Themed collection Celebrating nanoscience in Japan

This paper reviews a decade of the development of vacuum sputter deposition onto liquid poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) to prepare metal and alloy nanoparticles (NPs) with detailed discussion on the fine structure of the obtained alloy NPs.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of studies on the integration of AuNPs and AuQDs in OSCs.

The excited state dynamics of heterohelicenes [9]TH and [9]AH were spectroscopically studied. [9]AH showed enhanced fluorescence, while phosphorescence occurred in [9]TH due to its enhanced spin–orbit coupling and swift intersystem crossing.

Resonant tunneling current flows through unique discrete energy levels on a single-semiconductor quantum dot (QD) junction in addition to single-electron tunneling current.

A novel patterning method achieves two-dimensional nano-patterning of metal nanofibers by depositing a platinum–cerium alloy film on a silicon wafer and inducing phase separation in an oxygen–carbon monoxide atmosphere.

Platinum nanoparticles wrapped in carbon-dot-films as oxygen reduction reaction catalysts prepared by solution plasma sputtering.

The diffusion motions of individual polymer aggregates in disordered porous media were visualized and analysed using the single-particle tracking (SPT) method.

This study reports nickel-based phosphate nanoparticles as outstanding electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction and uncovers main factors determining their activities.

Nanoparticles in biological environments adsorb proteins, forming a “protein corona”. This study investigates how nanoparticle shape influences the formation of the protein corona using differently shaped semiconductor nanocrystals.

The hybrid hydrogel of nanofibrous chiral supramolecular assemblies with sulfated polyethylene glycol exhibited self-healing property at a temperature below the gel-to-liquid crystalline phase transition of chiral assemblies.

We have successfully synthesized Cu_2+xSe nanowires (NWs) with various amounts of Cu vacancies at room temperature by the photoreduction method for thermoelectric applications.

Role of PVP in polyol synthesis of Pt NPs was clarified via investigation of the hydrodynamic size, solid-state size and morphology, crystal structure, surface chemical state of the synthesized Pt NPs, as well as the reducing dynamic of Pt cations.

To improve the emission properties of multiple-quantum-shells nanowire-based LEDs, we assessed the effect of GaInN/GaN superlattices grown at varying growth temperatures, as well as the control of emission plane via p-GaN shell and emission sizes.

We investigated ethanol-induced structural changes in liposomes on a time scale from microseconds to tens of seconds using a microfluidic-based small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurement system coupled with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.

Specially-designed nanoscale electromigration experiments combined with in situ TEM observation enable us to determine the intensities of the force of electromigration and the sliding friction working on Co nanorod fillers moving inside MWCNTs.