Celebrating 25 years of the Key Laboratory for Special Functional Materials at Henan University

Guest edited by Feng Bai, Gang Cheng, Zuliang Du and Guohua Jia

Last year we were delighted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Key Laboratory for Special Functional Materials of Ministry of Education at Henan University with a special collection in Nanoscale highlighting the breadth of high-quality work from the institute. We’re pleased to share this collection of research and reviews covering the most recent research progress in a wide spectrum of nanoscience and nanotechnology from researchers currently affiliated with the Key Lab as well as esteemed alumni.

You can explore the collection and read the introductory editorial from our guest editors below, with all articles free to access until the end of April 2024.

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Professor Feng Bai, Professor Gang Cheng, Professor Zuliang Du and Professor Guohua Jia served as guest editors for this collection and highlight the history of the Key Laboratory for Special Functional Materials of Ministry of Education and significance of this anniversary in their introductory editorial.

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All of the articles in the collection are free to access until the end of April 2024. Read some of the featured articles below.

Reviews

Transformation mechanism of high-valence metal sites for the optimization of Co- and Ni-based OER catalysts in an alkaline environment: recent progress and perspectives Chen Qiao, Yingying Hao, Chuanbao Cao and JiaTao Zhang Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR05783B

Polyoxometalate-based frameworks for photocatalysis and photothermal catalysis Xiaofei Chen, Hongzhuo Wu, Xinjian Shi and Lixin Wu Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NR01176C

Research articles

Selection of an aggregation-caused quenching-based fluorescent tracer for imaging studies in nano drug delivery systems Xin Ji, Yifan Cai, Xiaochun Dong, Wei Wu and Weili Zhao Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NR01018J

A layer-stacked NiO nanowire/nanosheet homostructure for electrochromic smart windows with ultra-large optical modulation Yi Gao, Pengyang Lei, Siyu Zhang, Huanhuan Liu, Chengyu Hu, Zhu Kou, Jinhui Wang and Guofa Cai Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NR01211E

Nanoscale is a high-impact international journal, publishing high-quality experimental and theoretical work across the breadth of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Our broad scope covers cross-community research that bridges the various disciplines involved with nanoscience and nanotechnology. We are always interested in considering high-quality articles and we would be delighted if you would consider the journal for your next submission, which can be made via our online submission service. All submissions will be subject to initial assessment and peer review as appropriate according to the journal’s guidelines.

We hope you enjoy reading this collection and look forward to showcasing more work from the institute in the future. Please continue to submit your exciting work to Nanoscale.

Halide perovskite optoelectronics

Guest edited by Lakshminarayana Polavarapu, Maria Antonietta Loi, Haibo Zeng and Joseph M. Luther

Over the past decade, metal halide perovskites, both in the form of thin films and colloidal nanocrystals, have emerged as a leading candidate for optoelectronic applications because of their exciting properties including defect tolerance, long charge carrier diffusion lengths, high photoluminescence quantum yield, and facile fabrication using relatively low-cost precursors. We have witnessed a steep increase in the efficiency of perovskite optoelectronic devices and now Nanoscale is delighted to introduce a new online collection covering the latest developments that address the challenges of halide perovskite optoelectronics.

You can explore the collection and read the introductory editorial from our guest editors below, with all articles free to access until the end of November 2023.

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Dr Lakshminarayana Polavarapu (University of Vigo, Spain), Professor Maria Antonietta Loi (University of Groningen, Netherlands), Professor Haibo Zeng (Nanjing University, China) and Dr ‪Joseph M. Luther (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA) served as guest editors for this collection and highlight the importance of perovskite materials in optoelectronics in their introductory editorial.

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Read some of the featured articles below.

Generating spin-triplet states at the bulk perovskite/organic interface for photon upconversion
Colette M. Sullivan and Lea Nienhaus
Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR05767K

Recent progress in layered metal halide perovskites for solar cells, photodetectors, and field-effect transistors
Chwen-Haw Liao, Md Arafat Mahmud and Anita W. Y. Ho-Baillie
Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR06496K

Atomic layer deposition of SnO₂ using hydrogen peroxide improves the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells
Sang-Uk Lee, Hyoungmin Park, Hyunjung Shin and Nam-Gyu Park
Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR06884B

Transforming exciton dynamics in perovskite nanocrystal through Mn doping
Soumen Mukherjee, Swarnali Ghosh, Dibyendu Biswas, Mainak Ghosal, Kheyali De and Prasun K. Mandal
Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NR00241A

Nanoscale is always interested in considering high-quality articles on perovskite materials and devices and we would be delighted if you would consider the journal for your next submission, which can be made via our online submission service. All submissions will be subject to initial assessment and peer review as appropriate according to the journal’s guidelines.

We hope you enjoy reading this collection and look forward to seeing how this field progresses! Please continue to submit your exciting work on perovskite optoelectronics to Nanoscale.

Emerging concepts in nucleic acids: structures, functions and applications

Guest edited by Arun Richard Chandrasekaran, Dhiraj Bhatia, Xiaogang Liu and Prabal Maiti

Nanoscale and Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) are delighted to introduce our latest themed collection on DNA and RNA nanotechnology, bringing recent updates in nucleic acids research under three broad themes: structure, functions and applications. The collection focuses on self-assembly, structure-function relationships, physical chemistry and biophysics of nucleic acids, new structures and new technologies involving nucleic acid modelling and simulation and various applications in biology, medicine, robotics, materials science, computing, and other fields.

You can explore the collection and read the introductory editorial from our guest editors below, with all articles free to access until the end of September 2023.

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Dr Arun Richard Chandrasekaran (University at Albany, SUNY, USA), Dr Dhiraj Bhatia (IIT Gandhinagar, India), Professor Xiaogang Liu (National University of Singapore, Singapore) and Professor Prabal Maiti (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India) served as guest editors for this collection and highlight the importance and potential of nucleic acids for various applications in their introductory editorial.

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Read some of the featured articles below.

Utilization of DNA and 2D metal oxide interaction for an optical biosensor
Partha Kumbhakar, Indrani Das Jana, Subhadip Basu, Sandip Mandal, Saptarshi Banerjee, Subhanita Roy, Chinmayee Chowde Gowda, Anyesha Chakraborty, Ashim Pramanik, Pooja Lahiri, Basudev Lahiri, Amreesh Chandra, Pathik Kumbhakar, Arindam Mondal, Prabal K Maiti and Chandra Sekhar Tiwary
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3CP01402A

Tuning innate immune function using microneedles containing multiple classes of toll-like receptor agonists
Camilla Edwards, Robert S. Oakes and Christopher M. Jewell
Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NR00333G

Creation of ordered 3D tubes out of DNA origami lattices
Johannes M. Parikka, Heini Järvinen, Karolina Sokołowska, Visa Ruokolainen, Nemanja Markešević, Ashwin K. Natarajan, Maija Vihinen-Ranta, Anton Kuzyk, Kosti Tapio and J. Jussi Toppari
Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR06001A

Mechanistic insight into the structure, thermodynamics and dynamics of equilibrium gels of multi-armed DNA nanostars
Supriyo Naskar, Dhiraj Bhatia, Shiang-Tai Lin and Prabal K. Maiti
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2CP04683K

Synthesizing the biochemical and semiconductor worlds: the future of nucleic acid nanotechnology
Jacob M. Majikes and J. Alexander Liddle
Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR04040A

Nanoscale and PCCP are always interested in considering high-quality articles on the synthesis, function and applications of nucleic acid nanotechnology and we would be delighted if you would consider the journals for your next submission, which can be made via the Nanoscale online submission service or PCCP online submission service. All submissions will be subject to initial assessment and peer review as appropriate according to the journals’ guidelines linked above.

We hope you enjoy reading this collection and look forward to seeing how this field progresses! Please continue to submit your exciting work on DNA and RNA nanotechnology to Nanoscale and PCCP.

Nanoscale quantum technologies

Guest edited by Qing Dai, Chao-Yang Lu and Zhipei Sun

We are delighted to introduce a new online collection published in Nanoscale that provides a snapshot of recent progress in quantum technologies, including quantum materials, computing, sensing, imaging, photonics, optics and more, which we hope will inspire future developments.

Materials and structures at the nanoscale play a key role in various current and emerging quantum technologies. In the last few decades, we have witnessed significant progress in nanoscience and nanotechnology, which has enabled great successes from fundamental research to applications in quantum technologies, facilitating completely new horizons in this area.

You can explore the collection and read the introductory editorial from our guest editors below, with all articles free to access until the end of September 2023.

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Professor Qing Dai (National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, China), Professor Chao-Yang Lu (University of Science and Technology of China, China) and Professor Zhipei Sun (Aalto University, Finland), served as guest editors for this collection and highlight the importance of quantum technologies in their introductory editorial.

Read the introductory editorial

Read some of the featured articles below.

Silicon photonics interfaced with microelectronics for integrated photonic quantum technologies: a new era in advanced quantum computers and quantum communications?
Rajeev Gupta, Rajesh Singh, Anita Gehlot, Shaik Vaseem Akram, Neha Yadav, Ranjeet Brajpuriya, Ashish Yadav, Yongling Wu, Hongyu Zheng, Abhijit Biswas, Ephraim Suhir, Vikram Singh Yadav, Tanuj Kumar and Ajay Singh Verma
Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR05610K

Photon pairs bi-directionally emitted from a resonant metasurface
Changjin Son, Vitaliy Sultanov, Tomás Santiago-Cruz, Aravind P. Anthur, Haizhong Zhang, Ramon Paniagua-Dominguez, Leonid Krivitsky, Arseniy I. Kuznetsov and Maria V. Chekhova
Nanoscale, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR05499J

Highly-efficient radiative thermal rectifiers based on near-field gap variations
Bei Yang and Qing Dai
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR04350E

Coupling spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride to titanium dioxide ring resonators
Milad Nonahal, Chi Li, Febiana Tjiptoharsono, Lu Ding, Connor Stewart, John Scott, Milos Toth, Son Tung Ha, Mehran Kianinia and Igor Aharonovich
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR02522A

Synthesis of mono- and few-layered n-type WSe₂ from solid state inorganic precursors
Mauro Och, Konstantinos Anastasiou, Ioannis Leontis, Giulia Zoe Zemignani, Pawel Palczynski, Ali Mostaed, Maria S. Sokolikova, Evgeny M. Alexeev, Haoyu Bai, Alexander I. Tartakovskii, Johannes Lischner, Peter D. Nellist, Saverio Russo and Cecilia Mattevi
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR03233C

Nanoscale is always interested in considering high-quality articles on on quantum materials, devices and technologies and we would be delighted if you would consider the journal for your next submission, which can be made via our online submission service. All submissions will be subject to initial assessment and peer review as appropriate according to the journal’s guidelines.

We hope you enjoy reading this collection and look forward to seeing how this field progresses! Please continue to submit your exciting work on emerging quantum technologies to Nanoscale.

A collection highlighting 2023’s rising stars of nanoscience and nanotechnology research

Nanoscale is proud to present our annual Emerging Investigators collection, recognising the rising stars of nanoscience and nanotechnology by gathering some of the very best work from researchers in the early stages of their independent careers. Each contributor was recommended by experts in their fields for carrying out work with the potential to influence future directions in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Please join us in congratulating our featured researchers on their important work so far! You can explore the collection and profiles of our Emerging Investigators below, with all articles free to access until the end of August 2023.

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Meet the scientists

Congratulations to all of the featured researchers, we hope you enjoy reading these articles and look forward to sharing more work from early-career nano researchers with you soon!