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In contrast to the classical streaming potential relying on downstream ionic diffusion, an upstream proton diffusion within two-dimensional nanochannels is found to continuously generate electricity, advancing hydrovoltaic technology.

Lithium sulfur batteries are a promising next generation storage technology. Their performance, however, is subject to the parasitic shuttle effect. Here the authors report a cathode material comprising porous vanadium nitride nanoribbon and graphene to provide anchoring for polysulfides.

Metal alloys possessing core–shell structures have potential as low-Pt catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells, but can suffer from poor stability. Using high-resolution microscopy, Li et al. find that a Pt–Pd–Au catalyst undergoes surface atomic rearrangement and becomes more active on electrochemical cycling.

Ambient-stable solution-processed conductive materials with a low work function are essential to facilitate electron injection. Here, the authors design and synthesise polymer electrolyte with work function down to 2.2 eV for applications in high-performance light-emitting diodes and solar cells.

Solving the interlayer charge transfer issue of Bi₃TiNbO₉ is crucial for overcoming its limitation in photocatalytic overall water splitting. Here, the authors introduced gradient doping to promote the separation and transfer of photogenerated charges and enhance the photocatalytic activity.

Ultraclean and damage-free transfer of graphene over large areas is crucial for the future development of flexible electronics and optoelectronics. Using a rosin-assisted method, the authors transfer graphene with an ultraclean surface and uniform small sheet resistance—a 4-inch monolithic organic light-emitting diode is demonstrated.

WS₂ is a promising material for application in next-generation electronics, yet current methods of fabrication can only yield micrometre-sized domains. Here, via ambient-pressure CVD, the authors report the growth of high-quality, uniform monolayer WS₂single crystals of the order of millimetres.

Here, the authors exploit a photo-induced barrier-lowering mechanism in MoS₂/ α-MoO_3-x heterojunctions to realize two-dimensional phototransistors with enhanced performance and fast response at low bias voltage.

Specific stacking sequence of graphene can enable observation of unusual properties however it has been difficult to obtain this over wider areas. Here, the authors report wafer-scale growth of 100% AB-stacked bilayer graphene films by CVD on liquid Pt₃Si/solid Pt substrates showing high quality and improved mechanical properties comparable to the mechanically exfoliated flakes.

Grain boundaries in graphene degrade its properties, and large single-crystal graphene is desirable for electronic applications of graphene. Gaoet al. develop a method to produce millimetre-sized hexagonal single-crystal graphene grains, and films composed of the grains, on platinum by chemical vapour deposition.

Nano-crystallization is essential to tune different properties of materials. Here, the authors report a synthesis strategy that involves quenching of a hot metal foil for few seconds in liquid carbon source to form graphene films of 3.6 nm grain size, showing mechanical strength of 101 GPa and semiconducting behaviour.

Graphene oxide is a graphene derivative showing wide applications, but it suffers from harsh synthetic conditions and long reaction time. Pei et al. show a green electrochemical method to fully oxidize the graphite lattice in a few seconds, which is over 100 times faster than existing methods.

The large-scale production of graphene aimed at industrial applications has grown significantly in the past few years, especially since many companies in China have entered the market.

It is still a mystery whether disorders could be beneficial for the superconductivity or not. In this work, it is surprising to find out that the carbon disordered 2D β-Mo₂C crystal sheet shows a much stronger superconductivity than the carbon ordered 2D α-Mo₂C crystal sheet, and the in-situ order-disorder transition from α-Mo₂C to β-Mo₂C induced by e-beam irradiation results in an enhanced superconductivity. Especially, the T_c variation trends of α-Mo₂C and β-Mo₂C are different under hydrostatic pressures. These results highlight the important role of disorders in the superconducting properties owing to the carbon distributions in Mo₂C.