The indispensable requirement for sustainable development of human society has forced almost all countries to seek highly efficient and cost‐effective ways to harvest and convert solar energy. Though continuous progress has advanced, it remains a daunting challenge to achieve full‐spectrum solar absorption and maximize the conversion efficiency of sunlight. Recently, thermoplasmonics has emerged as a promising solution, which involves several beneficial effects including enhanced light absorption and scattering, generation and relaxation of hot carriers, as well as localized/collective heating, offering tremendous opportunities for optimized energy conversion. Besides, all these functionalities can be tailored via elaborated designs of materials and nanostructures. Here, first the fundamental physics governing thermoplasmonics is presented and then the strategies for both material selection and nanostructured designs toward more efficient energy conversion are summarized. Based on this, recent progress in thermoplasmonic applications including solar evaporation, photothermal chemistry, and thermophotovoltaic is reviewed. Finally, the corresponding challenges and prospects are discussed.

The activation of water molecules in thermal catalysis typically requires high temperatures, representing an obstacle to catalyst development for the low‐temperature water‐gas shift reaction (WGSR). Plasmonic photocatalysis allows activation of water at low temperatures through the generation of light‐induced hot electrons. Herein, we report a layered double hydroxide‐derived copper catalyst (LD‐Cu) with outstanding performance for the low‐temperature photo‐driven WGSR. LD‐Cu offered a lower activation energy for WGSR to H2 under UV/Vis irradiation (1.4 W cm−2) compared to under dark conditions. Detailed experimental studies revealed that highly dispersed Cu nanoparticles created an abundance of hot electrons during light absorption, which promoted *H2O dissociation and *H combination via a carboxyl pathway, leading to the efficient production of H2. Results demonstrate the benefits of exploiting plasmonic phenomena in the development of photo‐driven low‐temperature WGSR catalysts.

A sequential multistep reaction toward 5-thio- or 5-selenotriazoles has been established by generation of both copper(I) triazolides and sulfenylating or selenylating agents in situ, starting from elemental sulfur or selenium. This reaction features mild conditions, readily available and broad-scope substrates, good functional group compatibility, high efficiency and regioselectivity, easy operation, and ligand-free CuI.

Tunable nanophotonic systems that can be integrated with silicon and manipulate light at deep-subwavelength scales is of paramount importance for photonic integrated circuits, [1] enhanced light-matter interaction, [2] sub-diffraction imaging, [3] metamaterials, [4] and negative refraction [5] among other feats. In particular, polaritons in 2D materials exhibit the highest degree of mode confinement. [6] A variety of highly confined polaritons with unique properties [6,7] have been demonstrated in 2D materials, for example, electrically tunable plasmons in graphene, [7a,8] ultralow-loss phonon polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) [9] and α-MoO 3 , [7c,7d] room-temperature exciton polaritons in MoSe 2 , [10] WSe 2 [11] and CsPbBr 3 microsheets, [12] and Cooper-pair polaritons. [13] These surface modes have prompted the exploration of multiple potential applications, such as surface-enhanced infrared spectroscopy, [8a,14] optical sensors, [15] nanolasers, [16] light modulators, [17] and nanophotonic circuits. [18] However, in most practical applications, important challenges, such as relatively large optical losses, reduced operation frequency range, and slow modulation speed, are remaining.The hybrid light-matter nature of polaritons (i.e., quasiparticles made up of a photons coupled to polarization charges in a material) can be passively tuned by designing the composition and geometry of the hosting materials, [9,19] offering important advantages for nanophotonic systems. [6a,20] Recently, van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs), which can be fabricated by exfoliating 2D materials down to isolated monolayers and subsequently reassembling them in a layer by layer fashion in precisely chosen compositions, stacking sequence, and twist angles, provide a versatile way to customize polaritons. [21] For example, an ultralong lifetime graphene plasmon in graphene/h-BN vdWHs, [7a,22] an efficient all-optical modulation of graphene plasmons in the graphene/ monolayer MoS 2 vdWHs, [23] a strong plasmonic nonlinear response in graphene/metal heterostructures [24] have been demonstrated. Moreover, the behavior of polaritons can also be modulated by creating moiré patterns in the vdWHs, such that one can obtain, for example, an extremely long plasmon lifetime (≈3 ps) in stacked bilayer graphene, [25] photonic crystals of twisted bilayer graphene (TBLG), [26] and tunable topological transitions of phonon polaritons in twisted α-MoO 3 bilayers. [27] 2D monolayers supporting a wide variety of highly confined plasmons, phonon polaritons, and exciton polaritons can be vertically stacked in van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) with controlled constituent layers, stacking sequence, and even twist angles. vdWHs combine advantages of 2D material polaritons, rich optical structure design, and atomic scale integration, which have greatly extended the performance and functions of polaritons, such as wide frequency range, long lifetime, ultrafast all-optical modulation, and photonic crystals for nanoscale light. Here, th...