of carbon-based nanomaterials of varying dimensions in the diagnosis and therapy of Alzheimer's disease, grounded on several pathogenic theories of AD, while also outlining present problems and future potential.

Functional catalytic materials play an important role in environmental, biological, energy, and other fields, wherein unique properties can be endowed through various synthesis strategies.

Various muscle-like hydrogels that emerged in recent years exhibit rapid and isochoric deformations upon stimulations. This minireview summarizes the development of muscle-like hydrogels, their unique mechanisms, and applications as soft robots.

Nanointerfacial bioengineering of titanium-based implants with synthetic technologies could improve their osseointegration, showing promise to enhance interfacial osteogenesis, preventing peri-implant infection and overcome osteodegenerative stress.

The supramolecular self-assembly of peptides offers a promising avenue for both materials science and biological applications.

This review covers recent advancements and future directions in 2DM-based devices for in-sensor computing, focusing on unique physical mechanisms for sensory responses, biomimetic synaptic features, and potential applications.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) functionalized with carbohydrates offer promising biocompatible systems for biomedical applications. This review discusses recent progress and challenges in using these innovative “sweet” composites.

This review comprehensively summarizes all available strategies for predicting phonon transport properties and explores how AI-based approaches can enhance traditional methods.

A review on the modification methods, types of modifiers, and performance improvement of wood–inorganic composites.

This review discusses commonly used semiconductor photocatalytic antibacterial materials, methods for improving their photocatalysis performance and their application for bone infection treatment.

This review summarizes recent interfacial strategies for DLP 3D printing process optimization from the view of interfacial interactions between solid and liquid phases which are influenced by resin formation, curing surfaces and light sources.

The review examines the recent progress in gas sensors with different perovskite structures and offers suggestions for future research.

This review comprehensively covers the translation from batch to continuous flow synthesis of metal nanowires (i.e., silver, copper, gold, and platinum nanowires) and their diverse applications across various sectors.

The successful construction of objective sensors needs to focus on the theoretical elaboration of sensing mechanisms and practical applications for on-site monitoring antibiotics.

This review focuses on the synthesis of quantum dots, film deposition techniques, and their application across various functional layers in perovskite solar cells, elucidating the mechanisms by which quantum dots enhance photovoltaic performance.

Molecular composites, such as bone and nacre, are everywhere in nature and play crucial roles, ranging from self-defense to carbon sequestration.

This review systematically examines the structural features, fabrication techniques, and applications of porous polymers, as well as their interrelationships, to serve as a guide for researchers.

Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) is a breakthrough technology in biomedicine.

Epitaxially combining oxide layers can create new functionalities surpassing those of separate parent materials. This review highlights the unique structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of γ-Al₂O₃/SrTiO₃, revealing the underlying mechanisms.

This review highlights the functions of layered double hydroxide-modified bismuth vanadate photoanodes in solar water splitting. Future outlook on the photoanode is also summarized.

Noble metal-based oxide electrocatalysts are essential for the development of H₂ production technology by water electrolysis, and this review summarises the recent research progress of noble metal oxides in the field of water electrolysis.

NRCAs: an effective substitute for metal-based MRI contrast agents.

This paper reviews the historical development of MAX-phase materials, fabrication techniques for MAX-phase coatings, their protective performance and functional characteristics, and provides an outlook on future trends of MAX-phase coatings.

This review introduces area selective deposition and highlights recent contributions toward understanding and developing robust ASD processes.

Infection is the most prevalent complication of fractures, particularly in open fractures, and often leads to severe consequences.

p–n heterojunctions between 2D layered materials and organic molecules have been developed for better understanding of photoinduced charge separation mechanism and optoelectronics applications (e.g., solar cells).

This review highlights advancements in the thermal management of graphene-based polymer composites, emphasizing material selection, preparation, modification, structural design, and innovative applications.

Atomic point contact structures are constructed by the electric field-driven nanoionics technique to achieve stable and adjustable quantum conductance states for various applications.

Thermally tailoring dielectric genes are proposed for tuning electromagnetic properties of graphene hybrids. Dielectric genetic engineering is utilized to design diversified graphene hybrids, which can be tuned in extreme temperature environments.

Acquiring robust 2D material-based thin films entails root analysis of the multiple parameters affecting their mechanical performance. This work reviews the different factors impacting the mechanical properties of thin films composed of 2D materials.

Non-collinear chiral antiferromagnets display strong magneto-transport signatures, while their octupole moment can be controlled and read fully electrically, making them useful in classical, neuromorphic, and quantum information processing domains.

Olfactory memory forms the basis for biological perception and environmental adaptation.

Oligonucleotide-based targeted therapy has emerged as a breakthrough in medicine, offering treatments for various diseases. We review the hybridisation-dependent off-target effects of therapeutic oligonucleotides, and the DNA nanotechnology-based strategies designed to mitigate these interactions.

Cell membrane-coated nanoparticles (CMCNPs) offer targeted and effective treatment for chronic inflammatory conditions by mimicking natural cell interactions and enhancing immune evasion.

This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current theoretical understanding and design strategies of MXene materials in the aqueous electrochemical energy storage systems field.

This review paper provides an overview of the fabrication, properties and optoelectronic applications of nanowire heterodimensional structures including nanowire/quantum well, nanowire/quantum dot, and nanowire/2D-material.

Intermetallic compound (IMC) catalysts have garnered significant attention due to their unique surface and electronic properties, which can lead to enhanced catalytic performance compared to traditional monometallic catalysts.

This review explores recent advancements in inorganic medicinal nanoarchitectonics, emphasizing their pivotal role in drug delivery, bioimaging, targeted therapy, diagnostics, and the potential for future innovations in these domains.

This review analyzes the latest advances in the field of design of single atom catalysts (SACs) for various industrially relevant organic transformation reactions along with the challenges in the field and their possible counter measures.