Every few years, a new material with unique properties emerges and fascinates the scientific community, typical recent examples being high-temperature superconductors and carbon nanotubes. Graphene is the latest sensation with unusual properties, such as half-integer quantum Hall effect and ballistic electron transport. This two-dimensional material which is the parent of all graphitic carbon forms is strictly expected to comprise a single layer, but there is considerable interest in investigating two-layer and few-layer graphenes as well. Synthesis and characterization of graphenes pose challenges, but there has been considerable progress in the last year or so. Herein, we present the status of graphene research which includes aspects related to synthesis, characterization, structure, and properties.

Graphene: The New Two-Dimensional Nanomaterial

Over the past few decades, researchers have established artificial enzymes as highly stable and low-cost alternatives to natural enzymes in a wide range of applications. A variety of materials including cyclodextrins, metal complexes, porphyrins, polymers, dendrimers and biomolecules have been extensively explored to mimic the structures and functions of naturally occurring enzymes. Recently, some nanomaterials have been found to exhibit unexpected enzyme-like activities, and great advances have been made in this area due to the tremendous progress in nano-research and the unique characteristics of nanomaterials. To highlight the progress in the field of nanomaterial-based artificial enzymes (nanozymes), this review discusses various nanomaterials that have been explored to mimic different kinds of enzymes. We cover their kinetics, mechanisms and applications in numerous fields, from biosensing and immunoassays, to stem cell growth and pollutant removal. We also summarize several approaches to tune the activities of nanozymes. Finally, we make comparisons between nanozymes and other catalytic materials (other artificial enzymes, natural enzymes, organic catalysts and nanomaterial-based catalysts) and address the current challenges and future directions (302 references).

Nanomaterials with enzyme-like characteristics (nanozymes): next-generation artificial enzymes

Graphene, a two-dimensional, single-layer sheet of sp(2) hybridized carbon atoms, has attracted tremendous attention and research interest, owing to its exceptional physical properties, such as high electronic conductivity, good thermal stability, and excellent mechanical strength. Other forms of graphene-related materials, including graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, and exfoliated graphite, have been reliably produced in large scale. The promising properties together with the ease of processibility and functionalization make graphene-based materials ideal candidates for incorporation into a variety of functional materials. Importantly, graphene and its derivatives have been explored in a wide range of applications, such as electronic and photonic devices, clean energy, and sensors. In this review, after a general introduction to graphene and its derivatives, the synthesis, characterization, properties, and applications of graphene-based materials are discussed.

Graphene-Based Materials: Synthesis, Characterization, Properties, and Applications

Electrogenerated chemiluminescence (also called electrochemiluminescence and abbreviated ECL) is the process whereby species generated at electrodes undergo high-energy electron-transfer reactions to form excited states that emit light. The first detailed ECL studies were described by Hercules and Bard et al. in the mid-1960s, although reports concerning light emission during electrolysis date back to the 1920s by Harvey. After about 40 years study, ECL has now become a very powerful analytical technique and been widely used in the areas of, for example, immunoassay, food and water testing, and biowarfare agent detection. ECL has also been successfully exploited as a detector of flow injection analysis (FIA), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), capillary electrophoresis, and micro total analysis (μTAS). Figure 1 illustrates a time line of various events in the development of ECL. A literature survey using SciFinder Scholar reveals that more than 2000 journal articles, book chapters, and patents on various topics of ECL have been published. The overall number of publications, as shown in Figure 2, has increased exponentially over the past 20 years, of which 40–50% were biorelated. Similar amounts of ECL papers could be also found from the Thomson ISI Web of Science as well as † Telephone (601) 266 4716; fax (601) 266 6075; e-mail wujian.miao@ usm.edu. Wujian Miao received his undergraduate diploma in chemistry from Nantong University (Nantong, China) in 1982, his M.Sc. degree in analytical chemistry from Zhongshan University (Guangzhou, China, with Jinyuan Mo) in 1991, and his Ph.D. degree in electrochemistry from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia, with Alan M. Bond) in 2000. He then served as a Research Scientist in CSIRO (Melbourne, Australia), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin with Allen J. Bard in 2001. Since 2004 he has served as an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence and Its Biorelated Applications

The present invention provides stretchable, and optionally printable, semiconductors and electronic circuits capable of providing good performance when stretched, compressed, flexed or otherwise deformed. Stretchable semiconductors and electronic circuits of the present invention preferred for some applications are flexible, in addition to being stretchable, and thus are capable of significant elongation, flexing, bending or other deformation along one or more axes. Further, stretchable semiconductors and electronic circuits of the present invention may be adapted to a wide range of device configurations to provide fully flexible electronic and optoelectronic devices.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/311/5758/208.full.pdf

Stretchable form of single crystal silicon for high performance electronics on rubber substrates

A single-junction polymer solar cell with an efficiency of 10.1% is demonstrated by using deterministic aperiodic nanostructures for broadband light harvesting with optimum charge extraction. The performance enhancement is ascribed to the self-enhanced absorption due to collective effects, including pattern-induced anti-reflection and light scattering, as well as surface plasmonic resonance, together with a minimized recombination probability.

Single-Junction Polymer Solar Cells Exceeding 10% Power Conversion Efficiency

The photoconductive characteristics of CdS single nanoribbons were investigated. The device characteristics, including spectral response, light intensity response, and time response, were studied systematically. It is found that CdS nanoribbon has the response speed substantively faster than those ever reported for conventional film and bulk CdS materials and the size of nanoribbons has a significant influence on the response speed with smaller CdS nanoribbons showing higher response speed. The high photosensitivity and high photoresponse speed are attributable to the large surface-to-volume ratio and high single-crystal quality of CdS nanoribbons and the reduction of recombination barrier in nanostructures. Measurements in a different atmosphere demonstrate that the absorption of ambient gas (mainly oxygen) can significantly change the photosensitivity of CdS nanoribbons through trapping electrons from the nanoribbons.

Photoconductive characteristics of single-crystal CdS nanoribbons.

The emergence of smartphones and televisions with curved displays indicates that flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are marching steadily toward commercialization. Regardless of the significant step forward from laboratory to industry, flexible OLEDs are still facing enormous obstacles and challenges in realizing truly wearable, deformable, printable and low-cost electronic products for the future. How to develop highly flexible electrodes, optimize the device efficiency and greatly extend the operation lifetime are among the most important issues to be solved. In this regard, this review summarizes the recent achievements in flexible transparent conductive electrodes, device fabrication as well as light extraction technologies. Furthermore, the device operation stability is discussed with a focus on device degradation mechanisms and encapsulation methods. Some future prospects on new opportunities and research challenges in flexible OLEDs are also covered.

Recent advances in flexible organic light-emitting diodes

An Efficient Pure Blue Organic Light-Emitting Device with Low Driving Voltages

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have rapidly grown as one of the leading technologies for full-color display panels and eco-friendly lighting sources due to their outstanding features including superior color quality, wide viewing angle, mercury-free manufacture, fascinating flexibility, etc. A variety of materials, device architectures, as well as processing techniques have been investigated for optimizing device performance in order to fulfill the requirements of lighting and display applications. In this review, we first summarize the light emission mechanisms of electroluminescent materials. Then, the designed device architectures aiming at the realization of various light emission mechanisms are reviewed. An overview of recent advances in light extraction strategies is presented since all efficient OLEDs have a multi-thin-film structure, which leads to severe light trapping in devices. In addition, the progress of flexible OLEDs is reviewed from the aspect of flexible transparent electrodes because of their great potential in flexible displays. Most recent breakthroughs of solid-state lighting and displays are briefly addressed as well. A brief perspective on future research is also proposed for pursuing the commercialization of OLEDs.

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Yan-Qing Li

Papers

Single-Junction Polymer Solar Cells Exceeding 10% Power Conversion Efficiency

Photoconductive characteristics of single-crystal CdS nanoribbons.

Recent advances in flexible organic light-emitting diodes

An Efficient Pure Blue Organic Light-Emitting Device with Low Driving Voltages

Recent advances in organic light-emitting diodes: toward smart lighting and displays