Nanoscale

doi: 10.1039/D3NR90050Apmid: N/A

doi: 10.1039/D3NR90051Gpmid: N/A

doi: 10.1039/D3NR90052Epmid: N/A

Zhao, Xin; Zhao, Shujing; Zhang, Xiaoyuan; Su, Zhiqiang

doi: 10.1039/d2nr06084apmid: 36852534

Flexible pressure sensors (FPSs) have been widely studied in the fields of wearable medical monitoring and humanmachine interaction due to their high flexibility, light weight, sensitivity, and easy integration. To better meet these application requirements, key sensing properties such as sensitivity, linear sensing range, pressure detection limits, response/recovery time, and durability need to be effectively improved. Therefore, researchers have extensively and profoundly researched and innovated on the structure of sensors, and various microstructures have been designed and applied to effectively improve the sensing performance of sensors. Compared with single microstructures, multiple microstructures (MMSs) (including hierarchical, multi-layered and hybrid microstructures) can improve the sensing performance of sensors to a greater extent. This paper reviews the recent research progress in the design and application of FPSs with MMSs and systematically summarizes the types, sensing mechanisms, and preparation methods of MMSs. In addition, we summarize the applications of FPSs with MMSs in the fields of human motion detection, health monitoring, and humancomputer interaction. Finally, we provide an outlook on the prospects and challenges for the development of FPSs.

Bai, Xiangge; Yuan, Zichao; Lu, Chenguang; Zhan, Haiyang; Ge, Wenna; Li, Wenzong; Liu, Yahua

doi: 10.1039/d2nr07088jpmid: 36853237

Engineering surfaces or membranes that allow an efficient oil/water separation is highly desired in a wide spectrum of applications ranging from oily wastewater discharge to offshore oil spill accidents. Recent advances in biomimetics, manufacturing, and characterization techniques have led to remarkable progress in the design of various superwetting materials with special wettability. In spite of exciting progress, formulating a strategy robust enough to guide the design and fabrication of separating surfaces remains a daunting challenge. In this review, we first present an overview of the wettability theory to elucidate how to control the surface morphology and chemistry to regulate oil/water separation. Then, parallel approaches are considered for discussing the separation mechanisms according to different oil/water mixtures, and three separation types were identified including filtration, adsorption and other separation types. Finally, perspectives on the challenges and future research directions in this research area are briefly discussed.

Zhang, Qi; Gao, Lu; Li, Feng; Bi, Yanping

doi: 10.1039/d2nr07192dpmid: 36825547

Natural and artificial lipid vesicles have been widely involved in nano-delivery, bio-analysis and diagnosis. For sensing and manipulating single lipid vesicles, dynamic DNA reactions were constructed inside or on the surface of lipid vesicles. In this review, we interpreted various ways of integrating lipid vesicles and dynamic DNA nanotechnology by summarizing the latest reports in bio-analysis and biomimetic cell research.

Zhu, Xinyi; Xu, Jie; Cen, Hanlin; Wu, Zhaoxin; Dong, Hua; Xi, Jun

doi: 10.1039/d2nr07022gpmid: 36846869

As a competitive candidate for powering low-power terminals in Internet of Things (IoT) systems, indoor photovoltaic (IPV) technology has attracted much attention due to its effective power output under indoor light illumination. One such emerging photovoltaic technology, perovskite cell, has become a hot topic in the field of IPVs due to its outstanding theoretical performance limits and low manufacturing costs. However, several elusive issues remain limiting their applications. In this review, the challenges for perovskite IPVs are discussed in view of the bandgap tailoring to match indoor light spectra and the defect trapping regulation throughout the devices. Then, we summarize up-to-date perovskite cells, highlighting advanced strategies such as bandgap engineering, film engineering and interface engineering to enhance indoor performance. The investigation of indoor applications of large and flexible perovskite cells and integrated devices powered by perovskite cells is exhibited. Finally, the perspectives for the perovskite IPV field are provided to help facilitate the further improvement of indoor performance.

Kim, Jeongeon; Medvedeva, Xenia; Medvedev, Jury J.; Bae, Cheongwon; Kim, Juyeong; Klinkova, Anna

doi: 10.1039/d2nr05950apmid: 36722922

Expanding our understanding of the structure-performance relationship in nanoscale electrocatalysts for urea electrolysis is crucial for efficient urea waste treatment and concomitant cathodic hydrogen production or CO2 reduction. Here, we elucidate the effect of the lattice strain in PdNi coreshell nanocubes on the dominance of urea overoxidation pathway.

Piotrowski, Marek; Ge, Zhongsheng; Han, Xiao; Wang, Yixi; Bandela, Anil Kumar; Thumu, Udayabhaskararao

doi: 10.1039/d2nr06653jpmid: 36861287

Here, we demonstrate a novel approach for fabricating non-close-packed gold nanocrystal arrays using facile one-step post-modification of a Cs4PbBr6Au binary nanocrystal superlattice by electron beam etching of the perovskite phase. The proposed methodology can serve as a promising approach for the scalable preparation of a vast library of non-close-packed nanoparticulate superstructures with various morphologies composed of numerous colloidal nanocrystals.

Abbasi, Pedram; Fenning, David P.; Pascal, Tod A.

doi: 10.1039/d2nr05732hpmid: 36804637

Understanding the role of ferroelectric polarization in modulating the electronic and structural properties of crystals is critical for advancing these materials for overcoming various technological and scientific challenges. However, due to difficulties in performing experimental methods with the required resolution, or in interpreting the results of methods therein, the nanoscale morphology and response of these surfaces to external electric fields has not been properly elaborated. In this work we investigate the effect of ferroelectric polarization and local distortions in a BaTiO3 perovskite, using two widely used computational approaches which treat the many-body nature of X-ray excitations using different philosophies, namely the many-body, delta-self-consistent-field determinant (mb-SCF) and the BetheSalpeter equation (BSE) approaches. We show that in agreement with our experiments, both approaches consistently predict higher excitations of the main peak in the OK edge for the surface with upward polarization. However, the mb-SCF approach mostly fails to capture the L2,3 separations at the TiL edge, due to the absence of spinorbit coupling in KohnSham density functional theory (KS-DFT) at the generalized gradient approximation level. On the other hand, and most promising, we show that application of the GW/BSE approach successfully reproduces the experimental XAS, both the relative peak intensities as well as the L2,3 separations at the TiL edges upon ferroelectric switching. Thus simulated XAS is shown to be a powerful method for capturing the nanoscale structure of complex materials, and we underscore the need for many-body perturbation approaches, with explicit consideration of core-hole and multiplet effects, for capturing the essential physics in these systems.