Themed collection Nanoscale Horizons 10th anniversary regional spotlight collection: The Americas

We present an overview of the opportunities provided by bimetallic core–shell nanocrystals, followed by a discussion of the challenges and promising solutions regarding the elucidation of the true surface composition and its dynamics.

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.

The cross-fertilisation between the listed disciplines with a long standing knowledge on the application of artificial intelligence protocols and electron microscopy for materials science can entail the next breakthroughs in the field.

The applications of electrospun nanofiber in cancer research, including cancer models, drug delivery, and cancer diagnostics, are reviewed. The current barriers to and the outlook for clinical translation of these applications are discussed.

Nano-scale interactions are key to understand the SARS-CoV-2 infectious potential and bio–nano sciences can provide hints on viral particles behaviour.

Nanochitin and nanochitosan are nanowhiskers combining the structural strength of nanocellulose with the versatile chemistry of chitin/chitosan. We review their fabrication, properties and uses, with a focus on recent progress.

Rare-earth based nanoparticles, Group-IV nanostructures, and novel quantum dots in the near-infrared (NIR) spotlight: current trends, material merits, and latest developments in NIR-to-NIR bioimaging.

We studied the exciton delocalization of indodicarbocyanine 5 dye derivative (Cy5-R) heterodimers templated by a DNA Holliday junction (HJ), which was quantified by the exciton hopping parameter J_m,n.

Single-atom metal embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon show high HER performance, with Co-NAC reaching 200 mA cm⁻² at 310 mV overpotential.

The present study demonstrates that albumin-coated drug nanocrystals represent a highly efficacious novel approach for the controlled intracellular release of drugs with limited solubility in immune cells.

Freestanding monolayer CrOCl nanosheet obtained via chemical exfoliation for the first time.

One-step synthesis of TiO₂ nanocrystals described in this study allows the density of oxygen vacancies to be controlled by 2 orders of magnitude and yields homogeneously distributed vacancies with stable optical properties in oxidizing environments.

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

We report a novel synthetic approach combining laser-scribing and calcination to make a pseudocapacitive V₂O₅/laser-scribed graphene composite. The unconventional synthesis gives rise to high-performance.

High-entropy germanides (AuAgCuPdPtGe and FeCoNiCrVGe) were synthesized via a rapid thermal annealing. The formation and growth mechanisms were investigated using in situ heating XRD and TEM.

Theoretical calculations predict the formation of phonon vortices at heavy impurities in two-dimensional materials. The vortex morphology depends on the impurity mass and the local symmetry of the defect.

Molecular charge transfer doping affords widely tunable carrier density and conductivity in s-SWCNTs (and OSCs in general), however, a pervasive challenge for such systems is reliable measurement of charge carrier density and mobility.

At low carboxylate concentrations the sulfur source is highly reactive thiourea, which gives rise to sulfur rich nanoparticles. At high carboxylate concentrations, the sulfur source is the less reactive thiocyanate, resulting in sulfur poor phases.

In this paper, we report the use of phosphinecarboxamide as a convenient, air and moisture tolerant group-V precursor for the simple synthesis of InP-based quantum dots.

Biolayer interferometry is used to distinguish between glycoforms of the same using lectin-functional nanoparticles as both readers, and signal enhancers. The use of this is exemplified with prostate specific antigen.

We report the proof-of-concept design of interfacial sites with a selectivity-governing and hydrogen evolution reaction-suppressing domain (Bi) and an electrokinetic-promoting domain (Cu₂S) for efficient CO₂ electroreduction to formate.

The memristor is a promising candidate to implement high-density memory and neuromorphic computing.

An immunostimulatory nanoparticle was specifically designed to boost the local innate immune compartment of brain tumors leading to a robust antitumor immune response.

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

18 monolayer metals have superior oxidation resistance, wide bandgap, high carrier mobility and notable absorption in the ultraviolet region.

Control of the electronic properties of 2D transition material carbides by replacing the outer Ti layers in Ti₃C₂T_x with Mo, creating Mo₂TiC₂T_x.