Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials hold great promise for various future electronic and optoelectronic devices that traditional semiconductors cannot afford. 2D pnictogen, group-VA atomic sheet (including phosphorene, arsenene, antimonene, and bismuthene) is believed to be a competitive candidate for next-generation logic devices. This is due to their intriguing physical and chemical properties, such as tunable midrange bandgap and controllable stability. Since the first black phosphorus field-effect transistor (FET) demo in 2014, there has been abundant exciting research advancement on the fundamental properties, preparation methods, and related electronic applications of 2D pnictogen. Herein, we review the recent progress in both material and device aspects of 2D pnictogen FETs. This includes a brief survey on the crystal structure, electronic properties and synthesis, or growth experiments. With more device orientation, this review emphasizes experimental fabrication, performance enhancing approaches, and configuration engineering of 2D pnictogen FETs. At the end, this review outlines current challenges and prospects for 2D pnictogen FETs as a potential platform for novel nanoelectronics.

The phosphorylation of oligonucleotides and peptides plays a critical role in regulating virtually all cellular processes. To fully understand these complex and fundamental regulatory pathways, the cellular phosphorylate changes of both oligonucleotides and peptides should be simultaneously identified and characterized. Here, we demonstrated a single-molecule, high-throughput, label-free, general, and one-step aerolysin nanopore method to comprehensively evaluate the phosphorylation of both oligonucleotide and peptide substrates. By virtue of electrochemically confined effects in aerolysin, our results show that the phosphorylation accelerates the traversing speed of a negatively charged substrate for about hundreds of time while significantly enhances the translocation frequency of a positively charged substrate. Thereby, the kinase/phosphatase activity could be directly measured with the aerolysin nanopore from the characteristically dose-dependent event frequency of the substrates. By using this straightforward approach, a model T₄ oligonucleotide kinase (PNK) further achieved the nanopore evaluation of its phosphatase activity and real-time monitoring of its phosphatase-catalyzed dephosphorylation at a single-molecule level. Our study provides a step forward to nanopore enzymology for analyzing the phosphorylation of both oligonucleotides and peptides with significant feasibility in fundamental biochemical researches, clinical diagnosis, and kinase/phosphatase-targeted drug discovery.

Inspired by nature’s water-repellent plants, the superhydrophobic surface (SHS) and the lubricant-infused surface (LIS) possess potentials in various fields of application. In particular, the edible SHS and the edible LIS (ELIS) are suitable for the role of high-valued liquid food residue reduction. In this study, the ELIS was introduced through a facile spray method and direct lubricant infusion. Four types of ELISs were fabricated: carnauba wax with ethyl oleate infusion, carnauba wax with cooking oil infusion, beeswax with ethyl oleate infusion, and beeswax with cooking oil infusion. The carnauba wax-coated ELIS has better slipperiness, while the beeswax-coated ELIS has better transparency. The ethyl oleate-infused ELIS possesses ELIS to SHS transformable ability, and the cooking oil-infused ELIS also possesses better slipperiness and has the affordable advantage. Moreover, the material selection of ELIS is accessible, renewable, green, recyclable, and edible. The results illustrated that ELIS has advantages of long-term effectiveness and impact resistance over edible SHS and indicated that the ELIS can be facilitated for the manufacture of a multifunctional liquid residue reduction surface with food safety assurance.

Direct conversion of the tremendous and ubiquitous low-grade thermal energy into electricity by thermogalvanic cells is a promising strategy for energy harvesting. The environment is one of the richest and renewable low-grade thermal source. However, critical challenges remain for all-day electricity generation from environmental thermal energy due to the low frequency and small amplitude of temperature fluctuations in the environment. In this work, we report a tandem device consisting of a polypyrrole (PPy) broadband absorber/radiator, thermogalvanic cell, and thermal storage material (Cu foam/PEG1000) that integrates multiple functions of heating, cooling, and recycling of thermal energy. The thermogalvanic cell enables continuous utilization of environmental thermal energy at both daytime and nighttime, yielding maximum outputs as high as 0.6 W m^-2 and 53 mW m^-2, respectively. As demonstrated outdoors by a large-scale prototype module, this design offers a feasible and promising approach to all-day electricity generation from environmental thermal energy.

The growth of crystalline Si (c-Si) via direct electron beam writing shows promise for fabricating Si nanomaterials due to its ultrahigh resolution. However, to increase the writing speed is a major obstacle, due to the lack of systematic experimental explorations of the growth process and mechanisms. This paper reports a systematic experimental investigation of the beam-induced formation of c-Si nanoparticles (NPs) from amorphous SiO₂ under a range of doses and temperatures by in situ transmission electron microscopy at the atomic scale. A three-orders-of-magnitude writing speed-up is identified under 80 keV irradiation at 600°C compared with 300 keV irradiation at room temperature. Detailed analysis reveals that the self-organization of c-Si NPs is driven by reduction of c-Si effective free energy under electron irradiation. This study provides new insights into the formation mechanisms of c-Si NPs during direct electron beam writing and suggests methods to improve the writing speed.

Distributed renewable energy share increase in electricity generation is creating challenges for the whole power system, due to its intermittent and nonprogrammable nature. Energy storage has the potential to solve those issues although its technical, economic, and environmental impact is up for debate. The paper presents a study about a PV-battery energy storage system installed in a grid-connected residential apartment in the Green Energy Laboratory at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. Daily experimental results show how the presence of energy storage reduces the midday feed-in of excess PV power and the evening peak demand, providing benefits to the distribution network in terms of reduced voltage swings and peak load. Considering the Chinese context, an economic analysis is carried out to assess the profitability of residential PV-battery systems, using the net present value as the economic indicator of an 18-year investment in which the battery pack is replaced twice (6 life years). The analysis shows that such system is not economically viable due to a combination of low electricity prices, valuable PV incentives, and high technology costs. However, considering a future scenario of doubled electricity tariff, halved export tariff, and falling technology costs (-66% battery and -17% PV and inverter), PV-battery investment becomes profitable and shows more resilience to future scenarios than PV-only investment.

Tin oxide (SnO₂), as electron transport material to substitute titanium oxide (TiO₂) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs), has aroused wide interests. However, the performance of the PSCs based on SnO₂ is still hard to compete with the TiO₂-based devices. Herein, a novel strategy is designed to enhance the photovoltaic performance and long-term stability of PSCs by integrating rare-earth ions Ln³⁺ (Sc³⁺, Y³⁺, La³⁺) with SnO₂ nanospheres as mesoporous scaffold. The doping of Ln promotes the formation of dense and large-sized perovskite crystals, which facilitate interfacial contact of electron transport layer/perovskite layer and improve charge transport dynamics. Ln dopant optimizes the energy level of perovskite layer, reduces the charge transport resistance, and mitigates the trap state density. As a result, the optimized mesoporous PSC achieves a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.63% without hysteresis, while the undoped PSC obtains an efficiency of 19.01%. The investigation demonstrates that the rare-earth doping is low-cost and effective method to improve the photovoltaic performance of SnO₂-based PSCs.

Breaking the space-time symmetries in materials can markedly influence their electronic and optical properties. In 3R-stacked transition metal dichalcogenides, the explicitly broken inversion symmetry enables valley-contrasting Berry curvature and quantization of electronic angular momentum, providing an unprecedented platform for valleytronics. Here, we study the valley coherence of 3R WS₂ large single-crystal with thicknesses ranging from monolayer to octalayer at room temperature. Our measurements demonstrate that both A and B excitons possess robust and thickness-independent valley coherence. The valley coherence of direct A (B) excitons can reach 0.742 (0.653) with excitation conditions on resonance with it. Such giant and thickness-independent valley coherence of large single-crystal 3R WS₂ at room temperature would provide a firm foundation for quantum manipulation of the valley degree of freedom and practical application of valleytronics.

Have one ever seen a semiconductor that can issue two-color lasing lines? The diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) can do this. Here, we have observed dual lasing lines of 530 nm and 789 nm from a DMS structure of CdS:NiI, in which the excitonic magnetic polaron (EMP) and localized excitonic magnetic polaron (LEMP) are excitations out of ferromagnetic (NiS){}_x nanocluster and NiI₂ nanoclusters within CdS lattice; both of them could lead to the collective EMP state at high excitation and therein produce coherent emission lines simultaneously. This occurrence is due to the superposition of EMP near CdS bandedge and the combination of the charge-transfer band of (NiI){}_n cluster with the LEMP within CdS lattice by overcoming the strong electron correlation of NiI cluster in a DMS structure, evidenced also by ab initio calculation. This finding opens a way to understand the collective behaviour of spin-coupled excitons in DMS and to find novel applications in the spin-related quantum technology.

The lithium- (Li-) metal anode is crucial for developing high-energy-density batteries, while its dendritic growth and the low charge/discharge Coulombic efficiency in organic electrolytes hinder its practical application. Herein, we employed an in situ optical microscope to investigate the effect of the electrolyte concentration and the working temperature on the Li-plating/-stripping process. It is found that a higher concentration electrolyte can suppress its side reaction to improve the charge/discharge Coulombic efficiency, and a higher temperature can help lithium plate/strip uniformly with less lithium dendritic growth. An average Coulombic efficiency was obtained as high as 99.2% for over 150 cycles with a fixed plating capacity of 2 mAh cm^-2 on copper foil in a 3 mol/kg ether-based electrolyte under 60°C, which provides an efficient and facile strategy for developing high-performance Li-metal batteries.