The development of next‐generation molecular‐electronic, electrocatalytic, and energy‐storage systems depends on the availability of robust materials in which molecular charge‐storage sites and conductive hosts are in intimate contact. It is shown here that electron transfer from single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) to polyoxometalate (POM) clusters results in the spontaneous formation of host–guest POM@SWNT redox‐active hybrid materials. The SWNTs can conduct charge to and from the encapsulated guest molecules, allowing electrical access to >90% of the encapsulated redox species. Furthermore, the SWNT hosts provide a physical barrier, protecting the POMs from chemical degradation during charging/discharging and facilitating efficient electron transfer throughout the composite, even in electrolytes that usually destroy POMs.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have prevalent roles in cancer biology and regenerative medicine. Conventional techniques for characterising EVs including electron microscopy (EM), nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and tuneable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS), have been reported to produce high variability in particle count (EM) and poor sensitivity in detecting EVs below 50 nm in size (NTA and TRPS), making accurate and unbiased EV analysis technically challenging. This study introduces direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (d-STORM) as an efficient and reliable characterisation approach for stem cell-derived EVs. Using a photo-switchable lipid dye, d-STORM imaging enabled rapid detection of EVs down to 20–30 nm in size with higher sensitivity and lower variability compared to EM, NTA and TRPS techniques. Imaging of EV uptake by live stem cells in culture further confirmed the potential of this approach for downstream cell biology applications and for the analysis of vesicle-based cell-cell communication.

The functionalization of silica-coated, magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles, with an ironcontaining ionic liquid, allows for the synthesis of a Fe3O4@SiO2@(mim) [FeCl4] system that can be employed as a magnetically recoverable nanocatalyst. Herein, we present the use of Fe3O4@SiO2@(mim) [FeCl4] for the glycolysis of PET into BHET under conventional heating. The catalyst achieved nearly 100% yield and selectivity over twelve consecutive reaction cycles at 180 °C and was efficiently recovered without tedious work-up or purification processes. Additional analyses revealed that the amount of catalyst lost after each cycle was negligible and no trace of Fe was found in the purified BHET product.

as excellent nanoscale containers for mole cules, [4][5][6] metals, [7][8][9] and metal halides, [10] where the spontaneous encapsulation is driven by van der Waals forces that stabilize the confined guest species in the internal channel of the host nanotube. [11] Moreover, a good geometric fit between the critical dimensions of the encapsulated guest and the internal dimensions of the host can result in van der Waals forces that are sufficiently high that insertion is irreversible. This effective nanoscale confinement permits the study of the structure, [12,13] motion, [14] and dynamics [15,16] of individual molecules.Furthermore, extreme spatial confinement in CNTs allows us to probe the kinetics and pathways of chemical reactions and processes at the nanoscale, including the formation of 1D materials templated by the internal channel of the host nanotube. [6,17,18] The simplest and most widely studied confined transformation in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is the conversion of C 60 @SWCNT, so-called "peapods," into double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) via the thermally activated polymerization and coalescence of guest fullerenes to an internal carbon nanotube. [17,19] Numerous more complex processes have also been observed inside nanotubes, such as unusual oligomerization and polymerization reactions, [13,20,21] the growth of graphene nanoribbons, [22][23][24] and the formation of molecular nanodiamonds [18] from encapsulated fullerenes and organic molecules, respectively. As such, chemical reactions inside carbon nanotubes open up new avenues for the synthesis of nanoscale materials with unique structures and functional properties inaccessible by other means.Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) are isoelectronic to CNTs and similarly possess high mechanical strength [25] and excellent chemical and thermal stabilities. [26] In contrast to CNTs, however, BNNTs are electronically insulating, a consequence of the partly ionic interatomic BN bonding, and optically transparent with a wide bandgap. [27,28] While less well explored relative to CNTs, BNNTs represent a remarkable class of 1D nanoscale containers for metals, [29][30][31][32][33][34] metal halides, [35,36] and molecules, such as C 60 , [37] and owing to their transparency to visible light The use of boron nitride nanotubes as effective nanoscale containers for the confinement and thermal transformations of molecules of C 60 -fullerene is demonstrated. The gas-phase insertion of fullerenes into the internal channel of boron nitride nanotubes yields quasi-1D arrays, with packing arrangements of the guest fullerenes different from those in the bulk crystal and critically dependent on the internal diameter of the host nanotube. Interestingly, the confined fullerene molecules: i) exhibit dynamic behavior and temperaturedependent phase transitions analogous to that observed in the bulk crystal, and ii) can be effectively removed from within the internal channel of nanotubes by excessive sonication in organic solvent, indicating weak host-guest inter ...

A holistic approach to fully characterize the physical–chemical properties of N doped TiO2 and evaluate its true impact on photoelectrochemical applications.