To fully explore exciton-based applications and improve their performance, it is essential to understand the exciton behavior in anisotropic materials. Here, we investigate the optical properties of anisotropic excitons in GeS encapsulated by h-BN using different approaches that combine polarization- and temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements, ab initio calculations, and effective mass approximation (EMA). Using the Bethe-Salpeter Equation (BSE) method, we found that the optical absorption spectra in GeS are significantly affected by the Coulomb interaction included in the BSE method, which shows the importance of excitonic effects besides it exhibits a significant dependence on the direction of polarization, revealing the anisotropic nature of bulk GeS. By combining ab initio calculations and EMA methods, we investigated the quasi-hydrogenic exciton states and oscillator strength (OS) of GeS along the zigzag and armchair axes. We found that the anisotropy induces lifting of the degeneracy and mixing of the excitonic states in GeS, which results in highly non-hydrogenic features. A very good agreement with the experiment is observed.

Optical trapping is a state-of-the-art methodology that plays an integral role in manipulating and investigating microscopic objects but faces formidable challenges in multiparticle trapping, flexible manipulation, and high-integration applications. In this study, we propose and demonstrate a switchable optical scheme for trapping microparticles incorporating disparate vortex-pair beams generated by a polarization-multiplexed metasurface. The miniaturized all-dielectric metasurface, which comprises an array of titanium dioxide nanoposts, was manufactured and characterized to provide polarization-tuned two-fold vortex-pair beams. The profiles of the created vortices can be flexibly tailored by adjusting the combination of topological charges and the separation among phase singularities. Under transverse electric polarized light conditions, a vortex-pair beam with opposite topological charge combinations traps a single microparticle within one beam spot, while under transverse magnetic polarization conditions, two microparticles are captured simultaneously by a vortex-pair beam with the same topological charge signs. The proposed switchable trapping scheme (incorporating a vortex-pair light beam) is expected to feature enhanced integration and flexible manipulation of multiple particles with potential applications in biophysics, nanotechnology, and photonics.

Metalloenzymes represent exemplary systems in which an organic scaffold combines with a functional inorganic entity, resulting in excellent redox catalysts. Inspired by these natural hybrid biomolecules, biomolecular templates have garnered significant attention for the controlled synthesis of inorganic nanostructures. These nanostructures ultimately benefit from the protection and colloidal stabilization provided by the biomacromolecule. In this study, we have employed this strategy to prepare nanozymes with redox capabilities, utilizing the versatile catalytic profile of Pt-loaded nanomaterials. Thus, we have investigated protein-templated Pt-based nanoclusters of different sizes and compositions, which exhibit remarkable oxidase, catalase, and reductase-like activities. The interplay between the composition and catalytic activity highlighted the size of the nanocluster as the most prominent factor in determining the performance of the nanozymes. Additionally, we have demonstrated the use of protein-templated nanozymes as potential co-catalysts in combination with enzymes for coupled reactions, under both sequential and concurrent one-pot conditions. This study provides valuable insights into nanozyme design and its wide range of applications in the design of complex catalytic systems.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of Nanoscale's reviewers, and in particular highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for the journal in 2022.

Defects play a very important role in semiconductors and only the control over the defect properties allows the implementation of materials in dedicated applications. We present an investigation of the UV luminescence of defects in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) grown by Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE). Such intentionally introduced defects are important for applications like deep UV emission and quantum information. In this work, we performed photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence experiments on a set of h-BN layers grown by MOVPE at different growth temperatures (tgr). The obtained defect-related spectra in the ultraviolet range include well-known lines at about 230 nm (X230, hν = 5.4 eV) and 300 nm (C300 - the brightest one, hν = 4.14 eV) as well as a rarely observed band with a zero-phonon line at 380 nm (C380, hν = 3.24 eV). The C300 and C380 bands have the characteristic of a color centre showing sharp lines (0.6 nm width) at 5 K. These lines are most probably an internal transition of carbon-related defects. We show that for samples grown at high temperatures (tgr > 1200 °C), the lines related to the color centres C are replaced by broad bands at 330 nm and 400 nm, which we marked as D330 and D400, respectively. The D bands have similar central energies to the C bands but extend over a large energy range, so we propose that the D emission is due to a shallow donor to deep acceptor recombination. Time-resolved photoluminescence analysis determined the lifetimes of the individual lines in the range from 0.9 ns (C300), 1.8 ns (C380) to 4 ns (D400). The C300 and C380 color centre bands are composed of a series of characteristic lines that are due to the interaction with phonons. The E1u (198 meV) and A2u (93 meV) phonon replicas have been identified.

We present a size-selective method for purifying and isolating perovskite CsPbBr3 nanocrystals (NCs) that preserves their as-synthesized surface chemistry and extremely high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs). The isolation procedure is based on the stepwise evaporation of nonpolar co-solvents with high vapor pressure to promote precipitation of a size-selected product. As the sample fractions become more uniform in size, we observe that the NCs self-assemble into colloidally stable, solution-phase superlattices (SLs). Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) studies show that the solution-phase SLs contain 1000s of NCs per supercrystal in a simple cubic, face-to-face packing arrangement. The SLs also display systematically faster radiative decay dynamics and improved PLQYs, as well as unique spectral absorption features likely resulting from inter-particle electronic coupling effects. This study is the first demonstration of solution-phase CsPbBr3 SLs and highlights their potential for achieving collective optoelectronic phenomena previously observed from solid-state assemblies.

The impulsive excitation of ensembles of excitons or color centers by a high-energy electron beam results in the observation of photon bunching in the second-order correlation function of the cathodoluminescence generated by those emitters. Photon bunching in cathodoluminescence microscopy can be used to resolve the excited-state dynamics and the excitation and emission efficiency of nanoscale materials, and it can be used to probe interactions between emitters and nanophotonic cavities. Unfortunately, the required integration times for these measurements can be problematic for beam-sensitive materials. Here, we report substantial changes in the measured bunching induced by indirect electron interactions (with indirect electron excitation inducing g2(0) values approaching 104). This result is critical to the interpretation of g2(τ) in cathodoluminescence microscopies, and, more importantly, it provides a foundation for the nanoscale characterization of optical properties in beam-sensitive materials.

Urea pollution is a growing environmental concern, and its removal via catalytic hydrolysis is challenging due to the resonance-stabilized amide bonds. In nature, this reaction is catalyzed by ureases in many soil bacteria. However, the remedy of this problem with natural enzymes is not feasible as they are easily denatured and require high costs for both preparation and storage. Given this, the development of nanomaterials bearing enzyme-like activity (nanozymes) with advantages such as low production cost, simple storage, and pH/thermal stability has attracted much attention over the past decade. As inspired by the mechanism of urease-catalyzed urea hydrolysis, the co-presence of Lewis acid (LA) and Brønsted acid (BA) sites is imperative to proceed with this reaction. Herein, layered HNb3O8 samples with intrinsic BA sites were adopted for investigation. The layer reduction of this material to few-/single layers can expose Nb sites with various LA strengths depending on the degree of NbO6 distortion. Among the catalysts examined, single-layer HNb3O8 bearing strong LA and BA sites displays the best hydrolytic activity towards acetamide and urea. This sample with high thermal stability was found to outperform urease at temperatures higher than 50 °C. The acidity-activity correlation established in this study is believed to guide the future design of industrial catalysts to remediate urea pollution.

Lithium-metal batteries (LMBs) are expected to serve as next-generation energy storage systems due to their high theoretical energy density. However, their practical application is largely impeded due to the safety risks that arise from the uncontrollable Li dendrite growth and the high reactivity between high flammability liquid organic electrolytes and metallic lithium. Here, we report a highly safe quasi-solid gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) to achieve stable cycling of lithium metal with high coulombic efficiency, and it is prepared by in situ polymerization of 1,3-dioxolane (DOL) assisted by multi-functional H3Sb3P2O14 sheets. H3Sb3P2O14 acts as an initiator and a functional additive simultaneously that promotes the formation of a stable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layer, thereby regulating the uniform deposition of Li and improving the Li plating/stripping efficiency. The obtained quasi-solid GPE exhibits high ionic conductivity and enhanced oxidative stability, favoring a stabilized electrode/electrolyte interface. Using the GPE, the electrochemical performance of the quasi-solid-state LMB with a LiFePO4 cathode and a lithium metal anode is significantly improved, delivering a discharge capacity of 125.7 mA h g-1 even after 1000 cycles. Therefore, the high reversibility and remarkable battery cyclability suggest that such a GPE is a promising choice of electrolyte for LMBs, while its facile preparation makes its large-scale application possible in the future.

In conventional hydrothermal synthesis of porous titanosilicate materials, undesired aggregation of TiO2 species during the synthesis limits the content of active four-coordinated Ti to an Si/Ti ratio of about 40. Aiming to increase the content of active four-coordinated Ti species, we report a bottom-up synthesis of titanosilicate nanoparticles using a Ti-incorporated cubic silsesquioxane cage as a precursor, which allowed incorporating a larger number of four-coordinated Ti species in the silica matrix to reach an Si/Ti ratio of 19. Even at this relatively high Ti concentration, the catalytic activity in the epoxidation of cyclohexene over the titanosilicate nanoparticles was comparable to that of a conventional reference Ti catalyst, Ti-MCM-41, with an Si/Ti ratio of 60. The activity per Ti site was not affected by the Ti content in the nanoparticles, suggesting that well dispersed and stabilized Ti species were the active sites.