As research efforts into the two-dimensional (2D) materials continue to mature, finding applications in which they can be productively used has become of greater interest. Applications in the energy sector are of particular importance, with the pressing need to decarbonize our economy and to live more sustainably. For a material to be optimal for an application we typically tailor their specific properties

Despite many advances in cancer treatment, cancer still remains a major global health problem owing to its high rate of recurrence, the tendency to metastasize, and the development of drug resistance. In addition to animal models, cancer researchers can employ in vitro tumor models to mimic in vivo tumor microenvironment with the purpose of discovering new therapeutic approaches. In order to engineer

The high tendency of montmorillonite (MMT) or carbon nanotube (CNT) agglomeration makes their uniform dispersion as reinforcements in biopolymer a great challenge. Herein, CNT was acidified to produce carboxylic groups and then grafted with aminopropyltriethoxysilane (KH550) followed by reacting with glacial acetic acid, which introduced ammonium salt onto the surface of CNT. The ammonium salt-grafted

Graphene-based materials have been extensively investigated in the energy-related applications owing to their unique properties, such as high conductivity and mechanical flexibility. Three-dimensional (3D) graphene architectures could further strengthen their performance and facilitate the applications in energy storage. To fabricate 3D graphene architectures, the rapidly developed 3D printing technology

Since a couple of years ago, Y6 has emerged as one of the main non-fullerene acceptors for organic solar cells, as its use leads to superior power conversion efficiencies. It is thus of major interest to investigate the multiscale phenomena that are responsible for Y6's efficacy. Here, we modeled neat films of Y6 and earlier non-fullerene acceptors, IT-4F and ITIC, using a combination of density functional

In addition to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease 2019, many pathogenic bacteria have also been posing a devastating threat to human health. The overuse of antibiotics leads to the emergence of ‘superbugs’; therefore, it is urgent to develop effective strategies to fight bacteria. Herein, a superparamagnetic nickel (Ni) colloidal nanocrystal clusters (SNCNCs) that can kill and capture bacteria

Metallic delafossites are fascinating layered materials with exceptionally high electrical conductivity and surface polarity. The high conductivity is produced by the two-dimensional Pd and Pt conductive layers stabilized in a layered oxide framework. In this review, I will discuss the current status of thin-film growth and application prospects of metallic delafossites. Thin-film growth will enable

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had caused a severe depletion of the worldwide supply of N95 respirators. The development of methods to effectively decontaminate N95 respirators while maintaining their integrity is crucial for respirator regeneration and reuse. In this study, we systematically evaluated five respirator decontamination methods using vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP)

Ceramics are key components of life, forming elaborate and diverse structures found in coccolith, shells, skeletons, and teeth. In materials research, however, one generally finds ceramics difficult to process because of their high hardness and melting points. How organisms effortlessly build stunning ceramic architectures, in water and at mild temperature, remains a long-standing mystery to scientists

Shape memory alloy undergoing reversible martensitic transformation is an important class of metallic functional materials. In the past two decades, the development of shape memory alloys enables great advances in biomedical devices, microelectronics, and energy conversions. As the application scales of these devices get smaller and smaller, it is very critical to understand and tune the mechanical

Simple one-step synthesis of LiMn0.5Ni0.3Co0.2O2 thin film on Al-doped ZnO transparent current collector has been achieved and integrated on regular glass substrates using a pulsed laser deposition technique. The crystal structure, texture properties, film morphology, and electrochemical properties are compared before and after galvanostatic cycling process. The Al-doped ZnO current collector shows

Herein we report an approach to synthesis Ti3AlC2 MAX phase and Ti3C2Tz MXene from low-cost precursors, viz. recycled carbon recovered from waste tire, recycled aluminum scrap, and titanium oxide. By adjusting the ratios of the initial materials, we determined that 3TiO2+6Al+1.9C resulted in the purest sample of Ti3AlC2 when heated at 1,350 °C for 1 h. The MXene phase was synthesized by modified minimally

We have implemented three different optical methods to quantitatively assess the thickness of thin GaSe flakes transferred on both transparent substrates, like Gel-Film, and SiO2/Si substrates. We show how their apparent color can be an efficient way to make a quick, rough estimation of the thickness of the flakes. This method is more effective for SiO2/Si substrates as the thickness-dependent color

Assembling two-dimensional (2D) materials into functional three-dimensional (3D) structures can enable their use in a wide variety of applications. For energy storage devices, 3D electrodes with high ionic and electronic transport properties and decent mechanical properties are expected to prompt the fabrication of the next generations of devices with high energy and power densities. Herein, we report

Intensifying air pollution has engendered growing public health concerns due to its broad and adverse effects on humanity. As a result, the development of air filtration technologies has received increased attention as a practical and promising solution. Till now, many efforts have sought to advance air filtration technologies to overcome the trade-off relationship between filtration efficiency and

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