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Plasmonic nanostructures have shown immense potential in photocatalysis because of their distinct photochemical properties associated with tunable photoresponses and strong light−matter interactions. The introduction of highly active sites is essential to fully exploit the potential of plasmonic nanostructures in photocatalysis, considering the inferior intrinsic activities of typical plasmonic metals. This review focuses on active site-engineered plasmonic nanostructures with enhanced photocatalytic performance, wherein the active sites are classified into four types (i.e., metallic sites, defect sites, ligand-grafted sites, and interface sites). The synergy between active sites and plasmonic nanostructures in photocatalysis is discussed in detail after briefly introducing the material synthesis and characterization methods. Active sites can promote the coupling of solar energy harvested by plasmonic metal to catalytic reactions in the form of local electromagnetic fields, hot carriers, and photothermal heating. Moreover, efficient energy coupling potentially regulates the reaction pathway by facilitating the excited state formation of reactants, changing the status of active sites, and creating additional active sites using photoexcited plasmonic metals. Afterward, the application of active site-engineered plasmonic nanostructures in emerging photocatalytic reactions is summarized. Finally, a summary and perspective of the existing challenges and future opportunities are presented. This review aims to deliver some insights into plasmonic photocatalysis from the perspective of active sites, expediting the discovery of high-performance plasmonic photocatalysts.

Hydrogels, as one of the most feasible soft biomaterials, have gained considerable attention in therapeutic applications by virtue of their tunable properties including superior patient compliance, good biocompatibility and biodegradation, and high cargo-loading efficiency. However, hydrogel application is still limited by some challenges like inefficient encapsulation, easy leakage of loaded cargoes, and the lack of controllability. Recently, nanoarchitecture-integrated hydrogel systems were found to be therapeutics with optimized properties, extending their bioapplication. In this review, we briefly presented the category of hydrogels according to their synthetic materials and further discussed the advantages in bioapplication. Additionally, various applications of nanoarchitecture hybrid hydrogels in biomedical engineering are systematically summarized, including cancer therapy, wound healing, cardiac repair, bone regeneration, diabetes therapy, and obesity therapy. Last, the current challenges, limitations, and future perspectives in the future development of nanoarchitecture-integrated flexible hydrogels are addressed.