Global energy and environmental crises are among the most pressing challenges facing humankind. To overcome these challenges, recent years have seen an upsurge of interest in the development and production of renewable chemical fuels as alternatives to the nonrenewable and high-polluting fossil fuels. Photocatalysis, photoelectrocatalysis, and electrocatalysis provide promising avenues for sustainable energy conversion. Single-and dual-component catalytic systems based on nanomaterials have been intensively studied for decades, but their intrinsic weaknesses hamper their practical applications. Multicomponent nanomaterial-based systems, consisting of three or more components with at least one component in the nanoscale, have recently emerged. The multiple components are integrated together to create synergistic effects and hence overcome the limitation for outperformance. Such higher-efficiency systems based on nanomaterials will potentially bring an additional benefit in balance-of-system costs if they exclude the use of noble metals, considering the expense and sustainability. It is therefore timely to review the research in this field, providing guidance in the development of noble-metal-free multicomponent nanointegration for sustainable energy conversion. In this work, we first recall the fundamentals of catalysis by nanomaterials, multicomponent nanointegration, and reactor configuration for water splitting, CO 2 reduction, and N 2 reduction. We then systematically review and discuss recent advances in multicomponent-based photocatalytic, photoelectrochemical, and electrochemical systems based on nanomaterials. On the basis of these systems, we further laterally evaluate different multicomponent integration strategies and highlight their impacts on catalytic activity, performance stability, and product selectivity. Finally, we provide conclusions and future prospects for multicomponent nanointegration. This work offers comprehensive insights into the development of cost-competitive multicomponent nanomaterial-based systems for sustainable energy-conversion technologies and assists researchers working toward addressing the global challenges in energy and the environment.

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Due to the exceptional characteristics which resulted from nanoscale size, such as improved catalysis and adsorption properties as well as high reactivity, nanomaterials have been the subject of active research and development worldwide in recent years. Numerous studies have shown that nanomaterials can effectively remove various pollutants in water and thus have been successfully applied in water and wastewater treatment. In this paper, the most extensively studied nanomaterials, zero-valent metal nanoparticles (Ag, Fe, and Zn), metal oxide nanoparticles (TiO2, ZnO, and iron oxides), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and nanocomposites are discussed and highlighted in detail. Besides, future aspects of nanomaterials in water and wastewater treatment are discussed.

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Single‐source precursors are used to produce nanostructured BiVO4 photoanodes for water oxidation in a straightforward and scalable drop‐casting synthetic process. Polyoxometallate precursors, which contain both Bi and V, are produced in a one‐step reaction from commercially available starting materials. Simple annealing of the molecular precursor produces nanocrystalline BiVO4 films. The precursor can be designed to incorporate a third metal (Co, Ni, Cu, or Zn), enabling the direct formation of doped BiVO4 films. In particular, the Co‐ and Zn‐doped photoanodes show promise for photoelectrochemical water oxidation, with photocurrent densities >1 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). Using this simple synthetic process, a 300 cm2 Co‐BiVO4 photoanode is produced, which generates a photocurrent of up to 67 mA at 1.23 V vs RHE and demonstrates the scalability of this approach.

With the rapid development of nanotechnology, the convergence of nanostructures and drug delivery has become a research hotspot in recent years. Due to their unique and superior properties, various nanostructures, especially those fabricated from self-assembly, are able to significantly increase the solubility of poorly soluble drugs, reduce cytotoxicity toward normal tissues, and improve therapeutic efficacy. Nanostructures have been successfully applied in the delivery of diverse drugs, such as small molecules, peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids. In this paper, the driving forces for the self-assembly of nanostructures are introduced. The strategies of drug delivery by nanostructures are briefly discussed. Furthermore, the emphasis is put on a variety of nanostructures fabricated from various building materials, mainly liposomes, polymers, ceramics, metal, peptides, nucleic acids, and even drugs themselves.

This Feature Article highlights the use of mixed-metal single source precursors to directly access useful complex metal oxide materials.

To promote the development of crystallization technology for recovering salt from high salinity wastewater, the effect of organic impurity on crystallization of sodium sulfate was investigated by using phenol as a representative organic impurity. The effect of phenol on crystallization thermodynamics of sodium sulfate was evaluated by measuring solubility data of sodium sulfate in water in the presence of phenol. It was found that the existence of phenol could suppress the solubility of sodium sulfate in water. The effect of organic impurity on crystal nucleation was performed by measuring the metastable zone width (MSZW) and induction time of sodium sulfate. Two models (self-consistent Nývlt-like equation and Classical 3D nucleation theory) were used to analyze the experimental data. It was found that Classical 3D nucleation theory (3D CNT) can better explain the effect of phenol on nucleation. From both MSZW data and induction time data, it was found that the existence of phenol will apparently increase the interfacial energy γ, which will result in higher nucleation Gibbs energy barrier and thus lower nucleation rate. Furthermore, the existence of phenol will increase the critical nucleus radius r* and the critical Gibbs energy ΔG*, which means that the formation of the nuclei will be more difficult in the presence of phenol. According to the above analysis, the possible mechanism of influence of organic impurity on crystallization of sodium sulfate was proposed.