Cancer remains a significant threat to human health today. Even though starvation therapy and other treatment methods have recently advanced to a new level of rapid development in tumour treatment, their limited therapeutic effectiveness and unexpected side effects prevent them from becoming the first option in clinical treatment. With rapid advancement in nanotechnology, the utilization of nanomaterials in therapeutics offers the potential to address the shortcomings in cancer treatment. Notably, multifunctional metal-organic framework (MOF) has been widely employed in cancer therapy due to their customizable shape, adjustable diameter, high porosity, diverse compositions, large specific surface area, high degree of functionalization and strong biocompatibility. This paper reviews the current progress and success of MOF-based multifunctional nanoplatforms for cancer starvation therapy, as well as the prospects and potential barriers for the application of MOF nanoplatforms in cancer starvation therapy.

Dilute aqueous smectite suspensions are well suited to convert into functional nanofilms. The functionalization is performed by ion exchange of amphiphilic molecules carrying the desired functionality. A functionalized clay mineral nanofilm is obtained by the organization of the molecules at the clay surface and by the organization of the elementary clay platelets in the film. Two techniques are presented: self-assembling and Langmuir-Blodgett (LB). Self-assembling is a very simple experiment, but the organizational order of the clay mineral particles is low. Nevertheless, films with nonlinear optical properties which are able to generate frequency-doubled light have been produced. The drawback of disorder of the clay platelets in the film can be largely overcome with the LB technique. Well organized films are obtained. In the presence of amphiphilic ruthenium(II)-bipyridine complexes, nonlinear optical properties are measured. In the presence of two dyes, oxacarbocyanine and rhodamine B, simultaneously adsorbed, efficient energy transfer between the donor (oxacarbocyanine) and the acceptor (rhodamine B) is measured. Fundamental research into the organization of molecules at clay mineral platelets is necessary to optimize the materials for specific applications.

Understanding the structure of materials is crucial for engineering devices and materials with enhanced performance. Four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) is capable of mapping nanometer-scale local crystallographic structure over micron-scale field of views. However, 4D-STEM datasets can contain tens of thousands of images from a wide variety of material structures, making it difficult to automate detection and classification of structures. Traditional automated analysis pipelines for 4D-STEM focus on supervised approaches, which require prior knowledge of the material structure and cannot describe anomalous or deviant structures. In this article, a pipeline for engineering 4D-STEM feature representations for unsupervised clustering using non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is introduced. Each feature is evaluated using NMF and results are presented for both simulated and experimental data. It is shown that some data representations more reliably identify overlapping grains. Additionally, real space refinement is applied to identify spatially distinct sample regions, allowing for size and shape analysis to be performed. This work lays the foundation for improved analysis of nanoscale structural features in materials that deviate from expected crystallographic arrangement using 4D-STEM.

Conventional silicon-based electronics have faced challenges in the realization of soft bioelectronics, such as wearable and implantable integrated devices, which necessitate electrically and mechanically interactive biotic–abiotic interfacing without disturbing the daily life of the user or posing biocompatibility issues. Recently, much effort has been directed at overcoming the mechanical limitations of conventional rigid electronics by replacement of bulky, thick, and rigid electronic materials with biocompatible, soft, and nanoscale electronic materials, which exhibit intrinsic mechanical deformability as well as superior electrical properties. Recent advances in the synthesis of unconventional nanomaterials, surface functionalization methods, and integrated device fabrication techniques have resulted in further improvements in the performance of nanomaterials-based soft bioelectronics. Numerous studies have focused on the biological, electrical, and mechanical analyses of heterogeneous nanomaterial–biosystem interfaces as well as the development of efficient integration processes of soft nanomaterials into devices. In this article, we summarize the latest advances and future prospects in nanomaterials synthesis, processing, and integration strategies for flexible and stretchable bioelectronics, and their application to wearable and implantable devices.

There is increased interest in the use of cellulose nanomaterials for the mechanical reinforcement of composites due to their high stiffness and strength. However, challenges remain in accurately determining their distribution within composite microstructures. We report the use of a range of techniques used to image aggregates of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) greater than 10 µm2 within a model thermoplastic polymer. While Raman imaging accurately determines CNC aggregate size, it requires extended periods of analysis and the limited observable area results in poor reproducibility. In contrast, staining the CNCs with a fluorophore enables rapid acquisition with high reproducibility, but overestimates the aggregate size as CNC content increases. Multi-channel spectral confocal laser scanning microscopy is presented as an alternative technique that combines the accuracy of Raman imaging with the speed and reproducibility of conventional confocal laser scanning microscopy, enabling the rapid determination of CNC aggregate distribution within composites.

Because of their large potential for agricultural, industrial and medicinal applications, nanomaterials have been the focus of much research during the past few decades. Nanoclays are natural nanomaterials that occur in the clay fraction of soil, among which montmorillonite and allophane are the most important species. Montmorillonite is a crystalline hydrous phyllosilicate (layer silicate). Organically-modified montmorillonites or ‘organoclays’, formed by intercalation of quaternary ammonium cations, have long been used as rheological modifiers and additives in paints, inks, greases and cosmetics and as carriers and delivery systems for the controlled release of drugs. Perhaps the largest single usage of organoclays over recent years has been in the manufacture of polymer-clay nanocomposites. These organic–inorganic hybrid materials show superior mechanical, thermal and gas-barrier properties. Organoclays are also useful in pollution control and water treatment. Allophane is a non-crystalline aluminosilicate derived from the weathering of volcanic ash. A large proportion of the agricultural land in Chile is covered by volcanic soils,the clay fraction of which is dominated by allophane. Consisting of nanosize (3.5–5.0 nm) hollow spherules, allophane is a suitable support material for enzyme immobilization. Allophane is also effective at adsorbing phenolic compounds and colour from kraft mill effluents and phosphate from water and wastewater.

In recent years, experimental and theoretical methods have provided new insights into the size, shape, reactivity, and stability of clay minerals. Although diverse and complex, the surface chemistry of all clay minerals is defined spatially on a common scale of nanometres. This review is organized around the nanoscale architecture of clay minerals examined at several different length scales. The first, and perhaps most important, is the length scale associated with Hbonding in clay minerals. Hbonding interactions define the size and shape of 1:1 phyllosilicates and dominate the surface chemistry of many clay minerals. Structural and surface OHgroups contained within and on the surface of clay minerals provide a type of ‘molecular reporter group’ and are sensitive to subtle changes in their local environment. Examples of OH-reporter group studies in clay minerals, and the spatial scales at which they provide diagnostic information, are examined. The second length scale considered here is that associated with clay–water and clay–organic interactions. Inorganic and organic solutes can be used to explore the surface chemistry of clay minerals. Similar to the use of reporter groups, molecular probes have diagnostic properties that are sensitive to changes in their molecular environment. Clay–water interactions occur at a length scale that extends from the size of the H2O molecule (~0.3 nm) to the larger scales associated with clay-swelling (>10 nm). Similarly, clay–organic interactions are also defined, in part, on the basis of their molecular size, in addition to the type of chemical bonding interactions that take place between the organic solute and the clay surface. Examples illustrating the use of clay–water and clay–organic solute interactions as molecular probes are presented. The largest scale to be considered is that of the particles themselves, with scales that approach micrometres. Recent developments in the synthesis and characterization of ultrathin hybrid films of clay minerals provide complementary information about the nature and distribution of active sites on clay minerals, as well as providing new opportunities to exploit the surface chemistry of clay minerals in the design of functional materials.

In recent years it has become apparent that the novel properties of nanomaterials may predispose them to a hitherto unknown potential for toxicity. A number of recent toxicological studies of nanomaterials exist, but these appear to be fragmented and often contradictory. Such discrepancies may be, at least in part, due to poor description of the nanomaterial or incomplete characterization, including failure to recognise impurities, surface modifications or other important physicochemical aspects of the nanomaterial. Herew em ake a casef or the importance of good quality, well-characterized nanomaterials for future toxicological studies, combined with reliable synthesis protocols, and we present our efforts to generate such materials. The model system for which we present results is TiO2 nanoparticles, currently used in a variety of commercial products.

Over the past decade the integration of ultrafast spectroscopy with nanoscience has greatly propelled the development of nanoscience, as the key information gleaned from the mechanistic studies with the assistance of ultrafast spectroscopy enables a deeper understanding of the structure–function interplay and various interactions involved in the nanosystems. This mini-review presents an overview of the recent advances achieved in our ultrafast spectroscopy laboratory that address the ultrafast dynamics and related mechanisms in several representative nanomaterial complex systems by means of femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy. We attempt to convey instructive, consistent information regarding the important processes, pathways, dynamics, and interactions involved in the nanomaterial complex systems, most of which exhibit excellent performance in photocatalysis.

Total scattering data of nanocrystalline gahnite (ZnAl2O4, 2–3 nm) have been collected with three of the most commonly used instruments: (i) ID31 high-resolution diffractometer at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) (Q max = 22 Å−1); (ii) ID11 high-energy beamline at the ESRF (Q max = 26.6 Å−1); and (iii) Empyrean laboratory diffractometer by PANalytical with molybdenum anode X-ray tube (Q max = 17.1 Å−1). Pair distribution functions (PDFs) for each instrument data-set have been obtained, changing some of the parameters, by PDFgetX3 software, with the aim of testing the software in the treatment of different total scattering data. The material under analysis has been chosen for its nanometric (and possibly disordered) nature, to give rise to a challenge for all the diffractometers involved. None of the latter should have a clear advantage. The PDF and F(Q) functions have been visually compared, and then the three PDF sets have been used for refinements by means of PDFgui suite. All the refinements have been made exactly in the same way for the sake of a fair comparison. Small differences could be observed in the experimental PDFs and the derived results, but none of them seemed to be significant.

X-ray diffraction and scattering on a single multipurpose X-ray platform have been used to probe the structure, composition, and thermal behavior of TiO2 nanoparticles ranging in size from 1 to 10 nm. Ambient and non-ambient Bragg diffraction, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), as well as total scattering and pair-distribution function (PDF) analysis are combined to obtain a comprehensive picture of the samples. At these ultrasmall particle-size dimensions, SAXS and PDF prove powerful in distinguishing the salient features of the materials, in particular the size distribution of the primary particles (SAXS) and the identification of the TiO2 polymorphs (PDF). Structural features determined by X-ray scattering techniques are corroborated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The elemental make-up of the materials has been measured using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis.

Atomistic copper nanocrystals were investigated via Molecular Dynamics (MD) under hydrostatic pressure to probe the relationship between applied load and structure deformation. The corresponding X-ray powder diffraction patterns were generated from the atomic coordinates. The analysis followed both the traditional Williamson-Hall approach based on pseudo-Voigt fitting and an alternative, more accurate method able to derive the integral breadths without applying a fitting. The Williamson-Hall results show discrepancies not fully associated with an issue of fitting.

A general least-squares technique for X-ray diffraction line broadening analysis has been developed. The technique can be used to determine single, double, and triple line broadening effects caused by small particle sizes, microstrain, stacking faults, or all three presented in a closed-packed hexagonal nanomaterial. The technique was applied to characterize the microstructure of β-Ni(OH)2, a negative electrode material in nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. Double line broadening effects caused by both small crystallite sizes and stacking faults in β-Ni(OH)2 were detected and analyzed. Triple line broadening effects caused simultaneously by small crystallite sizes, microstrain, and stacking faults were detected in β-Ni(OH)2 after activation and charge-discharge cycle tests. The triple line broadening effects were found to be selective and most pronounced for diffraction lines with h−k=3n±1. The broadening effects were larger when l=even, but smaller when l=odd. The shape and the average size of the crystallites, microstrain, and stacking fault probability in β-Ni(OH)2 changed dramatically after activation and charge-discharge cycles. The method was also applied to characterize and investigate the microstructure of nano ZnO materials. Results indicate that no selective broadening appears in the XRD patterns of the nano ZnO materials. The average crystallite sizes were different slightly, and the stacking fault probabilities differed significantly with different dopants.

We review the development of ultrafast electron nanocrystallography as a method for investigating structural dynamics for nanoscale materials and interfaces. Its sensitivity and resolution are demonstrated in the studies of surface melting of gold nanocrystals, nonequilibrium transformation of graphite into reversible diamond-like intermediates, and molecular scale charge dynamics, showing a versatility for not only determining the structures, but also the charge and energy redistribution at interfaces. A quantitative scheme for 3D retrieval of atomic structures is demonstrated with few-particle (<1,000) sensitivity, establishing this nanocrystallographic method as a tool for directly visualizing dynamics within isolated nanomaterials with atomic scale spatio-temporal resolution.

Transition metal oxides are being considered as the next generation materials in field such as electronics and advanced catalysts; between them is Tantalum (V) Oxide; however, there are few reports for the synthesis of this material at the nanometer size which could have unusual properties. Hence, in this work we present the synthesis of Ta2O5 nanorods by sol gel method using DNA as structure directing agent, the size of the nanorods was of the order of 40 to 100 nm in diameter and several microns in length; this easy method can be useful in the preparation of nanomaterials for electronics, biomedical applications as well as catalysts.