This review celebrates the width and depth of electron microscopy methods and how these have enabled massive research efforts on MXenes. MXenes constitute a powerful recent addition to 2-dimensional materials, derived from their parent family of nanolaminated materials known as MAX phases. Owing to their rich chemistry, MXenes exhibit properties that have revolutionized ranges of applications, including

MXenes are two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides with unique intrinsic properties, including excellent electrical conductivity, 2D sheet morphology, lightweight, flexibility, tunable surface chemistry, and easy solution processability, thus attracting considerable attention as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials. In this review, we demonstrate

Biomaterial-assisted gene therapy is a promising strategy for the treatment of various musculoskeletal disorders such as those concerning the articular cartilage, bones, tendons and ligaments, and meniscus as it can deliver candidate gene sequences in a spatially and temporally controlled manner in sites of tissue damage over prolonged periods of time that may be required to durably enhance the specific

MXenes are a relatively new and exciting class of two-dimensional materials, which offer a wide range of compositions and excellent properties including ease of dispersibility and metallic conductivity. These properties render them promising candidates for use as fillers in polymer nanocomposites. Herein, we review how MXene processing methods, their volume fraction, and their incorporation into polymer

In the big data era, Si chips are integrated more and more to satisfy the fast growing demand from customers. In addition, in the post-COVID-19 virus era, the trend of distance teaching and home office has increased greatly the need of advanced consumer electronic products. To provide more processing tolerance and to build a wider temperature window in manufacturing, it becomes necessary to develop

Latent fingerprint development plays an important role in forensic sciences. In the last two decades, various fluorescent nanomaterials have been used to develop latent fingerprints, of which rare earth ion–doped upconversion nanomaterials (UCNMs) are outstanding examples. The use of UCNMs is advantageous for several reasons, including high contrast due to the strong fluorescence signal and negligible

High-entropy ceramics (HECs) have rapidly expanded from high-entropy oxides to high-entropy ultrahigh temperature ceramics/coatings and have drawn extensive attention in the field of ceramics. In addition, high-entropy thermoelectric materials focus on the topic of energy, which is another major driving force to accelerate the development of HECs. In this review, the recent progress on the design and

Catalytic oxidation of CO can remove toxic pollutants from gas emissions, whereas the reduction of CO2 can provide feedstock for fossil free products. Using density functional theory with a Hubbard U correction (DFT + U), the reduction of CO2 into CO is investigated on a reconstructed CeO2−x(110) facet at operatingsolid oxide electrolysis conditions. A reaction pathway is identified with nudged elastic

Nanocomposite materials are widely studied because of their unique design opportunities and properties. They can be classified into three main groups in function of the matrix used: polymer-based, ceramic-based, and metal-based nanocomposites. The nanofiller choice is one of the most important steps because it will improve the nanocomposite properties. This review focuses on boron nitride as nanofiller

Vertically aligned magnetic nanostructures embedded in oxide matrices are an attractive framework for exploring anisotropic properties with potential applications in devices such as magnetic tunnel junctions. Magnetic response can easily be tuned through the growth of self-assembled ferromagnetic nanostructures in oxide-metal nanocomposite thin films. Here, oxide-metal (La0.5Sr0.5FeO3)1-x:Fex (LSFO1-x:Fex)

The Zintl phase Ca14AlBi11 has been synthesized and structurally characterized for the first time. Its crystal structure has been carefully determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods, and shown to crystallize in the tetragonal space group I41/acd, No. 142 (Z = 8). Not surprisingly, Ca14AlBi11 adopts the Ca14AlSb11-structure type, although Ca14AlBi11 is the first alumo-bismuthide among the

Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) are widely studied because of their promising potential for ultrahigh-temperature applications. One key challenge towards the development of RHEAs as high-temperature structural materials is to concurrently achieve optimum oxidation resistance and mechanical properties. Here in this work, the effect of alloying on the oxidation behavior of ductile RHEAs was studied

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) have attracted great research interest due to their potential application in electronics, optoelectronics, electrocatalysis, and so on. To satisfy expectations, high-quality materials with designed structures are highly desired through the controlled growth of TMDC. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) offers facile control in synthesizing 2D

Among various mechanisms responsible for the strength-ductility trade-off in metallic materials, the leading strategy is to delay the onset of necking by improving the work hardening rate via a number of metallurgical approaches such as heterogeneous or gradient microstructures. Recent research activities on high-entropy alloys also witness a wide range of alloy design capabilities that permit these

SnBiInZn-based high-entropy alloy (HEA) was studied as a low reflow temperature solder with melting point around 80 °C. The wetting angle is about 52° after reflow at 100 °C for 10 min. The intermetallic compound (IMC) growth kinetics was measured to be ripening-control with a low activation energy about 18.0 kJ/mol; however, the interfacial reaction rate is very slow, leading to the formation of a

Chemical/gas sensors are playing and will play a crucial role in smart building, smart houses, environmental monitoring, food quality monitoring and in the customization of personalized medicine, as they allow a constant data collection to monitor all the parameters needed for a preventive intervention related to health and wealth of human beings together with the environment. Nanowires (NWs) and NW-based

Taking advantages of aqueous electrolytes such as high safety, ease of fabrication, and high ion conductivity, a series of aqueous batteries have been reported, including lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, zinc-ion batteries, aluminum-ion batteries, and novel batteries such as ammonium batteries. They realize energy storage via the repeated (de)intercalation of charge carriers or conversion

Biological protein-based fibers are widely investigated in biological and biomedical fields owing to their advantages of lightweight, strong mechanical performance, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. So far, the mass production of natural protein-based silks is restricted by the limited sources and high cost. To fabricate high-performance fibers, it is highly desired to introduce cheap and easily

Aviation and automobile industries demand high strength, fatigue resistant, and wear-resistant materials in combination with lightweight, especially for structural applications. On the other hand, biomedical applications demand materials with low modulus and stiffness for optimized implants better matching the modulus of human bone combined with enhanced strength and wear resistance. For all the aforementioned

Quasi-one-dimensional nanoribbons (NRs) are promising candidate materials for flexible optoelectronics with high device density. The optical properties of nanomaterials are strongly influenced by excitons, and it is important for flexible devices to explore how excitons behave under strain. In this work, we investigate the electronic and excitonic properties of bent black phosphorus (BP) NRs via density-functional

The lack of efficient electrocatalysts has been a main obstacle for the large-scale commercialization of CO2 electroreduction. In this work, we demonstrate that two-dimensional (2D) β-PdBi2 monolayer is a promising solution for this issue. β-PdBi2 monolayer is a stable 2D crystal, and the three-dimensional bulk interlayer energy is similar as for other layered materials that can be exfoliated into

There has been a recent surge in the use of cryo and/or vacuum specimen preparation and transfer systems to broaden the scope of research enabled by the microscopy technique of atom probe tomography. This is driven by the fact that, as for many microscopes, the application of atom probes to air- and temperature-sensitive materials or wet biological specimens has previously been limited by transfer

As a newcomer to the family of two-dimensional (2D) material, 2D metals and alloys have seen rapid development in recent years because of their unique physical and chemical properties. Unlike freestanding atomistically thin 2D materials, such as graphene, the synthesis of 2D metals and alloys has been focused on either atomistically thin films under nanoscale geometric confinements or freestanding

Conducting polymers have attracted tremendous attention because of their unique characteristics, such as metal-like conductivity, ionic conductivity, optical transparency, and mechanical flexibility. Texture and nanostructural engineering of conjugated conducting polymers provide an outstanding pathway to facilitate their adoption in a variety of technological applications, including energy storage

The static mechanical properties of conventional rigid and emerging soft electronics offer robust handling and interfacing mechanisms and highly compliant and adapting structures, respectively, but limit their functionalities and versatility. Mechanically transformative electronics systems (TESs) have extensive potential applications beyond these existing electronics technology owing to their ability

Hydrogels possess exceptional physical and chemical properties that render them appealing components for soft actuators, wearable technologies, healthcare devices, and human interactive robots. Especially, the stimuli-responsive hydrogels can sense and perform smart functions in the presence of various stimuli that collectively contribute to the intelligence of the soft machine systems. Furthermore

Given good safety, low cost, and environmental friendliness, rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are considered as a more feasible solution for grid-scale applications than Li-ion batteries. The availability of suitable cathode materials to store Zn2+ is a prerequisite to realize high-performance aqueous ZIBs. However, due to the high polarization of bivalent Zn2+, Zn-host cathode materials

Water electrolysis in neutral media has attracted concerted research efforts because of its practical applications including microbial electrolysis of wastewater and large-scale hydrogen generation by direct electrolysis of seawater. Because the corrosion of electrochemical devices is effectively reduced in neutral environments, the associated cost is consequently lowered. In this context, two-dimensional

Electrocatalytic water splitting is considered as the next-generation strategy for large-scale ultrapure hydrogen production. However, the high thermodynamic potential (1.23 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode) and slow kinetics of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) restrict the wide application of electrocatalytic water splitting. Replacing OER by hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) with

Topology and magnetism are both very classical subjects of condensed matter physics, and chiral helimagnets with topological spin textures provide new pathways to explore them together. In parallel, two-dimensional (2D) materials with ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order have aroused raising research attention. However, 2D materials with helimagnetic order or with topological spin configurations

Metallic glasses (MGs) with amorphous structures and tunable compositions have been considered excellent structural and functional materials, especially in the frontier fields of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), biomedical engineering, energy conversion, etc. Making these materials into desired structures for different applications has always been one of the research focuses in the past decades

The layered materials, two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have attracted increasing attention because of their unique properties in the atomic structures, bandgaps, electronic properties, electrochemistry activities, and the potential applications in devices. Till now, most research has focused on the group VIB metal TMDs, like molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and tungsten disulfide

Electrochemical energy storage (EES) plays an important role in personal electronics, electrified vehicles, and smart grid. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and supercapacitors (SCs) are two of the most important EES devices that have been widely used in our daily life. The energy density of LIBs is heavily dependent on the electrode capacity, in which the charge storage proceeds mainly in three different

Recently, multilayered WSe2 patterns consisting of a mixture of curved and linear edge segments and a mixture of cusps and apices have been obtained by combining chemical vapor deposition growth and etching. The underlying mechanisms and kinetics of the formation of such fascinating patterns, however, remain elusive. Here, we formulate a kinetic Monte Carlo model aiming at revealing the etching mechanisms

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites as promising light-harvesting materials have been the focus of scientific research and development of photovoltaics recently. Especially, metal halide perovskites currently become one of the most competitive candidates for the fabrication of solar cells with record certified efficiency over 25%. Despite the high efficiency, many fundamental questions remain unclear

Au core and Pd shell supported on carbon structure Au@Pd/C can cleave the C–C bond of ethanol molecules leading to the production of a relatively high amount of CO2 when compared with Pd/C electrocatalyst as the attenuated total reflectance - Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) experiment shows. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations showed that this could be explained by the oxidation of CO

Triple-negative breast cancers are extremely aggressive with limited treatment options because of the reduced response of the cancerous cells to hormonal therapy. Here, monodispersed zinc-containing mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs-Zn) were produced as a tuneable biodegradable platform for delivery of therapeutic zinc ions into cells. We demonstrate that the nanoparticles were internalized by

van der Waals heterojunctions (vdWHs) formed between 2D materials have attracted tremendous attention in recent years owing to their exceptional electronic and physical properties, such as formation of superlattice and intriguing electronic coupling at the interface. These unique properties promise various novel applications, for example, in electronics and optoelectronics. More recently, vdWHs have

Photoswitching dynamics of common organic photoisomers in solid state are often reduced compared to the solution state due to the close packing of molecules that limits structural changes. The facile solid-state switching of photoisomers has implications in developing novel light-controlled devices such as actuator, field-effect transistor, and photodetector, as well as photon energy storage materials

Sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) are considered as promising alternatives to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) especially in large-scale energy storage systems of renewable energy owing to their potentially low production cost. In view of the larger ionic size of Na ions than Li ions, the commercial graphite anode in LIBs is not suitable for NIBs. To achieve NIBs with a high energy density, various anode materials

Iron pyrite (FeS2) exhibits dynamic thermal stability and represents an ideal model system to probe complex phase transformations in materials. At elevated temperatures, the sublimation of S atoms from the FeS2 lattice results in a phase transformation to one of the many polymorphic forms of pyrrhotite, i.e., from Fe1-XS (where 0 ≤ X < 0.2) to stoichiometric FeS. The complex nature of this phase transformation