http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/rss/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1521-4095

A functionally segregated ion regulation strategy is developed, incorporating ion-functional groups into the hydrogel electrolyte to achieve a dual confinement effect and regulate Zn2+ flux. This approach effectively suppresses the polyiodide shuttle effect and strengthens the electrochemical stability of Zn anodes, enabling aqueous zinc-iodine batteries with high areal capacity and a record-long lifespan.

Conventional electrolytes in aqueous zinc-iodine batteries struggle to suppress the shuttle effect and enhance interfacial stability, resulting in high self-discharge rate, low areal capacity, and short cycle life. To address these issues, a dual-confinement hydrogel electrolyte (DCHE) is designed to simultaneously stabilize the iodine cathode and zinc anode at high areal capacities via a functionally segregated ion regulation strategy. As for the cathode, anion-functional groups in the DCHE repel polyiodides, while cation-functional groups adsorb those that escape repulsion, thereby reinforcing the suppression of polyiodide migration toward the zinc anode. This dual confinement effect, validated by theoretical simulations and in situ characterization, effectively mitigates the shuttle effect. Additionally, hydrophilic and zincophilic functional groups regulate the hydrogen-bond network and Zn2+ flux, strengthening the electrochemical stability of the zinc anode. As a result, a Zn//ZnI2 cell assembled with DCHE delivers a practical areal capacity of 4.5 mAh cm−2 and achieves a record-long lifespan exceeding 6000 h with 88.9% capacity retention at 100 mA g−1. Furthermore, the single-layer pouch cell exhibits good mechanical stability, retaining 80% of its capacity after 100 cycles of 90° bending. This work highlights the importance of functionally segregated ion regulation in advancing high-performance aqueous batteries.

3D bioprinting merges tissue engineering and additive manufacturing to create biological structures. A bioink is developed by modifying hyaluronic acid, a natural extracellular matrix polymer, with cysteine. Potassium iodide is later added to tune gelation kinetics, enabling fine printing with a 32G needle. This innovation supports precise 3D in vitro models for studying cell interactions, disease mechanisms, and advancing therapeutics.

3D bioprinting bridges tissue engineering and additive manufacturing, however developing bioinks with balanced biological and physical properties remains a challenge. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a promising base material due to its biocompatibility and cell-recognition features. An HA-based bioink is designed using dynamic disulfide-crosslinking at physiological pH by modifying HA with cysteine moieties. To overcome the slow gelation kinetics typical of disulfide-crosslinked hydrogels, potassium iodide (KI) is introduced, accelerating gelation in a concentration-dependent manner. KI not only enhances gelation but also provides radical scavenging properties while maintaining hydrogel integrity. A low KI concentration (50 mm) offers more than a 3 h printing window, ensures cell viability, and facilitates the use of fine needles (32G, 108 µm inner diameter). This enables the fabrication of large (>3 cm) and complex 3D structures. Using this bioink, an osteoarthritis disease model is developed to investigate interactions between human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) and chondrocytes, demonstrating the immunomodulatory effect of hMSCs on inflammation-induced chondrocytes. Overall, the HA-based bioink addresses critical challenges in 3D bioprinting, providing a robust platform for constructing innovative in vitro models and supporting advancements in disease modeling and precision medicine.

In this work we show that light-responsive adaptive organic matter can store and process information at the matter level, and emulate neuromorphic functionalities such as short term memory, long term memory and visual memory. Besides demonstrating that material dynamics can be exploited for spatio-temporal event detection and motion perception, we show that these adaptive photo-responsive organic systems can be exploited for hardware implementation of physical reservoir computing.

Materials able to sense and respond to external stimuli by adapting their internal state to process and store information, represent promising candidates for implementing neuromorphic functionalities and brain-inspired computing paradigms. In this context, neuromorphic systems based on light-responsive materials enable the use of light as information carrier, allowing to emulate basic functions of the human retina. In this work it is demonstrated that optically-induced molecular dynamics in azopolymers can be exploited for neuromorphic-type of data processing in the analog domain and for computing at the matter level (i.e., in materia). Besides showing that azopolymers can be exploited for data storage, it is demonstrated that the adaptiveness of these materials enables the implementation of synaptic functionalities including short-term memory, long-term memory, and visual memory. Results show that azopolymers allow event detection and motion perception, enabling physical implementation of information processing schemes requiring real-time analysis of spatio-temporal inputs. Furthermore, it is shown that light-induced dynamics can be exploited for the in materia implementation of the unconventional computing paradigm denoted as reservoir computing. This work underscores the potential of azopolymers as promising materials for developing adaptive, intelligent photo-responsive systems that mimic some of the complex processing abilities of biological systems.

A multifunctional gene–drug co-delivery nanoplatform targeting Müller cells is developed to safeguard retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and restore optic nerve function in glaucoma. Multifunctional PPOB nanoparticles achieve high-efficiency (64.26%) and sustained (14.5 days) gene expression of BDNF. Combined with oligomycin, they effectively inhibit  the apoptosis of RGCs and confer superior optic nerve protection in an 8-week treatment.

Glaucoma is a retinal neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive apoptosis of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and irreversible visual impairment. Current therapies rarely offer direct protection for RGCs, highlighting the need for new neuroprotective approaches. Although viral delivery of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has shown potential, concerns about retinal inflammation and limited applicability persist. Meanwhile, non-viral vectors remain inefficient for in vivo ocular gene delivery. Here, a highly biocompatible nanoplatform—PBAE-PLGA-Oligomycin-pBDNF nanoparticles (PPOB NPs) is reported—that co-delivers oligomycin (an ATP inhibitor) and a BDNF plasmid to Müller cells in vivo. This nanoplatform attains an unprecedented transfection efficiency of 64.26% in Müller cells, thereby overcoming the limitations of monotherapeutic neurotrophic approaches that fail to inhibit ATP overproduction and attendant inflammatory responses. In a chronic ocular hypertension rat model, oligomycin effectively mitigated RGC damage by suppressing Müller cell hyperactivation and excessive ATP production under elevated intraocular pressure. Concurrently, it synergistically enhanced BDNF expression in Müller cells, achieving robust protection of RGCs and preservation of optic nerve function. These findings underscore the promise of PPOB NPs as a dual-functional platform, featuring high biocompatibility and efficient gene delivery, for multifaceted therapies against glaucoma and other ocular diseases.

A large-ring crown ether side chain is introduced to conjugated polymers to enable low-temperature melt processing while retaining high charge transport performance. The resulting polymers form highly aligned films via melt friction transfer, achieving enhanced mobility in organic transistors. This ecofriendly strategy supports scalable fabrication of high-performance polymer electronics with reduced solvent reliance.

Polymer semiconductors are crucial components in organic electronics and have shown remarkable progress in recent years. However, their dependence on halogenated solvents for film processing raises environmental concerns and introduces risks of defects caused by residual solvent molecules during film drying. Melt processing has emerged as a sustainable alternative for fabricating polymer semiconductor films. Despite its potential, balancing low melting temperatures with high charge transport performance remains challenging, as high-performance polymers typically exhibit high melting points due to their rigid conjugated backbones. This study introduces a molecular design strategy incorporating large-ring crown ether (LCE) side chains to enhance the melt processability of conjugated polymers. This approach reduces the melt temperature to as low as 70 °C while maintaining excellent charge transport performance. Highly aligned polymer films are fabricated using melt friction transfer processing and employed in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), achieving a carrier mobility of up to 1.06 cm2 V−1 s−1 in the channel-parallel direction, approximately 2.5 times greater than their non-oriented counterparts. Aggregation structure characterizations reveal that these LCE side chains not only enable low melting temperature but also facilitate bimodal texture formation, creating 3D pathways for efficient charge transport. This strategy offers a scalable, eco-friendly approach to produce high-performance electronics.

This review aims to summarize current advancements in biopolymer-based fibrous aggregate materials (BFAMs). The selection of biopolymers is discussed first based on their physical, chemical, and biological properties. Design principles concerning structure, functionalization, and interface are further summarized. Suitable processing technologies for BFAMs, and their applications in diagnostics and therapeutics are systematically reviewed. Finally, challenges and future perspectives are provided.

Biopolymer-based fibrous aggregate materials (BFAMs) have gained increasing attention in biomedicine due to their excellent biocompatibility, processability, biodegradability, and multifunctionality. Especially, the medical applications of BFAMs demand advanced structure, performance, and function, which conventional trial-and-error methods struggle to provide. This necessitates the rational selection of materials and manufacturing methods to design BFAMs with various intended functions and structures. This review summarizes the current progress in raw material selection, structural and functional design, processing technology, and application of BFAMs. Additionally, the challenges encountered during the development of BFAMs are discussed, along with perspectives for future research offered.

Carbon interlayers can promote the stable cycling of anode-free solid-state batteries, but their underlying mechanisms have remained elusive. In this study, a direct correlation is observed between the interfacial adhesion of the carbon interlayer and the location of lithium plating. By conducting quantitative peel tests, a threshold interfacial toughness is found to be a determining factor that directs plating toward specific interfaces.

Carbon interlayers have been implemented in “anode-free” solid-state batteries to improve the uniformity and reversibility of lithium deposition by controlling the location of Li plating. However, there remains a lack of fundamental understanding of the detailed role of how these interlayers function during in situ Li formation. In this study, the relationships between the interfacial adhesion of the carbon interlayer to the solid electrolyte and the location of Li plating are investigated. By varying the lamination pressure used during manufacturing, the ability to systematically tune the resulting interfacial adhesion is demonstrated. Mechanical peel tests are performed, and a 4-fold increase in interfacial toughness is measured as the lamination pressure increases from 100 to 400 MPa. Post-mortem electron microscopy revealed that the location of Li plating with respect to the carbon interlayer transitions from the interface with the solid electrolyte to the current collector above a threshold interfacial toughness, which is consistent when the interlayer material is changed from amorphous to hard carbon. These findings highlight the role of electro-chemo-mechanical relationships in systematically controlling Li deposition in solid-state batteries when interlayers are present.

Inspired by the bioelectrical phenomena based on the membrane potential variations and the glucose oxidation/reduction reactions, a redox oscillation enhanced water-enabled electric generator is proposed. The oscillating redox process not only boosts the ion-electron conversion at the interface but also realizes the synergy between the non-Faraday and Faraday current. The generator achieves an impressive peak electric output of 1.20 mA cm−2 and 0.41 W m−2 for 60 days.

The energy crisis driven by the widespread use of fossil fuels highlights the urgent need for green energy solutions. A variety of green electric generators based on interfacial ion regulation have emerged in recent years. However, conventional electricity generation methods that rely solely on ion movement at interfaces suffer from a rapid decline in electrical signals due to poor ion-electron conversion at the interface. Inspired by the bioelectrical phenomena based on the variations in membrane potential and the glucose oxidation/reduction reactions, a redox oscillation enhanced water-enabled electric generator is herein proposed. The oscillating redox process not only boosts the ion-electron conversion at the interface but also enables the synergy between the non-Faraday current and the Faraday current. As a result, the generator achieves an impressive peak electric output of 1.20 mA cm−2 and 0.41 W m−2 for 60 days, outperforming various water-enabled electric generators. Furthermore, this generator can be integrated into a flexible unit for both portable and large-scale applications. This work presents a novel approach for enhancing the output of green energy devices based on interfacial ion migration.

A generic designing approach of nonlinear metasurfaces is proposed for achieving complete amplitude, phase, and polarization control of broadband terahertz generation. The design combines coupling, nonlinear PB phase, and supercell diffraction, making it free from complex nonlinear simulation. Broadband terahertz spatial-polarization separable and nonseparable beams are experimentally demonstrated. This approach holds potential in developing integrated terahertz sources with customizable functionalities.

Terahertz (THz) generation is a crucial initial step in THz applications. However, the current THz sources face challenges in fully controlling the propagation properties of generated THz waves without the use of external devices. This limitation leads to bulky systems with unavoidable insertion losses and bandwidth constraints. To overcome these challenges and facilitate compact and versatile THz applications, a novel approach using nonlinear metasurfaces is proposed to control the amplitude, phase, and polarization of broadband THz waves directly and simultaneously at the emission stage. The basic design features an elaborated coupling-controlled chiral meta-atom, providing adjustable chirality and allowing an independent amplitude and phase control strategy under a circularly polarized (CP) pump. Furthermore, the polarization state of emitted THz wave can be arbitrarily customized by designing the superposition of the generated left-handed circularly polarized (LCP) and right-handed circularly polarized (RCP) components. This control is linearly predictable, eliminating the need for complex nonlinear simulations and interleaved supercell arrangements. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by experimentally generating two types of unique vectorial THz fields: spatial-polarization separable and nonseparable states. The proposed approach significantly enhances the capabilities of nonlinear metasurfaces, paving the way for versatile THz generation devices.

An asymmetric π-extended self-assembled monolayer (SAM), 4-PhCz, is designed to bifacially reinforce transparent conductive electrode/SAM and SAM/perovskite interfaces. It exhibits enhanced surface coverage on indium tin oxide (ITO) and excellent energy-level alignment with 1.67 eV perovskite, ultimately achieving a 31.26% power conversion efficiency in perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, retaining 92% of its initial efficiency after 1000 h of maximum power point tracking (MPPT).

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells have shown higher power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) than single-junction cells. However, their record PCE still falls short of the theoretical maximum, and their stability is significantly lower than that of crystalline silicon solar cells. These challenges stem from the substantial losses in open-circuit voltage (V OC) and the instability of wide-bandgap perovskite devices, which are mainly caused by nonradiative recombination and degradation at the heterojunction interfaces, respectively. Specifically, the weak adhesion between indium tin oxide (ITO) and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), along with inadequate interactions between the SAMs and the perovskite, contributes to this instability. Herein, a novel SAM material, 4-(11H-benzo[a]carbazol-11-yl)butyl (4-PhCz), has been developed to bifacially reinforce interfaces by enhancing SAM coverage on ITO and strengthening the interactions between SAM and perovskites. The resulting 1.67 eV perovskite solar cell (PSCs) achieves a V OC of 1.273 V with a low voltage loss of 0.397 V relative to the bandgap and a PCE of 22.53%. The 4-PhCz-based perovskite/silicon tandem cell achieves a V OC of 1.96 V and a PCE of 31.26%, retaining 92% of its initial efficiency after 1000 h of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) under 1-sun illumination in a nitrogen atmosphere at 25 °C.

This review outlines how large language models drive the emergence of generalist materials intelligence by orchestrating data mining, property prediction, structure generation, synthesis planning, and autonomous experimentation. Through the agent-in-the-loop paradigm, LLMs actively unify materials ontology, simulation, synthesis, and characterization, enabling closed-loop, multimodal reasoning across the entire materials discovery cycle.

Large language models (LLMs) are steering the development of generalist materials intelligence (GMI), a unified framework integrating conceptual reasoning, computational modeling, and experimental validation. Central to this framework is the agent-in-the-loop paradigm, where LLM-based agents function as dynamic orchestrators, synthesizing multimodal knowledge, specialized models, and experimental robotics to enable fully autonomous discovery. Drawing from a comprehensive review of LLMs’ transformative impact across representative applications in materials science, including data extraction, property prediction, structure generation, synthesis planning, and self-driven labs, this study underscores how LLMs are revolutionizing traditional tasks, catalyzing the agent-in-the-loop paradigm, and bridging the ontology-concept-computation-experiment continuum. Then the unique challenges of scaling up LLM adoption are discussed, particularly those arising from the misalignment of foundation LLMs with materials-specific knowledge, emphasizing the need to enhance adaptability, efficiency, sustainability, interpretability, and trustworthiness in the pursuit of GMI. Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that LLMs are not universally efficient. Their substantial resource demands and inconsistent performance call for careful deployment based on demonstrated task suitability. To address these realities, actionable strategies and a progressive roadmap for equitably and democratically implementing materials-aware LLMs in real-world practices are proposed.

ECFGel is a multifunctional hydrogel engineered to treat infection-associated ECFs. ECFGel demonstrates outstanding mechanical and biological properties, facilitating easy application, reliable occlusion, and sterilization, while promoting effective healing of infected fistula tracts. A choline and geranate-based ionic liquid hydrogel is used to concurrently enhance mechanical performance and confer antimicrobial functionality.

Enterocutaneous fistulas (ECFs) profoundly impact patients’ quality of life, contributing to high morbidity rates and increased mortality due to ineffective treatment options. To address this challenge, ECFGel, a multifunctional, tissue adhesive injectable hydrogel, designed to occlude, sterilize, and promote healing of ECF tracts, is developed. ECFGel is formulated using gelatin and oxidized dextran (O-Dex) as base components, which form chemical crosslinks within the hydrogel and with surrounding biological tissues, ensuring tissue adhesiveness. A choline and geranate-based ionic liquid (IL) is incorporated to provide dual functionality, potent antimicrobial activity, and mechanical enhancement. By optimizing IL concentration, ECFGel achieves rapid gelation, enhanced mechanical strength, and improved elastic recoverability. Additionally, iohexol (IOH) is added for radiopacity, enabling real-time imaging and further strengthening the hydrogel's mechanical properties. ECFGel demonstrates antiswelling properties, biodegradability, and effective tract occlusion in porcine soft tissues. It shows strong antimicrobial activity against highly resistant, patient-derived pathogens isolated from clinical ECF cases. In a porcine perianal fistula model, ECFGel enables rapid occlusion and complete healing, promoting tissue maturation, reducing bacterial load, and increasing markers of cell proliferation and vascularization compared to untreated controls. These promising results highlight ECFGel's potential as a new therapeutic option for treating infected ECFs.

Sustainable acrylic optically clear adhesives (OCAs) for foldable displays are developed by incorporating ultraviolet (UV)-triggered debondability and lipoic acid–based degradability through visible-light-induced bulk polymerization. These OCAs enable residue-free removal and degrade into small oligomers or recoverable monomers under mild conditions, supporting substrate recycling and adhesive recovery in next-generation flexible electronics.

In advanced applications such as flexible displays, reusing components is essential for achieving sustainability. However, the removal of acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs), which bond these components, remains a major challenge due to residue formation and the non-degradable C─C backbone. Here, the development of new acrylic PSA alternatives for foldable displays is reported by introducing ultraviolet (UV)-triggered debondability, degradability through lipoic acid analogs, and a visible-light-curing process. PSAs composed of 60 mol% lipoic acid ethyl ester (LpEt) and 3 mol% UV-cross-linkable benzophenone-functionalized acrylic monomers exhibit viscoelastic properties comparable to those of conventional acrylic PSAs, while also enable clean removal from substrates after use. Following removal, the PSAs efficiently degrade into small molecular units in the presence of a green reductant or can be recovered as monomers under controlled conditions. This strategy offers a promising pathway toward sustainable PSAs, enables the recycling of valuable substrates from flexible display modules while simultaneously allows adhesive recovery, thus presents a viable alternative to conventional acrylic adhesives.

Mimicking energy transduction in prototissue assemblies remains a challenge of bottom-up synthetic biology. In this work, prototissues integrating protocells with photothermal gold nanoparticle proto-organelles and a thermoresponsive polymeric proto-cortex are developed. These prototissues exhibited light-controlled reversible contractions, programmable motions, and dynamic control of enzymatic metabolism by restricting substrate access, pioneering a route toward bioinspired materials with emergent energy transduction behaviors.

Despite recent significant advances in the controlled assembly of protocell units into complex 3D architectures, the development of prototissues capable of mimicking the sophisticated energy transduction processes fundamental to living tissues remains a critical unmet challenge in bottom-up synthetic biology. Here a synthetic approach is described to start addressing this challenge and report the bottom-up chemical construction of a photonastic prototissue endowed with photo-mechano-chemical transduction capabilities. For this, novel protocells enclosing photothermal transducing proto-organelles based on gold nanoparticles and a thermoresponsive polymeric proto-cortex are developed. These advanced protocell units are assembled into prototissues capable of light-induced reversible contractions and complex motions, which can be exploited to reversibly switch off a coordinated internalized enzyme metabolism by blocking the access of small substrate molecules. Overall, the work provides a synthetic pathway to constructing prototissues with sophisticated energy transduction mechanisms, enabling the rational design of emergent behaviors in synthetic materials and addressing critical challenges in bottom-up synthetic biology and bioinspired materials engineering.

Room-temperature air-blade coating facilitated the fabrication of large-area organic solar modules using eco-friendly solvents via controlling liquid-to-solid transition with directional gas flow, achieving efficient opaque and colorful semitransparent modules.

Organic solar modules (OSMs) hold potential for building-integrated photovoltaics, yet facing challenges to fabricate uniform and large-area active layers over non-halogenated solvent coating. In this work, room-temperature air-blade assisted (RT/A) coating is presented that helps obtaining uniform active layers under ambient and non-halogenated solvent processing. It is revealed that RT/A coating mitigates the film inhomogeneity that is commonly observed during hot-substrate coating. Different to the thermal gradients-induced inhomogeneous liquid-to-solid transition of hot-substrate coating, RT/A strategy enables the control of transition time on film formation via directional gas flow to yield high-quality active layer blends at ambient coating. Large-area active layers from RT/A coating exhibit good consistency and uniformity. The resultant OSMs achieve high efficiencies with the certified PCE of 14.5% at 19.31 cm2 area (recorded in solar cell efficiency tables, version 60). By further integrating Fabry–Pérot transparent electrodes, colorful and semitransparent modules with PCEs of 12.80% are successfully developed. Overall, this work provides a promising method on the scalable fabrication of organic photovoltaics.

The work develops a binary aerogel-hydrogel system (SHA-HVG), achieving efficient water desalination (2.75 kg m−2 h−1) and high power density (56.86 µW cm−2) through enhanced interfacial evaporation and ionic concentration gradients. This study presents a cost-effective HVG strategy for water desalination and electrical energy harvesting, which is expected to promote the development of distributed energy, smart agriculture, and offshore ecosystems.

Hydrovoltaic generators (HVGs) convert abundant water energy into distributed electricity to promote the Internet of Things. Realizing low-cost yet high-performance HVG remains challenging, hindering its commercialization and application. Inspired by the xylem conduits in plants, which transport water and nutrients, an aerogel-hydrogel binary-component system (SHA-HVG) is developed. It consists of a photothermal graphite-doped polyvinylidene fluoride (G-PVDF) aerogel, infilled with a thermosensitive wettability-switchable sulfonic acid-modified polyisopropylacrylamide hydrogel (S-PNIPAM) by in situ polymerization, which significantly promotes water/ion transporting and boosts electricity output. SHA-HVG demonstrates all-weather high output by cooperating power generation mechanisms of thermosensitive hydrogel-promoted surface photothermal evaporation during the daytime and sulfonic group-enhanced ion concentration gradient at nighttime, resulting in efficient water desalination (2.75 kg m−2 h−1) and a 2669% increase in power density (56.86 µW cm−2) compared to single-component HVG of G-PVDF. SHA-HVG is chemically stable and can be reactivated/recycled to improve its power generation efficiency to ∼130% by increasing its built-in ionic environment. A marine/offshore cultivation system is demonstrated using an SHA-HVG array, realizing an autonomous greenhouse for water desalination, self-irrigation, and self-powered environment monitoring. This work presents a cost-effective HVG strategy for efficient seawater desalination and electricity harvesting, envisioning the development of distributed energy, smart agriculture, and offshore planting.

A charge lock-free TENG is proposed, which has excellent electrical output performance and durability. This study provides a charge-lock-free strategy to effectively release the charge locked on the interface, which realizes efficient electrical energy extraction from sliding frictional interfaces.

Sliding-mode triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) generate electricity by utilizing dynamic friction on the surface of dielectric materials, demonstrating notable potential for low-frequency mechanical energy harvesting. However, conventional device structures are limited by interface charge locking and low inherent capacitance, which results in a relatively low power density. Herein, the charge-locking mechanism is explored, and propose an innovative strategy for the dynamic interface shift between two materials with different polarities. When the interfaces overlap in the same materials, the locked interface charges are fully released. Based on this concept, a charge lock-free TENG (LF-TENG) is constructed. The output energy of the LF-TENG is 4.44 times that of the traditional sliding TENG. The rotating LF-TENG achieves an output charge and a current of 5 µC, 100 µA at 60 rpm, and an average power density of 9 W m−2 Hz−1 at 70 MΩ. Furthermore, the equivalent circuit model is analyzed and it is found that the capacitance change of the LF-TENG is twice that of traditional devices, which is the main factor for the increase in the output power. This study provides valuable insights into efficient electrical energy extraction from sliding frictional interfaces and paves the way for the development of low-frequency mechanical energy-collection technologies.

The wafer-scale hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) epitaxial film exhibits pronounced anisotropy in optical absorption and carrier transport stemming from its distinct m-plane surfaces, greatly favoring its polarized vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) detection. The device demonstrates excellent polarization-sensitive performance under 188 nm linearly polarized light, along with a remarkable polarization ratio, thus extending the short-wavelength limit of existing lensless polarization-sensitive photodetection technologies based on anisotropic semiconductor materials.

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) detection plays an essential role in space science, radiation monitoring, electronic industry, and fundamental research. Integrating polarization characteristics into VUV detection enriches the comprehension of the target attributes and broadens the signal dimensionality. Polarization detection has been widely developed in visible and infrared regions; however, it is still relatively unexplored in VUV light due to the lack of photoactive materials with low-symmetry structures, VUV selective response and radiation resistance. Here, the wafer-scale hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) epitaxial films with the distinct m-plane surfaces are demonstrated that exhibit significant anisotropy due to space symmetry breaking, instead of the routinely obtained high-symmetry c-planes governed by the most thermodynamically stable growth mode. This results in notable anisotropy in light absorption and charge density distributions, yielding a dichroic ratio greater than 10 and a carrier transport efficiency ratio (μτa -axis/μτc -axis) of 24. The h-BN based detector achieves a high polarization ratio of 6.2 for 188 nm VUV polarized light, reaching the short-wavelength limit of the reported polarization-sensitive photodetectors. This work presents an effective strategy for designing polarized VUV photodetector from h-BN, and paves the road towards the novel integrated optoelectronics, photonics and electronics based on traditional 2D materials.

This review summarizes the recent progress of all-inorganic Sn-containing PSCs in the aspects of efficiency and stability, including the basic properties and degradation mechanisms/pathways of pristine Sn and mixed Sn-Pb perovskites, as well as various strategies to improve the photovoltaic performance of devices, discuss the existing challenges in this field, and look forward to the prospects for further improvement.

All-inorganic tin (Sn)-containing perovskites have emerged as highly promising photovoltaic materials for single-junction and tandem perovskite solar cells (PSCs), owing to their reduced toxicity, optimal narrow bandgap, and superior thermal stability. Since their initial exploration in 2012, significant advancements have been achieved, with the highest efficiencies of single-junction and tandem devices now surpassing 17% and 22%, respectively. Nevertheless, the intrinsic challenges associated with the oxidation susceptibility of Sn2+ and the uncontrolled crystallization dynamics impede their further development. Addressing these issues necessitates a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the degradation mechanisms inherent to all-inorganic Sn-containing perovskites, as well as the development of effective mitigation strategies. This review provides a detailed overview of the research progress in all-inorganic Sn-containing PSCs, with a particular focus on the basic properties and degradation pathways of both pristine Sn and mixed Sn-Pb perovskites. Furthermore, various strategies to improve the efficiency and stability of Sn-containing PSCs are thoroughly discussed. Finally, the existing challenges and perspectives are provided for further improving the photovoltaic performance of eco-friendly PSCs.