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Recent isolation of black phosphorus atomic layers (known as phosphorene) has revealed its great potential for use as an alternative 2D semiconductor in many areas of electronics and optoelectronics. Liquid-phase exfoliation is utilized to produce high-quality black phosphorus nanoflakes with thicknesses down to a monolayer in the form of uniform and stable dispersions, allowing for pace toward practical applications.

Atomically thick and flexible Pt-Cu alloy nanosheets are prepared and loaded with either Pd or Pt to produce sandwich structures or nanoring-like nanosheet structures, respectively. Core–shell alloy nanoparticles containing Rh, Ir, and Ru are also prepared. All of these structures exhibit superior specific and mass activities for the oxidation of formic acid for fuel cells for portable electronic devices as compared to commercial Pd/C catalyst.

Ferrofluids (FFs) are stable colloidal suspensions composed of single-domain magnetic nanoparticles dispersed in a carrier liquid. And it is an intelligent material, exhibiting normal liquid behaviour coupled with superparamagnetic properties. Since the properties and the location of these fluids can easily be influenced by a magnetic field, FFs have recently attracted many scientific, industrial and commercial applications. Lubrication is one of the most important applications for FFs, and the advantage of FFs as lubricant, over the conventional ones, is that the former can be retained at the desired location with moderate magnetic fields. The main focus of this paper is to present a comprehensive review on FFs lubrication theories based on the three flow models of Neuringer–Rosensweig, Shliomis and Jenkins. Besides, a few experimental studies on FFs lubrication are discussed briefly. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A whole interfacial transition of electrons from conduction bands of n-type material to the acceptor levels of p-type material makes the energy band engineering successful. It tunes intrinsic ZnO UV emission to UV-free and warm white light-emitting diode (W-LED) emission with color coordinates around (0.418, 0.429) at the bias of 8–15.5 V. The W-LED is fabricated based on antimony (Sb) doped p-ZnO nanowire arrays/Si doped n-GaN film heterojunction structure through one-step chemical vapor deposition with quenching process. Element analysis shows that the doping concentration of Sb is ≈1.0%. The I–V test exhibits the formation of p-type ZnO nanowires, and the temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurement down to 4.65 K confirms the formation of deep levels and shallow acceptor levels after Sb-doping. The intrinsic UV emission of ZnO at room temperature is cut off in electroluminescence emission at a bias of 4–15.5 V. The UV-free and warm W-LED have great potential application in green lights program, especially in eye-protected lamp and display since television, computer, smart phone, and mobile digital equipment are widely and heavily used in modern human life, as more than 3000 h per year.

A whole interfacial transition of electrons from conduction bands of n-type GaN film to the acceptor levels of p-type antimony (Sb) doped ZnO nanowire arrays makes the energy band engineering successful. It tunes intrinsic ZnO UV emission to UV-free and warm white light-emitting diode (W-LED) emission with color coordinates around (0.418, 0.429) at the bias of 8–15.5 V.

Herein we electrochemically and selectively extract Ti from the MAX phase Ti₂SC to form carbon/sulfur (C/S) nanolaminates at room temperature. The products are composed of multi-layers of C/S flakes, with predominantly amorphous and some graphene-like structures. Covalent bonding between C and S is observed in the nanolaminates, which render the latter promising candidates as electrode materials for Li-S batteries. We also show that it is possible to extract Ti from other MAX phases, such as Ti₃AlC₂ , Ti₃SnC₂ , and Ti₂GeC, suggesting that electrochemical etching can be a powerful method to selectively extract the “M” elements from the MAX phases, to produce “AX” layered structures, that cannot be made otherwise. The latter hold promise for a variety of applications, such as energy storage, catalysis, etc.

Carbon/sulfur nanolaminates composed of multilayered C/S flakes with predominantly amorphous, and some graphene-like, structures were synthesized by electrochemical extraction of Ti from a Ti₂SC MAX phase. This approach provides a novel method for the room-temperature synthesis of “AX” layered structures by the selective extraction of “M” from the MAX phases.

Powering up 2D materials: Recent experimental studies confirmed the existence of piezoelectricity—the conversion of mechanical stress into electricity—in two-dimensional single-layer MoS₂ nanosheets. The results represent a milestone towards embedding low-dimensional materials into future disruptive technologies.

We developed an unconventional route to produce uniform and intimately contacted semiconducting organic–inorganic nanocomposites for potential applications in thermoelectrics. By utilizing amphiphilic star-like PAA-b-PEDOT diblock copolymer as template, monodisperse PEDOT-functionalized lead telluride (PbTe) nanoparticles were crafted via the strong coordination interaction between PAA blocks of star-like PAA-b-PEDOT and the metal moieties of precursors (i.e., forming PEDOT–PbTe nanocomposites). As the inner PAA blocks are covalently connected to the outer PEDOT blocks, the PEDOT chains are intimately and permanently tethered on the PbTe nanoparticle surface, thereby affording a well-defined PEDOT/PbTe interface, which prevents the PbTe nanoparticles from aggregation, and more importantly promotes the long-term stability of PEDOT–PbTe nanocomposites. We envision that the template strategy is general and robust, and offers easy access to other conjugated polymer–inorganic semiconductor nanocomposites for use in a variety of applications.

A robust strategy to produce spherically shaped organic–inorganic nanocomposites composed of PbTe nanoparticles tethered with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) chains was developed by using amphiphilic star-like diblock copolymer PAA-b-PEDOT as template. The PbTe–PEDOT nanohybrids show long-term stability and hold promise for use in thermoelectrics.

High-performance perovskite light-emitting diodes are achieved by an interfacial engineering approach, leading to the most efficient near-infrared devices produced using solution-processed emitters and efficient green devices at high brightness conditions.

Learning from classics: Crystal growth is a complex process, and there are multiple paths for going from dissolved ions to solid crystals. Highlighted herein is the application of traditional chemistry concepts to new ways for increasing the complexity of nanocrystals while maintaining a high degree of symmetry.

CuInSe_xS_2­–x quantum dot field-effect transistors show p-type, n-type, and ambipolar behaviors with carrier mobilities up to 0.03 cm² V­^–1 s^–1. Although some design rules from studies of cadmium and lead containing quantum dots can be applied, remarkable differences are observed including a strong gating effect in as-synthesized nanocyrstals with long ligands.