Reviews & Analysis

Phosphors are important for optimizing the energy efficiency and colour quality of modern light-emitting diode light bulbs and displays. This Perspective article discusses the optical properties required for a phosphor to be viable for commercialization and the synthetic and data-driven methods that have been developed to accelerate the discovery of phosphor materials with these properties.

Lightwave electronics could enable the control of interactions in quantum materials and provide access to the quantum phases and quantum information of condensed-matter systems. This Review discusses the fundamental concepts of lightwave electronics and outlines key advances and potential applications.

The interactions between macrophages and endothelial cells are regulated by microenvironmental cues in the extracellular matrix. This Perspective highlights recent advances in using biomaterials as extracellular matrix to mimic macrophage–endothelium niches and to regulate cell fate in tissue homeostasis and disease progression.

In situ self-assembly is advantageous for cancer therapy and imaging because of the efficient deep-tumour targeting, enhanced blood circulation and negligible drug resistance of the resulting nanomedicines. This Review discusses extracellular and intracellular in situ self-assembly based on endogenous and exogenous stimuli for cancer therapy and imaging applications.

Two-dimensional materials can enable a new generation of flexible and printed electronics suitable for light-weight, low-power, sustainable and cost-effective field-effect transistors. This Review surveys solution-processed transistors based on 2D materials, discussing their performance, limitations and future perspectives.

Combining poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) with 3D-printing techniques enables the customization of compliant conductive materials for soft robotics, towards the goal of merging humans and robots. This Review discusses the fundamentals of 3D-printed PEDOT:PSS for soft robotics, from printable ink design and evaluation to printing strategies and promising soft robotic systems.

UV photodetectors based on low-dimensional wide-bandgap semiconductors offer wearable, multidimensional and intelligent functions in the scenarios of imaging, communication, multispectral and/or weak light detection and flexible electronics. This Review focuses on the material design, dimensionality engineering and device engineering of wide-bandgap semiconductors in diversified UV applications.

Deaf scientists who use American Sign Language need to be able to communicate specialized concepts with ease. In this Viewpoint, four deaf scientists — a quantum physicist, a marine ecologist, an immunologist and an organic chemist — discuss their experiences in developing scientific lexicons and the resulting shift in their science communication.

Although perovskite solar cells now have competitive efficiencies compared with silicon solar cells, their low stability has hindered their commercial application thus far. This Review summarizes the tremendous improvements made over the past decade and offer a perspective on how to reach >25-year stable perovskite solar cells.

Nanotheranostics — nanoparticle-based systems combining diagnostic and therapeutic functions — hold great promise, but their implementation in the clinic is challenging. This Review discusses the design and clinical development of nanotheranostics and defines the critical steps needed to overcome technical, manufacturing, regulatory and economical challenges for their safe and effective clinical translation.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), an emerging type of sustainable battery, still need to be recycled for environmental and economic reasons. Strategies to recycle spent SIBs should be made during the initial stages of commercialization to ensure that SIBs are designed for ease of recycling, efficiency and low operation costs. This Perspective article summarizes the material components of SIBs, discusses strategies for their recycling and outlines the associated challenges and future outlook of SIB recycling.

Integrating single-functional fibre devices into multifunctional systems can enable promising wearable applications. This Perspective article summarizes challenges and strategies for the design, fabrication and assembly of fibre electronic systems, highlighting specifications for real applications.

Owing to the many-body nature of quantum materials, a microscopic understanding of the interactions dictating their ground state is essential to control their dynamics. This Review summarizes how THz light is effective for both probing quantum materials and driving them into new types of out-of-equilibrium phases.

Electrified processes offer a chemical-free approach to the removal of a wide range of contaminants from water, including many that are difficult to remove using conventional methods. This Review discusses the fundamentals of several important electrified processes and highlights the role of electrode materials in contaminant transport and transformation.

Engineered materials with intrinsic chirality can affect biological processes from cell uptake to nerve repair. This Perspective article discusses the design and function of intrinsically chiral carbon dots, metal-based materials and patterned geometries, highlighting the different effects of the two enantiomers on biological responses.

Two-dimensional perovskites with phase-pure structures have considerable potential for optoelectronic applications because of their reduced defects, flattened energy landscape and enhanced lattice protection. This Perspective article investigates advancing progress on achieving phase-pure perovskite by tailoring the precursor interactions and preparation methods and discusses their prominent optoelectronic properties and applications.

Integrating various two-dimensional materials and three-dimensional nanomembranes via van der Waals interactions enables novel hetero-integrated photonic layouts and ways to explore exotic nanophotonic phenomena. This Review discusses photonic van der Waals integration, from film preparation to device implementation.

Understanding the protein corona can advance nanomedicinal developments and elucidate how nanomaterials impact the environment. This Review discusses the evolution and challenges in characterizing the protein corona, explores how artificial intelligence can supplement experimental efforts and exposes emerging opportunities in nanomedicine and the environment.

Ternary organic solar cells adhere to a simple device fabrication strategy and are among the highest performing organic solar cells to date. This Review examines the multiple models of operation that have emerged for ternary cells, highlighting new insights and still-existing gaps in knowledge.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bound nanoscale mediators of intercellular communication. This Review discusses EVs in the context of the extracellular matrix, highlighting how the understanding of their interactions inspires materials design to control the release, retention and production of EVs for various biological and therapeutic applications.