The all-inorganic perovskite nanocrystals are promising luminescent materials for optoelectronic devices. However, it is still a challenge to prepare perovskite nanocrystals with high luminescence. Herein, a synthesis method was developed for the uniform incorporation of ultra-thin BiOBr nanosheets into perovskite crystals at both body-embedding and surface-passivating positions. The micron-scale green-emitting phosphors composed of Cs4PbBr6 nanocrystals and BiOBr nanosheets are prepared. The crystal structure of Cs4PbBr6 nanocrystals can remain almost unchanged although prepared from different PbBr2 concentrations. The luminescence mechanism of Cs4PbBr6 is discussed. The Cs4PbBr6@BiOBr submicron phosphors can be dispersed in DMSO solvent without disintegration and dissolution, which are used as seeds of the CsPbBr3 film growth. The CsPbBr3 films with Cs4PbBr6@BiOBr doped exhibit pure optical characteristics of CsPbBr3, indicating that Cs4PbBr6 is converted to CsPbBr3 during the film preparation process. Furthermore, these Cs4PbBr6@BiOBr phosphors are mixed with CaAlSiN3: Eu red-emitting commercial phosphors to make white LEDs (WLEDs). Overall, this study provides a revealing insight into a kind of composite material constructed with halide perovskite and bismuth halide oxide.

Self-propulsion of droplets in a controlled and long path at a high-speed is crucial for organic synthesis, pathological diagnosis and programable lab-on-a-chip. To date, extensive efforts have been made to achieve droplet self-propulsion by asymmetric gradient, yet, existing structural, chemical, or charge density gradients can only last for a while (<50 mm). Here, this work designs a symmetrical waved alternating potential (WAP) on a superhydrophobic surface to charge or discharge the droplets during the transport process. By deeply studying the motion mechanisms for neutral droplets and charged droplets, the circularly on/discharged droplets achieve the infinite self-propulsion (>1000 mm) with an ultrahigh velocity of meters per second. In addition, after permutation and combination of two motion styles of the droplets, it can be competent for more interesting work, such as liquid diode and liquid logic gate. Being assembled into a microfluidic chip, the strategy would be applied in chemical synthesis, cell culture, and diagnostic kits.

Solar-driven desalination technology can effectively solve the problem of global water shortage. However, the complexity and cost of the preparation process have hindered the further development of solar-driven water evaporation devices. In this paper, a promising and economical solar evaporator was designed based on carbonized reed poles. The vertically aligned carbon structure and carbonized surface folds can increase the light-absorbing area for efficient photothermal conversion. Reed poles are rich in water transport channels, where the uniform distribution of polyacrylamide accelerates the water transport and shortens the evaporation pathway. As a result, the water evaporation rate is as high as 2.42 kg-2 h-1 under the radiant illumination of one sun. In addition, the evaporator device is effective for seawater desalination and dye wastewater treatment. Therefore, this environmental-friendly and economical solar evaporation system is an effective way to achieve water purification.

The conventional sea water desalination technologies are not yet adopted worldwide, especially in the third world countries due to their high capital cost as well as large energy requirement. To solve this issue in a sustainable way an interfacial solar water evaporation device is designed and proposed in this article using the branches of Prunus serrulata (PB). The PB has abundant microchannels and shows excellent photothermal conversion capability after carbonization. Moreover, the easy access to raw materials and the facile fabrication process makes the solar water evaporating device very cost effective for seawater desalination application. Experiments show that in the presence of the fabricated evaporator the evaporation rate of water can reach 3.5 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 sun, which is superior to many similar experimental devices. In addition, its advantages, such as effective sewage purification capability, low cost, and environmental friendliness, make this evaporator highly competitive in the extensive promotion of this technology and can be considered as a new sustainable solution for seawater desalination with great application potential and prospects. A solar evaporator based on hydrogel modified biomass material is fabricated. The carbonized branches are modified by polyvinyl alcohol. The device has an excellent evaporation rate of 3.5 kg m-2; h-1 and a solar steam efficiency of 98.5% under 1 sun illumination. image

Solar-powered water evaporation as a clean and abundant renewable energy-efficient desalination technology provides a promising strategy to solve the shortage of freshwater resources. However, the development and application of solar vapor technology are hindered by the relatively low near-infrared photothermal conversion efficiency of existing materials and the lack of effective improvement strategies. In this work, the conductivity characteristics of 2D semiconductors are capitalized on the high visible light absorption and ultra-low thermal. Specifically, rare-earth ion dopants into SnSe nanosheets, significantly boosting their near-infrared photothermal conversion efficiency and solar water evaporation performance are introduced. Remarkably, the photothermal conversion efficiency of the doped SnSe nanosheets surged from 51.56% to 82.11%, surpassing many previously reported photothermal materials. Furthermore, leveraging these nanosheets with enhanced photothermal conversion efficiency, a solar interfacial evaporation system is constructed. The evaporation rate of 2.17 kg m-2 h-1 and the efficiency of 96.5% can be achieved at one solar irradiance, and it also has good salt-resistance properties. The findings demonstrate the potential of rare earth ion-doped 2D semiconductor nanosheets in solar water evaporation, paving the way for future sustainable desalination solutions.

Flexible sensors have attracted extensive research interest due to their great application potential in biodetection, flexible display, and wearable devices. However, they still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of luminous color, flexibility, and self-powered systems. A wearable, antifreeze, and discoloration sensing system based on electroluminescence, mechanoluminescence, and tribo-power generation is developed in this paper. Triboelectric nanogenerator systems can harvest biomechanical energy from hand clapping and knee/elbow bending to generate real-time electrical signals. The use of dielectric materials reduces the initial voltage and frequency of light-emitting devices, enabling them to be driven by Triboelectric nanogenerators. At the same time, the device can produce red, blue, white, and other multicolor light. In addition, the system can produce an optical signal output due to external mechanical stimulation. As a result, the sensor system is simple to manufacture and unique to operate, proving its potential applications in areas such as cold-resistant displays, wearable optoelectronics, soft robotics, and electronic skin.

Utilizing solar-thermal power for water purification through interfacial solar steam generation represents an environmentally friendly approach to secure a clean water source. However, it is still challenging to simultaneously overcome short transport distances, low transport rates, and unsatisfactory solar-thermal energy conversion efficiency, as well as the salt accumulation problem. In this work, three-dimensional (3D) reconfigurable water evaporators are developed based on commercial fabric strings and hydroxylated carbon nanotubes. The specifically designed 3D architecture enables the fabric strings to have a long water transport distance and localized focusing of solar light that benefits the fabrication of 3D evaporators and water isolation with low heat loss. Besides, the hydroxylated carbon nanotubes with strong hydrophilicity as well as their inherent black color show high solar-heat conversion efficiency. A high evaporation rate of 3.234kg m-2h- 1 is found and a solar-tovapor efficiency of 123.21 % is also achieved by using a vertical evaporation structure due to the enlarged surface area allowing absorption of heat from the environment. Meanwhile, the accumulated salts do not block the water transport pathway and they can be easily removed in high-salinity water evaporation by employing the assembled rotating evaporator. The results suggest that the fabric rope is a good platform for exploring highly efficient evaporation structures. Combined with hydroxylated carbon nanotubes, as-designed 3D reconfigurable evaporators are promising for efficient freshwater generation.

We present a universal strategy to produce robust yet flexible layered slippery surfaces. Based on these surfaces, the fabricated sensors possess outstanding stability in extreme working environments.

Droplet manipulation has drawn enormous attention due to its important role in technological applications from energy and environment to human health. However, the facilely active manipulation of functional droplets on a nonresponsive slippery surface remains a great challenge. Here, triggered by external stimuli (light irradiation, electric field, and magnetic field), an active manipulation of functional droplets is reported, that is propelling the droplets on a nonresponsive slippery surface, without the need fosurface responsiveness. The driven forces are the asymmetrical forces induced by external stimuli. Moreover, the proof-of-concept experiments of the coalescence, micro reaction, anti-gravity force manipulation, and screening of different droplets under external stimuli are demonstrated. All the results indicate that this work can offer a feasible strategy for actively manipulating droplets independent of surface responsiveness and facilitate the development of chemical detection, microfluidics, bioanalysis, and medicines.

Global warming has highlighted the urgency of implementing renewable energy technologies. Solar-driven water evaporation has attracted significant attention because solar radiation is a green (i.e., renewable) energy source that can be applied for seawater desalination purposes. Various materials have been developed to promote the transformation of solar energy to heat to enhance the efficiency of steam generation. However, developing materials that are suitable for long-term applications, i.e., with high mechanical strength and antifouling resistance, is challenging. This report describes the preparation of carbon-coated glass fiber cloth (C-GFC) using a polymer pyrolysis method. The C-GFC exhibited high mechanical strength (240 MPa), anti-corrosion properties in acidic and alkaline environments, light absorption over 95%, and good hydrophilicity. After integrating the C-GFC into a three-layer evaporation generator device, the evaporation rate exceeded 1.5 kg m- 2 h-1 under one sun, with 88% thermal conversion efficiency. Moreover, the C-GFC materials maintained their initial evaporation rate even after long-term treatment in acidic, alkaline, and seawater environments. The developed carbon-coated glass fiber cloth materials therefore demonstrate promising potential for photothermal water conversion applications.

Spatial manipulation of various droplets and programmable droplet storage were achieved on a photothermal slippery surface.

The development of responsive slippery surfaces is important because of the high demand for such materials in the fields of liquid manipulation on biochips, microfluidics, microreactions, and liquid-harvesting devices. Although great progress has been achieved, the effect of substrate wettability on slippery surfaces stability is overlooked by scientists. In addition, current responsive slippery surfaces generally function utilizing single external stimuli just for imprecisely controlling liquid motion, while advanced intelligences are always expected to be integrated into one smart interface material for widespread multifunctional applications. Therefore, designing slippery surfaces that collaboratively respond to complex external stimuli and possess sophisticated composite function for expanding applications from controlling droplets motion to patterned writing is urgently needed but remains a challenge. Here, a photoelectric cooperative-responsive slippery surface based on ZnO nanoporous composites is demonstrated. First, the effect of composite surface wettability on slippery surface stability is systematically researched and the optimum wettability region for fabricating stable slippery surfaces is determined. Furthermore, controllable droplet motion and patterned writing are realized on the same slippery surfaces under photoelectric cooperative stimuli, and the related response mechanism is also deeply studied. This kind of material has potential applications in biochips, microfluidics, in situ patterning, and water-harvesting systems.

A serial of copper meshes with different chemical composition and roughness was prepared by modifying different mixed thiols, which showed different wetting behavior and permeation behavior for different ethanol/water mixed solution.

The cleaning of interface pollutants typically consumes a large amount of energy. Therefore, the development of multiphase media antiadhesive materials is urgently required to meet the demand of energy savings and environmental protection. In this study, the antiadhesive properties toward several liquid droplets and bubbles in multiple media are demonstrated on a porous Fe2O3 coating, which is prepared via a facile spin-coating-assisted breath figure approach and a phase separation strategy. The prominent antiadhesive characteristic of these porous surfaces lies in their high-surface-energy hierarchical micro/nanoscale structure, which easily entraps one medium (oil or water) in the pore and repels other unmixable liquids and air bubbles. In addition, we successfully demonstrate an antifouling application of the coating, which shows excellent antiadhesive and super-antiwetting characteristics under multiple liquids. Our work extends relevant antiadhesion research from a single medium to multiple media and promises to broaden the applications of antiadhesive materials in sophisticated activities performed under complicated liquid environments, such as marine antifouling or pipeline transportation.

We design a novel type of artificial multiple nanochannel system with remarkable ion rectification behavior via a facile breath figure (BF) method. Notably, even though the charge polarity in the channel wall reverses under different pH values, this nanofluidic device displays the same ionic rectification direction. Compared with traditional nanochannels, this composite multiple ion channel device can be more easily obtained and has directional ionic rectification advantages, which can be applied in many fields.

A highly ordered open pore honeycomb-structured hybrid film was fabricated by controlling substrate roughness and wettability with the breath figure (BF) method. This composite consists of a porous hydrophobic polyimide (PI) film and a hydrophilic anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) film. The difference between hydrophilic-hydrophobic surfaces yielded an attractive directional water-penetration function. These findings may lead to new applications for honeycomb-structured composites with directional water functionality in fields such as directional drug delivery, biosensors and molecular filtration.