This Review examines conventional epitaxial growth of 2D van der Waals materials, focusing on in-plane single-crystal monolayer growth and out-of-plane homostructure fabrication. It covers nucleation and orientation control, quality control measures, and homogeneous multilayer and twisted homostructure growth techniques, providing systematic insights for on-demand fabrication of 2D van der Waals materials and their industrial device manufacturing.

This Review explores adopting 2D semiconductors to overcome the scaling bottleneck of Si-based electronics. Recent trends and potential approaches for the development of 2D materials as a channel are discussed. Following this, the prerequisites, obstacles and feasible technologies for integrating contacts and gate dielectrics with 2D semiconductor-based channels are examined. The Review also provides an industrial perspective towards facilitating monolithic 3D integration.

This Review provides a framework for processing multidimensional vision information at the sensory level and illustrates the working mechanisms as well as design principles of hardware implementations.

Nanocarrier delivery has huge potential in agriculture; however, there are significant scientific and societal barriers to overcome. In this Review, the authors explore the state of the field, what lessons can be learned from nanomedicine, and discuss what scientific and societal issues need to be addressed.

A photonic topological edge state, achieved by employing hexagonal boron nitride and patterned gold films, confines light four orders of magnitude below the diffraction limit while preserving a high quality factor.

Delivering immunomodulatory compounds to myeloid cells can activate innate immunity for cancer immunotherapy. Here the authors design a polymersome-based nanocarrier for delivering β-glucan to red pulp myeloid cells in the spleen and show that their strategy achieves tumour growth reduction in a melanoma model.

Controlling RNA and protein condensation is helpful in synthetic biology. Here the authors show programmable assembly of synthetic RNA nanostructures into designer membrane-less organelles that selectively recruit ligands via protein-binding aptamers.

This study presents DNA-origami biocatalytic modular nanocompartments for programmed regulation of protein unfolding and degradation. These artificial nanofactories augment reaction kinetics, improve enzyme performance and reduce off-target effects.

The amphiphilic nature of silk fibroin makes it a natural surfactant. Here it is shown to mediate interface interactions, enabling the wetting of hydrophobic surfaces with aqueous solutions and facilitating water-processed nanodevice fabrication without previous surface modification.

Disassembling molecular microcrystalline fibres produce mechanical work by dragging micro objects along their surface via biased diffusion.

Light extraction is a key factor determining the efficiency of light-emitting diodes. This becomes more pronounced in high-refractive-index perovskite light-emitting diodes according to the ray-optics model. Photon recycling and microcavity effect are important ways to break through the ray-optics efficiency limit. However, these two effects are competing, that is, strategies to optimize them are mutually exclusive. For a breakthrough in efficiency, we should favour one of them and inhibit the other.

We present a Focus issue on how the research community is continually pushing the device performance boundaries of 2D transistors and explore the pivotal role that these devices play in the future computing landscape.

Driven by carbon neutral targets, proton exchange membrane water electrolysis is becoming a hot technology due to its capability to convert fluctuating power into green hydrogen. Unfortunately, despite tremendous resources invested in fundamental research, only very few research outcomes have successfully translated into the development of industrial-scale electrolysers.

The use of hyperbole in scientific literature is increasing, undermining effective scientific communication.

Advances in nanoscale engineering bring us closer to unlocking the full potential of perovskite light-emitting diodes for future lighting and display applications.