A special issue for the 20^(th) anniversary of National Center for Nanoscience and Technology

National Center for Nanoscience and Technology(NCNST),China,established in December 2003,is co-founded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)and the Ministry of Education as an institution dedicated to fundamental and applied researches in the field of nanoscience and technology,especially those with important potential applications.NCNST is operated under the supervision of the Governing Board and aims to become a world-class research center,as well as public technological platform and young talents training center in the field,and to act as an important bridge for international academic exchange and collaboration.The NCNST currently has three CAS Key Laboratories:the CAS Key Laboratory for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety,the CAS Key Laboratory for Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology and the CAS Key Laboratory for Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication.In 2020,the CAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices started construction.Besides,there are Division of Nanotechnology Development,Nanofabrication Laboratory,Intelligent Nanosensing Laboratory and Theoretical Laboratory.

Chemical vapor deposition for perovskite solar cells and modules

Metal halide perovskites are promising materials for solar cells because of high power conversion efficiency(PCE),tun-able bandgap,high defect tolerance,long carrier diffusion length,and low-cost fabrication[1-7].The PCE for perovskite solar cells(PSCs)reaches 26.14%for single-junction cells,29.1%for perovskite/perovskite tandem cells and 33.9%for perovskite/silicon tandem cells,being comparable to that for silicon and other thin-film solar cells[8-10].Perovskite solar cells have been made by solution methods including spin-coat-ing,blade coating and printing[11,12].

For more and purer hydrogen-the progress and challenges in water gas shift reaction

The water gas shift(WGS) reaction is a standard reaction that is widely used in industrial hydrogen production and removal of carbon monoxide. The improved catalytic performance of WGS reaction also contributes to ammonia synthesis and other reactions. Advanced catalysts have been developed for both high and low-temperature reactions and are widely used in industry. In recent years, supported metal nanoparticle catalysts have been researched due to their high metal utilization. Low-temperature catalysts have shown promising results, including high selectivity, high shift rates, and higher activity potential. Additionally, significant progress has been made in removing trace CO through the redox reaction in electrolytic cell. This paper reviews the development of WGS reaction catalysts, including the reaction mechanism, catalyst design, and innovative research methods. The catalyst plays a crucial role in the WGS reaction, and this paper provides an instant of catalyst design under different conditions. The progress of catalysts is closely related to the development of advanced characterization techniques.Furthermore, modifying the catalyst surface to enhance activity and significantly increase reaction kinetics is a current research direction. This review goals to stimulate a better understanding of catalyst design, performance optimization, and driving mechanisms, leading to further progress in this field.

Dimensionality regulation in tin halide perovskite solar cells: Toward high performance and stability

Tin halide perovskites(THPs)have received extensive attention due to their low toxicity and excellent optoelectronic properties,and are considered to be the most promising alternatives to develop efficient lead-free perovskite solar cells.However,due to the unique and inherent characteristics of Sn^(2+)being easily oxidized to Sn^(4+)and fast crystallization,tin perovskite solar cells(TPSCs)show relatively poor performance and stability,compared to the lead counterparts.Recently,the introduction of bulky organic spacers into three-dimensional(3D)THPs for dimensional regulation can not only prevent the intrusion of water and oxygen,but also inhibit the self-doping effect and ion migration.In this review,we will detail how dimensional regulation enables TPSCs with high performance and superior stability.First,we summarize the intrinsic properties of THPs and analyze the root causes of their poor performance and instability.Next,we discuss the specific structure and types of the dimensional regulation strategy.Then,the mechanism of dimensional regulation is discussed in detail,mainly from inhibiting the Sn^(2+)oxidation,optimizing crystallization,passivating defects,and improving energy level alignment.Finally,future challenges and prospects for dimensional regulation are elaborated to help researchers develop more efficient and stable TPSCs.

Nanotechnology:A New Strategy for Lung Cancer Treatment Targeting Pro-Tumor Neutrophils

Primary and metastatic lung cancers are malignant lung tumors each with of which has a different pathogenesis,although both threaten patient lives.Tumor development and progression involve communication between tumor cells and the host microenvironment.Neutrophils are the most abundant immune cells in the tumor microenvironment(TME);they participate in the generation of an inflammatory milieu and influence patient survival through their anti-and pro-tumor abilities.Neutrophils can be classified into various categories according to different criteria;frequent categories include N1 antitumor neutrophils and N2 immunosuppressive neutrophils.The antitumor effects of neutrophils are reported to be mediated through a combination of reactive oxygen species,tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand,and receptor for advanced glycation end-products–cathepsin G association,as well as the regulation of the activities of other immune cells.There have also been reports that neutrophils can function as tumor promoters that contribute to lung cancer progression and metastasis by influencing processes including carcinogenesis,angiogenesis,cancer cell proliferation,and invasion ability,as well as having similar roles in the lung metastasis of other cancers.The rapid development of nanotechnology has provided new strategies for cancer treatment targeting neutrophils.

Local Rotational Jamming and Multi-Stage Hyperuniformities in an Active Spinner System

An active system consisting of many self-spinning dimers is simulated, and a distinct local rotational jamming transition is observed as the density increases. In the low density regime, the system stays in an absorbing state,in which each dimer rotates independently subject to the applied torque;while in the high density regime,a fraction of the dimers become rotationally jammed into local clusters, and the system exhibits microphaseseparation like two-phase morphologies. For high enough densities, the system becomes completely jammed in both rotational and translational degrees of freedom. Such a simple system is found to exhibit rich and multiscale disordered hyperuniformities among the above phases: the absorbing state shows a critical hyperuniformity of the strongest class and subcritically preserves the vanishing density fluctuation scaling up to some length scale;the locally jammed state shows a two-phase hyperuniformity conversely beyond some length scale with respect to the phase cluster sizes;the totally jammed state appears to be a monomer crystal, but intrinsically loses large-scale hyperuniformity. These results are inspiring for designing novel phase-separation and disordered hyperuniform systems through dynamical organization.

Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine: A Promising Avenue for Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide,with a very poor overall five-year survival rate.The intrinsic limitations associated with the conventional diagnosis and therapeutic strategies used for lung cancer have motivated the development of nanotechnology and nanomedicine approaches,in order to improve early diagnosis rate and develop more effective and safer therapeutic options for lung cancer.Cancer nanomedicines aim to individualize drug delivery,diagnosis,and therapy by tailoring them to each patient’s unique physiology and pathological features—on both the genomic and proteomic levels—and have attracted widespread attention in this field.Despite the successful application of nanomedicine techniques in lung cancer research,the clinical translation of nanomedicine approaches remains challenging due to the limited understanding of the interactions that occur between nanotechnology and biology,and the challenges posed by the toxicology,pharmacology,immunology,and largescale manufacturing of nanoparticles.In this review,we highlight the progress and opportunities associated with nanomedicine use for lung cancer treatment and discuss the prospects of this field,together with the challenges associated with clinical translation.

Nanoparticles for the treatment of spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injuries lead to significant loss of motor, sensory, and autonomic functions, presenting major challenges in neural regeneration. Achieving effective therapeutic concentrations at injury sites has been a slow process, partly due to the difficulty of delivering drugs effectively. Nanoparticles, with their targeted delivery capabilities, biocompatibility, and enhanced bioavailability over conventional drugs, are garnering attention for spinal cord injury treatment. This review explores the current mechanisms and shortcomings of existing treatments, highlighting the benefits and progress of nanoparticle-based approaches. We detail nanoparticle delivery methods for spinal cord injury, including local and intravenous injections, oral delivery, and biomaterial-assisted implantation, alongside strategies such as drug loading and surface modification. The discussion extends to how nanoparticles aid in reducing oxidative stress, dampening inflammation, fostering neural regeneration, and promoting angiogenesis. We summarize the use of various types of nanoparticles for treating spinal cord injuries, including metallic, polymeric, protein-based, inorganic non-metallic, and lipid nanoparticles. We also discuss the challenges faced, such as biosafety, effectiveness in humans, precise dosage control, standardization of production and characterization, immune responses, and targeted delivery in vivo. Additionally, we explore future directions, such as improving biosafety, standardizing manufacturing and characterization processes, and advancing human trials. Nanoparticles have shown considerable progress in targeted delivery and enhancing treatment efficacy for spinal cord injuries, presenting significant potential for clinical use and drug development.

Regulation of the quantum barrier and carrier transport toward high-efficiency quasi-2D Dion-Jacobson tin perovskite solar cells

Quasi-2D Dion-Jacobson(DJ)tin halide perovskite has attracted much attention due to its elimination of Van der Waals gap and enhanced environmental stability.However,the bulky organic spacers usually form a natural quantum well structure,which brings a large quantum barrier and poor film quality,further limiting the carrier transport and device performance.Here,we designed three organic spacers with different chain lengths(ethylenediamine(EDA),1,3-propanediamine(PDA),and 1,4-butanediamine(BDA))to investigate the quantum barrier dependence.Theoretical and experimental characterizations indicate that EDA with short chain can reduce the lattice distortion and dielectric confinement effect,which is beneficial to the effective dissociation of excitons and the inhibition of trap-free non-radiative relaxation.In addition,EDA cation shows strong interaction with the inorganic octahedron,realizing large aggregates in precursor solution and high-quality films with improved structural stability.Furthermore,femtosecond transient absorption proves that EDA cations can also weaken the formation of small n-phases with large quantum barrier to achieve effective carrier transport between different nphases.Finally,the quasi-2D DJ(EDA)FA_(9)Sn_(10)I_(31)solar cells achieves a 7.07%power conversion efficiency with good environment stability.Therefore,this work sheds light on the regulation of the quantum barrier and carrier transport through the chain length of organic spacer for qua si-2D DJ lead-free perovskites.

Engineering fibrillar morphology for highly efficient organic solar cells

The power conversion efficiency(PCE)for single-junction organic solar cells(OSCs),wherein the photoactive layer is a typical bulk-heterojunction containing donor and acceptor materials,has surpassed 19%[1−4].The advance is ascribed to the development of Y-series non-fullerene acceptors(NFAs)[5,6]and polymer donors[7−13],and the refined control of the blend film morphology.

Effect of drying methods on perovskite films and solar cells

The high efficiency,solution processibility,and flexibility of perovskite solar cells make them promising candidates for the photovoltaic industry[1−8].The deposition method is one of the most critical factors that affect the performance of perovskite films.Various deposition methods have been developed to make perovskite films,including spin-coating,slotdie coating.

Combining chlorination and sulfuration strategies for high-performance all-small-molecule organic solar cells

Three small-molecule donors based on dithieno [2,3-d:2’,3 ’-d’]-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’] dithiophene(DTBDT)unit were designed and synthesized by side chain regulation with chlorinated or/and sulfurated substitutions(namely ZR1,ZR1-Cl,and ZR1-S-Cl respectively),along with a crystalline non-fullerene acceptor IDIC-4 Cl with a chlorinated 1,1-dicyanomethylene-3-indanone(IC) end group.Energy levels,molar extinction coefficients and crystallinities of three donor molecules can be effectively altered by combining chlorination and sulfuration strategies.Especially,the ZR1-S-Cl exhibited the best absorption ability,lowest higher occupied molecular orbital(HOMO) energy level and highest crystallinity among three donors,resulting in the corresponding all-small-molecule organic solar cells to produce a high power conversion efficiency(PCE) of 12.05% with IDIC-4 Cl as an acceptor.

Micropore Structure Representation of Sandstone in Petroleum Reservoirs Using an Atomic Force Microscope

The pore structure of sandstone in an oil reservoir is investigated using atomic force microscopy(AFM).At nanoscale resolution,AFM images of sandstone show us the fine structure.The real height data of images display the three-dimensional space structure of sandstone effectively.The three-dimensional analysis results show that the AFM images of sandstone have unique characteristics that,like fingerprints,can identify different structural properties of sandstones.The results demonstrate that AFM is an effective method used to represent original sandstone in petroleum reservoirs,and may help geologists to appreciate the sandstone in oil reservoirs fully.

A chlorinated lactone polymer donor featuring high performance and low cost

The development of low-bandgap nonfullerene acceptors and wide-bandgap polymer donors speeds up the advance of organic solar cells(OSCs)[1-17]. Wide-bandgap copolymers based on fused-ring acceptor units are ideal donor materials due to their low-lying HOMO levels, high hole mobilities and complementary light absorption to nonfullerene acceptors[18-25]. Currently, high-performance donors with 18%power conversion efficiencies(PCEs) belong to this type.

Optimizing polymer aggregation and blend morphology for boosting the photovoltaic performance of polymer solar cells via a random terpolymerization strategy

Compared to regular conjugated polymers,the random conjugated terpolymers are usually not beneficial to achieve highly efficient non-fullerene(NF)-based polymer solar cells(PSCs)due to their disordered chemical structures.In this work,we report two random terpolymer donors(PBNB80 and PBNB50)by tuning the molar ratio of electron-accepting units of 1,3-di(thiophen-2-yl)naphtho[2,3-c]thiophene-4,9-dione(NTD)and 1,3-bis(4-chlorothiophen-2-yl)-4 H,8 H-benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c’]dithiophene-4,8-dione(ClBDD),at the same time,the parent polymers(PBNB100 and PBNB00)are also compared to study.These four polymer donors exhibit similar optical bandgaps and gradually deepen highest occupied molecular orbital levels.Importantly,aggregation and self-organization properties of the random terpolymer donors are optimized,which result in the better morphology and crystal coherence length after blending with NF acceptor of BO-4 Cl.Particularly,a PBNB80:BO-4 Cl blend forms an optimal nanoscale phase-separation morphology,thereby producing an outstanding power conversion efficiency of 16.0%,which is much higher than those(12.8%and 10.7%)of their parent binary polymer donor-based devices.This work demonstrates that rational using terpolymerization strategy to prepare random terpolymer is a very important method to achieve highly efficient NF-PSCs.

Highly sensitive and stable SERS probes of alternately deposited Ag and Au layers on 3D SiO2 nanogrids for detection of trace mercury ions

The hazard of Hg ion pollution triggers the motivation to explore a fast, sensitive, and reliable detection method. Here, we design and fabricate novel 36-nm-thick Ag-Au composite layers alternately deposited on three-dimensional （3D） periodic SiO2 nanogrids as surface-enhanced Raman scattering （SERS） probes. The SERS effects of the probes depend mainly on the positions and intensities of their localized surface plasmon resonance （LSPR） peaks, which is confirmed by the absorption spectra from finite-difference time-domain （FDTD） calculations. By optimizing the structure and material to maximize the intrinsic electric field enhancement based on the design method of 3D periodic SERS probes proposed, high performance of the Ag-Au/SiO2 nanogrid probes is achieved with the stability further enhanced by annealing. The optimized probes show the outstanding stability with only 4.0% SERS intensity change during 10-day storage, the excellent detection uniformity of 5.78% （RSD）, the detection limit of 5.0 × 10-12 M （1 ppt）, and superior selectivity for Hg ions. The present study renders it possible to realize the rapid and reliable detection of trace heavy metal ions by developing high- performance 3D periodic structure SERS probes by designing novel 3D structure and optimizing plasmonic material.

UV light absorbers executing synergistic effects of passivating defects and improving photostability for efficient perovskite photovoltaics

Metal halide perovskite-based solar cells(PSCs) have rapidly-increased power conversion efficiency(PCE)exceeding 25% but poor stability especially under ultraviolet(UV) light. Meanwhile, non-radiative recombination caused by diverse defects in perovskite absorbers and related interfaces is one of the major factors confining further development of PSCs. In this study, we systematically investigate the role of 2-(2-hydroxy-5-methylphenyl)benzotriazole(UVP) additive in perovskite layers. By adjusting the amount of doped UVP, the quality of perovskite absorbers is significantly improved with enlarged grains, longer lifetime and diffusion length of charge carriers. Furthermore, UVP not only reduces defects for less nonradiative recombination, but also matches energy level alignment for efficient interfacial charge extraction. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms that N-donor of UVP molecule coordinates with undercoordinated Pb^(2+) on the surface. Interestingly, UVP incorporated in PbI_(2) protects the perovskite by absorbing UV through the opening and closing of the chelating ring. Eventually, the UVP treated PSCs obtain a champion PCE of 22.46% with remarkably enhanced UV stability, retaining over 90% of initial PCE after 60 m W/cm^(2) strong UV irradiation for 9 h while the control maintaining only 74%. These results demonstrate a promising strategy fabricating passivated and UV-resistant perovskite materials simultaneously for efficient and stable perovskite photovoltaics.

Domain controlling and defect passivation for efficient quasi-2D perovskite LEDs

Metal halide perovskites have made rapid progress in photonic and optoelectronic applications since the first report of solid-state perovskite solar cells in 2012[1].Perovskites feature superior luminescence properties beneficial for the application in light emitting diodes(LEDs),such as high photoluminescence quantum yields(PLQYs),narrow emission.

Banana-shaped electron acceptors with an electron-rich core fragment and 3D packing capability

The emergence of Y6-type nonfullerene acceptors has greatly enhanced the power conversion efficiency(PCE)of organic solar cells(OSCs).However,which structural feature is responsible for the excellent photovoltaic performance is still under debate.In this study,two Y6-like acceptors BDOTP-1 and BDOTP-2 were designed.Different from previous Y6-type acceptors featuring an A–D–Aʹ–D–A structure,BDOTP-1,and BDOTP-2 have no electron-deficient Aʹfragment in the core unit.Instead,there is an electron-rich dibenzodioxine fragment in the core.Although this modification leads to a marked change in the molecular dipole moment,electrostatic potential,frontier orbitals,and energy levels,BDOTP acceptors retain similar three-dimensional packing capability as Y6-type acceptors due to the similar banana-shaped molecular configuration.BDOTP acceptors show good performance in OSCs.High PCEs of up to 18.51%(certified 17.9%)are achieved.This study suggests that the banana-shaped configuration instead of the A–D–Aʹ–D–A structure is likely to be the determining factor in realizing high photovoltaic performance.

Progress on the mechanisms of Ru-based electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in acidic media

Water electrolysis using proton-exchange membranes is one of the most promising technologies for carbon-neutral and sustainable energy production.Generally,the overall efficiency of water splitting is limited by the oxygen evolution reaction(OER).Nevertheless,a trade-off between activity and stability exists for most electrocatalytic materials in strong acids and oxidizing media,and the development of efficient and stable catalytic materials has been an important focus of research.In this view,gaining in-depth insights into the OER system,particularly the interactions between reaction intermediates and active sites,is significantly important.To this end,this review introduces the fundamentals of the OER over Ru-based materials,including the conventional adsorbate evolution mechanism,lattice oxygen oxidation mechanism,and oxide path mechanism.Moreover,the up-to-date progress of representative modifications for improving OER performance is further discussed with reference to specific mechanisms,such as tuning of geometric,electronic structures,incorporation of proton acceptors,and optimization of metal-oxygen covalency.Finally,some valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities for OER electrocatalysts are provided with the aim to promote the development of next-generation catalysts with high activity and excellent stability.