Reviews & Analysis

This review highlights the recent advances in droplet-based microfluidics for studying the properties of single cells, with a specific interest in quantitative studies into the heterogeneity of large populations of cells

The scope and limitations of using supramolecular interactions to control and direct energy transfer processes in self-assembled materials are discussed with emphasis on recent developments in the field.

In this review, the significant advances of the new type of graphene fibers (GFs) achieved during the recent few years have been systematically summarized, including the tunable and controllable preparation of GFs with functionalizations and their remarkable applications for unconventional devices such as flexible fiber-type of actuators, robots, motors, photovoltaic cells and supercapacitors.

In this review, we discuss diffusion-driven currents in several types of organic-semiconductor diodes, including light-emitting diodes, solar cells and single-carrier devices. It is demonstrated that the ideality factor of the current and photon emission contains important information about charge transport and recombination in such devices. Most importantly, the effects of charge trapping and trap-assisted recombination can be explored. An analytical model is derived for diffusion-driven currents, which can explain the current–voltage behavior of organic diodes and allows determination of the injection barriers and built-in voltages.

Surfaces that display contact angles >150° along with a low contact angle hysteresis for both low and high surface tension liquids are known as superomniphobic surfaces. Such surfaces have several applications, including self-cleaning, non-fouling, stain-free clothing, drag reduction, corrosion prevention and separation of liquids. In this review, we discuss the design criteria, recent studies, applications, challenges and potential of superomniphobic surfaces.

We developed ‘self-oscillating’ polymer gels that undergo spontaneous cyclic swelling–deswelling changes without any on–off switching of external stimuli like a heart muscle. Here, our recent progress on the self-oscillating polymer gels was summarized.

Oil/water separation, especially emulsified oil/water mixture separation, has become a widespread concern because of the severe fouling problem caused by the easy adsorption of oil droplets onto the surfaces of filtration membranes. Many strategies have been employed to eliminate the fouling problem, but it remains a challenge and impedes the development of membrane technology. In this short review, we discuss the recent development of membrane technology for emulsified oil/water separation. As shown in the image, in addition to polymer- and ceramic-dominated traditional membranes, nanomaterial-based membranes have recently demonstrated their superiority and have achieved high performance.

Mesocrystals are superstructures with a crystallographically ordered alignment of nanoparticles and posses unique characteristics such as a high surface area, pore accessibility, and good electronic conductivity and thermal stability. This review summarizes the recent developments of metal oxide mesocrystals in the fields of energy conversion and storage.

Hydrogel-based scaffolds are promising biomaterials to deliver cells and small biomolecules to regenerate the cardiac muscle. It is anticipated that cell-loaded hydrogels will potentially be able to mend the broken heart.

In this review, we highlight the recent achievements in the DNA-programmed self-assembly of homo- and/or hetero-photonic nanoarchitectures comprising gold nanoparticles, gold nanorods and quantum dots in one, two and three dimensions, and overview their optical properties and potential photonic functionalities.

Periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) are prominent materials for a wide variety of application including catalysis, drug and gene transfer, sensing and imaging, optics, electronic devices, gas sensing, gas adsorption, biomolecule adsorption and chromatographic phases owing to their outstanding pore wall tuning properties. Since each organic molecule in their framework has different chemical behavior, incorporating different organic functionalities into the PMO framework make the materials with unique properties for specific applications. A wide range of PMOs with various bridged organic functionalities and morphologies have been prepared. However, some aspects remain to be studied. The current results and the forthcoming advances in PMOs will make them the materials of excellent for some high-technology applications. PMOs proved to be very useful in a variety of applications, and many others can be envisaged for the near future.

New methods of integrating aptamers with various types of nanomaterials are summarized, highlighting promising classes of aptamer-conjugated nanoparticles for efficient cancer cell recognition and the targeted delivery of drugs. In addition, emerging technologies for cancer treatment using nanomaterials as therapeutic drugs are discussed. These aptamer-conjugated nanomaterials will benefit cancer treatment through increased specificity and efficacy as well as reduced toxicity.

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeONPs) have attracted much attention because they possess multi-enzyme mimetic properties and have been used in bioanalysis, biomedicine, drug delivery, bioscaffold and so on. This review summarizes recent achievements on CeONPs catalytic mechanisms, the multi-enzyme-like activity, and their biomedical applications, such as in treatment of cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

Various spherical nanocarbon materials, including fullerenes, carbon nanohorn aggregates, nanodiamonds etc., have shown potential anti-cancer effects. Fullerenes and metallofullerenes possess outstanding ROS-scavenging capability, as well as other biological effects like immunity enhancement etc., affording promising tumor suppression potential. Carbon nanohorn aggregates and nanodiamond particles have demonstrated effective drug delivery ability for cancer therapy. Moreover, it is noteworthy that these spherical nanocarbon materials show positive toxicological evaluation results, encouraging possible practical usage for biomedical applications.

The hierarchical self-organization of appropriately functionalized disc-shaped molecules leads to the formation of discotic liquid crystals (DLCs). Columnar phases formed by these intriguing materials are emerging as one-dimensional organic semiconducting materials. Recently, their hybridization with various metallic and semiconducting nanoparticles has been realized to alter and improve their properties. This article provides an overview on the development in the field of newly immersed discotic nanoscience, a sub-field of liquid crystal (LC) nanoscience.

The chiral liquid crystalline self-organization of cellulose nanocrystals into helical arrangements, giving the resulting materials photonic crystal properties and enhanced mechanical behavior, are comprehensively summarized and compared with other rod-like nanoparticles, for example, carbon nanotubes and fd virus. The consequences of the sensitive balance between liquid crystal formation and glass/gel formation are discussed in detail, in particular regarding the development toward control of helix pitch and orientation. Important topics for future studies are identified and suggestions for novel applications are made.