Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Research Activities at NANO‐CIC and FUNSOM in Suzhou (2016)

This special issue presents the overview of research activities in NANO-CIC and FUNSOM. NANO-CIC, located in Suzhou, China, is one of the first 14 Collaborative Innovation Centers in China supported by the University Innovation Capacity Building Program (called the 2011 Program for short) administered by the State Ministry of Education. Under the guidance of Suzhou Industrial Park, NANO-CIC is headed by Soochow University, with the Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Southeast University, Suzhou Industrial Park, and Jiangsu Innovation Strategic Alliance of the Nano-tech Industry as collaborative members. The research activities in NANO-CIC are focused on the scientific and technological developments in the multidisciplinary fields of nanofabrication, new energy, optoelectronics, nanomedicine and nanobiolology, and green environment. As a regional development-oriented collaborative innovation center, NANO-CIC aims to be an innovative regional leader in the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, and in the transformation of China from “A Big Nation of Nano” into “A Strong Nation of Nano”. The Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) in Soochow University takes the leading position of NANO-CIC. FUNSOM was founded in 2008 and has 32 principal investigators, who all obtained their Ph.D. degrees from or have had extensive experience working at world-leading universities overseas. The research activities at FUNSOM are strongly coupled to the overall research program of NANO-CIC, focusing on optoelectronics, new energy, green environment, and biomedicine. FUNSOM contributes significantly to the development of Soochow University, which is now in the top 100 most improved universities in the world in terms of the weighted fractional count of Nature Index. This special issue of Advanced Materials contains five Reviews and nine Research News articles, covering the main research activities at NANO-CIC and FUNSOM. The authors are from the collaborative institutions of NANO-CIC, reflecting the joint efforts of research in a multidisciplinary approach, pushing the development of nano­­materials and nanofabrication in different application areas. In the field of nanofabrication, Prof. Jangxin Tang and Prof. Linsheng Chen give an overview of the current status of scalable nanopatterning technologies, paying close attention to photonic structures on flexible materials. Prof. Lin Jiang and Prof. Qiao Zhang summarize the synthesis of plasmonic nanoparticles and their self-assembly into well-defined structures, while Prof. Qiangbin Wang focuses on the achievements of a large variety of chiral plasmonic nanostructures with bottom-up self-assembly methods, which exhibit novel optical activities. Prof. Lifeng Chi and Prof. Haiming Zhang describe approaches to fabricating low-dimensional organo–gold complexes, which is important in further synthesis of functional materials such as grapheme nanoribbons. In the field of optoelectronics, Prof. Liangsheng Liao and his co-workers give an extended review of tandem structures and their application for achieving high-performance tandem organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). On the other side, Prof. Jiansheng Jie and Prof. Xiaohong Zhang summarize recent advances of surface charge transfer doping (SCTD) of low-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures, as well as their electronic and optoelectronic applications. In their Research News articles, Prof. Zhigang Zhao describes the recent development of tungsten oxide materials and their applications in optoelectronics, while Prof. Qingwen Li reviews the preparation of carbon-nanotube (CNT) fibers and recently developed CNT-fiber-based, flexible, and functional devices. In the field of the environment, two intensive reviews are featured, discussing nanomaterials and their applica­tions in environmental management. Prof. Shuhong Yu and his co-workers describe advanced sorbents for oil-spill cleanup, based on a modification strategy, as well as carbon materials and swellable oleophilic polymers. Prof. Jianmei Lu and her co-workers summarize the recent development of micro–nano adsorbents and photodegradation composites, which lead to effective water remediation. In the field of nanoenergy, Prof. Baoquan Sun, Prof. Mingwang Shao, and Prof. Shuitong Lee give perspective reviews on nanostructured silicon and their applications in flexible photo­voltaics and thermoelectric generators, as well as piezoelectric devices for electricity generation. Prof. Wei Chen summarizes the recent progress on photoactuators based on photochemical and photothermal effects, and the important assembly strategies for the amplification of the photoresponsive components at nanoscale to macroscopic-scale motions. In the field of nano biomedicine, Prof. Zhuang Liu discusses the motivations of using albumins to build up nanoscale theranostics, and summarizes the latest progress/future perspectives in developing albumin-based multifunctional theranostic platforms. Prof. Yao He gives a concise discussion of the latest research progress regarding silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) and the present optical applications of SiNPs in bioimaging and sensing. Our gratitude goes to the whole edito­rial team for their efforts to push forward the publication of this special issue and their professional editing. We also want to express our appreciation to all the colleagues at NANO-CIC who gave great efforts to make this special issue possible. Special thanks go to Ruipeng Xu and Chi Li for the cover design. Shuit-Tong Lee is the founding director of FUNSOM and NANO-CIC. He is a fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and a fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). Prof. Lee is a distinguished scientist in materials science. Lifeng Chi pursued her Ph.D. degree at the University of Göttingen, Germany in 1989, and finished her Habilitation at the University of Münster, Germany in 2000. She became a Professor in Physics, University Münster in 2004. She joined FUNSOM at Soochow University as a chair Professor in 2012. Her key research is centered around supramolecular chemistry on surfaces, working intensively in the three important branches of this research area – molecular assembly and reactions, molecular patterning, and structured functional surfaces.