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The booming development of organometal halide perovskites in recent years has prompted the exploration of morphology-control strategies to improve their performance in photovoltaic, photonic, and optoelectronic applications. However, the preparation of organometal halide perovskites with high hierarchical architecture is still highly challenging and a general morphology-control method for various organometal halide perovskites has not been achieved. A mild and scalable method to prepare organometal halide perovskites in inverse opal morphology is presented that uses a polystyrene-based artificial opal as hard template. Our method is flexible and compatible with different halides and organic ammonium compositions. Thus, the perovskite inverse opal maintains the advantage of straightforward structure and band gap engineering. Furthermore, optoelectronic investigations reveal that morphology exerted influence on the conducting nature of organometal halide perovskites.

Porous perovskite: A series of organometal halide perovskite inverse opals were fabricated by using a colloidal crystal templating method. The perovskite inverse opal not only preserved the advantage of band gap engineering but also showed sensitive photocurrent generation. These perovskite inverse opals could be promising materials for optoelectronic device and photocatalysis.

As an effective alternative to noble platinum electrocatalyst, earth abundant and inexpensive layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are investigated for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Compared with binary TMDs, the tunably composed ternary TMDs have hitherto received relatively little attention. Here, few-layered ternary WS_2(1−x)Se_2x nanoribbons (NRs) with metallic 1T phases, much more catalytically active in HER, are prepared for the first time. The favorable ΔG_H^o introduced by the tensile region on the surface, along with the presence of local lattice distortions of the WS_2(1−x)Se_2x nanoribbons with metallic 1T phases, greatly promotes the HER process. These ternary NRs achieve the lowest overpotential of ≈0.17 V at 10 mA cm⁻² and a Tafel slope of ≈68 mV dec⁻¹ at a low catalyst loading (≈0.30 ± 0.02 mg cm⁻²). Notably, the long-term durability suggests the potential of practical applications in acid electrolytes. The results here suggest that the ternary WS_2(1−x)Se_2x NRs with 1T phases are prominent alternatives to platinum-based HER electrocatalysts.

Few-layered ternary WS_2(1–x)Se_2x nanoribbons (NRs) with metallic 1T phases are prepared. The favorable Gibbs free energy for hydrogen absorption (ΔG_H^o) of the WS_2(1–x)Se_2x NRs, introduced by the tensile region and local lattice distortions, greatly promotes the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The results suggest that the metallic WS_2(1–x)Se_2x NRs are potential alternatives for HER electrocatalysts.

The CH₃NH₃PbI_3−xCl_x organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite material demonstrates remarkable resistive switching behavior, which can be applicable in resistive random access memory devices. The simply designed Au/CH₃NH₃PbI_3−xCl_x/FTO structure is fabricated by a low-temperature, solution-processable method, which exhibits remarkable bipolar resistive switching and nonvolatile properties.

Unexpected wear increase is observed on a steel surface that rubbed against diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings only when lubricated by phosphate-based antiwear additives. Contradictory to the literature hypothesis of a competition between zinc dialkyldithiophosphate produced tribofilms and DLC-induced carbon transfer, here a new wear mechanism based on carbon-catalyzed tribochemical interactions supported by surface characterization is proposed.

Black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) were synthesized using a liquid exfoliation method that combined probe sonication and bath sonication. With a lateral size of approximately 2.6 nm and a thickness of about 1.5 nm, the ultrasmall BPQDs exhibited an excellent NIR photothermal performance with a large extinction coefficient of 14.8 Lg⁻¹ cm⁻¹ at 808 nm, a photothermal conversion efficiency of 28.4 %, as well as good photostability. After PEG conjugation, the BPQDs showed enhanced stability in physiological medium, and there was no observable toxicity to different types of cells. NIR photoexcitation of the BPQDs in the presence of C6 and MCF7 cancer cells led to significant cell death, suggesting that the nanoparticles have large potential as photothermal agents.

A liquid exfoliation method based on a combination of probe sonication and bath sonication was adopted to synthesize black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs). These displayed a high extinction coefficient of 14.8 Lg⁻¹ cm⁻¹, a photothermal conversion efficiency of 28.4 %, and good biocompatibility, and can thus be used as highly effective photothermal agents for cancer therapy.

A facile chemical vapor deposition method to prepare single-crystalline VS₂ nanosheets for the hydrogen evolution reaction is reported. The electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activities of VS₂ show an extremely low overpotential of −68 mV at 10 mA cm⁻², small Tafel slopes of ≈34 mV decade⁻¹, as well as high stability, demonstrating its potential as a candidate non-noble-metal catalyst for the HER.

The controllable synthesis of black phosphorus quantum dots as ultrasmall photothermal agents is described by P. K. Chu, H. Zhang, X.-F. Yu, and co-workers in their Communication on page 11526 ff. The nanoparticles display a high extinction coefficient of 14.8 Lg⁻¹ cm⁻¹, a photothermal conversion efficiency of 28.4 %, and good biocompatibility, thus demonstrating great potential for photothermal therapy.

The first room-temperature terahertz (THz)-frequency nanodetector exploiting a 10 nm thick flake of exfoliated crystalline black phosphorus as an active channel of a field-effect transistor, is devised. By engineering and embedding planar THz antennas for efficient light harvesting, the first technological demonstration of a phosphorus-based active THz device is described.