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1. Piezo-phototronic effect on photocatalysis, solar cells, photodetectors and light-emitting diodes

   https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cs00506e  

   Dai, Baoying; Biesold, Gill M.; Zhang, Meng; Zou, Haiyang; Ding, Yong; Wang, Zhong Lin; Lin, Zhiqun (December 2021, Chemical Society Reviews)

   The piezo-phototronic effect (a coupling effect of piezoelectric, photoexcitation and semiconducting properties, coined in 2010) has been demonstrated to be an ingenious and robust strategy to manipulate optoelectronic processes by tuning the energy band structure and photoinduced carrier behavior. The piezo-phototronic effect exhibits great potential in improving the quantum yield efficiencies of optoelectronic materials and devices and thus could help increase the energy conversion efficiency, thus alleviating the energy shortage crisis. In this review, the fundamental principles and challenges of representative optoelectronic materials and devices are presented, including photocatalysts (converting solar energy into chemical energy), solar cells (generating electricity directly under light illumination), photodetectors (converting light into electrical signals) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs, converting electric current into emitted light signals). Importantly, the mechanisms of how the piezo-phototronic effect controls the optoelectronic processes and the recent progress and applications in the above-mentioned materials and devices are highlighted and summarized. Only photocatalysts, solar cells, photodetectors, and LEDs that display piezo-phototronic behavior are reviewed. Material and structural design, property characterization, theoretical simulation calculations, and mechanism analysis are then examined as strategies to further enhance the quantum yield efficiency of optoelectronic devices via the piezo-phototronic effect. This comprehensive overview will guide future fundamental and applied studies that capitalize on the piezo-phototronic effect for energy conversion and storage. 

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2. Understanding inks for porous-electrode formation

   https://doi.org/10.1039/C7TA07255D  

   Hatzell, Kelsey B.; Dixit, Marm B.; Berlinger, Sarah A.; Weber, Adam Z. (January 2017, J. Mater. Chem. A)

   Scalable manufacturing of high-aspect-ratio multi-material electrodes are important for advanced energy storage and conversion systems. Such technologies often rely on solution-based processing methods where the active material is dispersed in a colloidal ink. To date, ink formulation has primarily focused on macro-scale process-specific optimization ( i.e. viscosity and surface/interfacial tension), and been optimized mainly empirically. Thus, there is a further need to understand nano- and mesoscale interactions and how they can be engineered for controlled macroscale properties and structures related to performance, durability, and material utilization in electrochemical systems. 

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3. In Situ Study of Resistive Switching in a Nitride‐Based Memristive Device

   https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202517173  

   Zhang, Di; Dhall, Rohan; Schneider, Matthew M; Li, Cun; Song, Chengyu; Kunwar, Sundar; Dou, Hongyi; Yazzie, Natanii R; Tran, Henry; Appuing, Daniel; et al (April 2026, Advanced Functional Materials)

   Abstract Resistive switching (RS) devices with ultra‐low‐voltage threshold and reliable switching repeatability exhibits great potential applications in energy‐efficient data storage and neuromorphic computing. Understanding switching mechanisms at nanoscale is critical to design RS devices with improved performance. In this work, a lamella memristive device using focused ion beam (FIB) method based on the metal/TiO_x/TiN/Si structure device is fabricated. In situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and current–voltage (I–V) characteristic demonstrate that the lamella device shows a volatile RS behavior with a threshold switching at ≈ ± 0.4 V. In situ scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) experiments with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) reveal that the charge carriers such as oxygen vacancies migrate under positive/negative DC bias and modulate Schottky barriers at the top and bottom metal/semiconductor interfaces. The RS mechanism of the lamella device is based on the Schottky barriers modulation and Joule heating assisted electric field triggered thermal runaway (FTTR) occurred at the metal/semiconductor interfaces. The fundamental insights gained from this study presents a perspective on interface‐type RS devices processing and opens up new technological opportunities of fabricating ultra‐low‐energy memristive devices. 

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4. New Directions for Thermoelectrics: A Roadmap from High‐Throughput Materials Discovery to Advanced Device Manufacturing

   https://doi.org/10.1002/smsc.202300359  

   Song, Kaidong; Tanvir, Ali Newaz; Bappy, Md Omarsany; Zhang, Yanliang (April 2024, Small Science)

   Thermoelectric materials, which can convert waste heat into electricity or act as solid‐state Peltier coolers, are emerging as key technologies to address global energy shortages and environmental sustainability. However, discovering materials with high thermoelectric conversion efficiency is a complex and slow process. The emerging field of high‐throughput material discovery demonstrates its potential to accelerate the development of new thermoelectric materials combining high efficiency and low cost. The synergistic integration of high‐throughput material processing and characterization techniques with machine learning algorithms can form an efficient closed‐loop process to generate and analyze broad datasets to discover new thermoelectric materials with unprecedented performances. Meanwhile, the recent development of advanced manufacturing methods provides exciting opportunities to realize scalable, low‐cost, and energy‐efficient fabrication of thermoelectric devices. This review provides an overview of recent advances in discovering thermoelectric materials using high‐throughput methods, including processing, characterization, and screening. Advanced manufacturing methods of thermoelectric devices are also introduced to realize the broad impacts of thermoelectric materials in power generation and solid‐state cooling. In the end, this article also discusses the future research prospects and directions. 

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5. Chiral Assemblies of π-Conjugated Molecules: Fundamentals, Processing Strategies, and Applications in (Opto)Electronics

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-100722-104224  

   Fernando, Pravini S; Chen, Yen-Chi; Baek, Janice M; Diao, Ying (March 2025, Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

   Chirality, a fundamental attribute of asymmetry, pervades in both nature and functional soft materials. In chiral material systems design, achieving global symmetry breaking of building blocks during assembly, with or without the aid of additives, has emerged as a promising strategy across domains including chiral sensing, electronics, photonics, spintronics, and biomimetics. We first introduce the fundamental aspects of chirality, including its structural basis and symmetry-breaking mechanisms considering free energy minimization. We particularly emphasize supramolecular assembly, such as through the formation of chiral liquid crystal phases. Next, we summarize processing strategies to control chiral symmetry breaking, exploiting external fields such as flow, magnetic fields, and templates. The final section discusses interactions between chiral molecular assemblies with circularly polarized (CP) light and electronic spin and their applications in CP light detectors, CP-spin-organic light-emitting diodes, CP displays, and spintronic devices based on the chirality-induced spin selectivity effect. 

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