Themed collection Nanoscale Horizons 10th anniversary regional spotlight collection: Africa and the Middle East

Integrative “experiment–simulation–thermodynamic modeling” is highly demanded for qualitatively and quantitatively correlating the ionic liquids interface layer structuring to the overall properties, performance, and function.

Polysaccharides (PSA) have taken specific position among biomaterials for advanced applications in medicine.

This work reviews the recent advancements of microneedle-based cell therapies, which have been shown to be promising for regeneration therapy, cancer immunotherapy, skin immune monitoring, and targeted cell delivery.

Looking at the science and production methods of group 6 transition metal dichalcogenide (MoS₂, WSe₂, etc.) nanomaterials from the viewpoint of technological applications.

Over the past ten years, self-aligned TiO₂ nanotubes have attracted tremendous interest due to their anticipated impact on energy conversion, environment remediation and biocompatibility. We review the fundamental principles that govern their self-organized initiation and illustrate the mechanistic aspects that lead to tube growth.

We show that H⁺ irradiation significantly enhances the reduction of antiferromagnetic NiO into ferromagnetic Ni due to hydrogen's strong chemical affinity for oxygen. The selective removal of oxygen enables the formation of a high-purity Ni layer.

Neuromorphic computing based on spin–orbit torque driven domain wall (DW) devices is promising for energy-efficient computation. This study demonstrates energy efficient operations of DW neurons and synapses by novel reading and writing strategies.

2D materials, given their form-factor, high surface-to-volume ratio, and chemical functionality have immense use in sensor design.

Cu₂Se single crystals are synthesized to demonstrate that Cu ion vacancies can create an order within the crystals which leads to a metal–insulator transition, accompanied by six-orders of magnitude resistivity and optical contrast change.

An injectable hydrogel was designed to reinforce cancer immunotherapy by regulating CXCL10 degradation to amplify tumor T cell infiltration and inactivating PD-L1 to eliminate the PD-L1-governed immune evasion.

The development of carbon-based reverse osmosis membranes for water desalination is hindered by challenges in achieving a high pore density and controlling the pore size.

Wearable displays or head-mounted displays (HMDs) have the ability to create a virtual image in the field of view of one or both eyes.

Multiplexed imaging of 8 molecular targets with SERS nanoprobes in mice reveals spatially heterogeneous tumor responses to immunotherapy. Multichannel image segmentation enables classification of the tumor regions into responders and naïve.

Understanding and controlling the orbital alignment of molecules placed between electrodes is essential in the design of practically-applicable nanoscale electronic devices.

Single atomic Fe–N_x moieties have shown great performance in CO₂-to-CO conversion.

Chemically manipulated silicon diffraction gratings serve as a toolbox for the systematic investigation on how different material properties guide bacterial attachment onto a surface, which is imperative for mediating infections and biofouling.

STM measurements and DFT calculations to study 3 bi-thermoelectric endohedral metallofullerenes, benchmarked against C₆₀, show that the fluctuations in S are correlated with the charge inhomogeneity and the geometrical disorder within the junction.

Scanning photocurrent microscopy is used to measure plasmon-enhanced photoresponse of single Ag nanowires and their network devices. Results presented here may enable fabrication of low-cost all-metallic photosensitive devices.

A direction-multiplexed visible metahologram is proposed. We demonstrate monolayer direction-controlled multiplexing of a transmission type metasurface hologram made of hydrogenated amorphous silicon in the visible domain.

Bilayer WSe₂ nuclei were initially grown along the atomic steps of a sapphire substrate, resembling a “graphoepitaxial mechanism” and gradually formed into overlapped 2H stacked WSe₂ bilayers.

Protein corona sensor array technology identifies diseases through specific proteomics pattern recognition.

Nanoparticles (MIPs) specifically detect and target senescent cells by binding to a surface protein, showing also specificity in vivo.

Integration of both n-type and p-type MoS₂ fin-shaped field effect transistors by using a traditional implantation technique for complementary field effect transistor is demonstrated. The complementary MoS₂ inverter with high DC voltage gain of more than 20 is acquired.

Expanded interlayer spacing and additionally exposed edges induced by defects of MoS₂ enable facile K-intercalation, rapid K-transport and promoted K-adsorption.

Addition of water increases the DES interfacial nanostructure up to ∼40 wt%. This differs starkly from ionic liquids, where addition of small amounts of water rapidly decreases the interfacial nanostructure.

Graphdiyne with a highly π-conjugated structure of sp- and sp²-hybridized carbon networks serves as a superior carbon additive to boost the activity of water oxidation catalysts.