includes self-assembled fullerene crystals design from zero-to-higher dimensions, mesoporous fullerene crystals and their conversion into graphitic mesoporous carbons, high surface area nanoporous carbon material design from agro-waste for electrochemical supercapacitors and VOC adsorption. Somobrata AcharyaSomobrata Acharya received his Ph.D. degree from Jadavpur University, India. He is currently Associate Professor in the Centre for Advanced Materials (CAM), Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), India. He is carrying out research in interdisciplinary areas probing structure-property relationship and possible applications of semiconductor nanomaterials in the areas of energy generation and consumption. His research area includes heterostructures, 2D nanostructures, superlattices, supramolecular assemblies and their suitable applications. Katsuhiko ArigaKatsuhiko Ariga received his Ph.D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is currently the Director of Supermolecules Group and Principal Investigator of World Premier International (WPI) Research Centre for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). His research is oriented to supramolecular chemistry, surface science, and functional nanomaterials (Langmuir-Blodgett film, layer-by-layer assembly, self-organized materials, sensing and drug delivery, molecular recognition, mesoporous material, etc. and he is now trying to combine them into a unified field. AbstractDesigning nanoscale components and units into functional defined systems and materials has recently received attention as a nanoarchitectonics approach. In particular, exploration of nanoarchitectonics in two-dimensions (2D) has made great progress these days. Basically, 2D nanomaterials are a center of interest owing to the large surface areas suitable for a variety of surface active applications. The increasing demands for alternative energy generation have significantly promoted the rational design and fabrication of a variety of 2D nanomaterials since the discovery of graphene. In 2D nanomaterials, the charge carriers are confined along the thickness while being allowed to move along the plane. Owing to the large planar area, 2D nanomaterials are highly sensitive to external stimuli, a characteristic suitable for a variety of surface active applications including electrochemistry. Because of the unique

All-inorganic perovskite nanocrystals are emergent alternative of organolead halide perovskites. Cesium antimony halide (Cs3Sb2X9, X = Cl, Br, I) all-inorganic perovskites nanocrystals possessing analogous electronic configuration to the organolead halide perovskites are promising materials for optoelectronic applications. We report on a colloidal route to synthesis uniform Cs3Sb2Cl9 perovskite nanowires with lengths up to several microns. We have synthesized aspect ratio controlled nanorods with the same ∼20 nm diameter of nanowires by tuning the precursors and ligands in the reaction. The crystallinity of the nanocrystals is significantly altered from the pristine bulk trigonal and orthorhombic phases owing to the one-dimensional shape of the nanocrystals. Rietveld refinement carefully separates out orthorhombic phase from the trigonal phase revealing a coexistence of both the phases in a minor and major ratio in the nanocrystals. The functionality in the form of fast photodetector demonstrates Cs3Sb2Cl9 nanocrystals as promising materials for optoelectronic applications.

Two-dimensional (2D) carbon nanomaterials possessing promising physical and chemical properties find applications in high-performance energy storage devices and catalysts. However, large-scale fabrication of 2D carbon nanostructures is based on a few specific carbon templates or precursors and poses a formidable challenge. Now a new bottom-up method for carbon nanosheet fabrication using a newly designed anisotropic carbon nanoring molecule, CPPhen, is presented. CPPhen was self-assembled at a dynamic air-water interface with a vortex motion to afford molecular nanosheets, which were then carbonized under inert gas flow. Their nanosheet morphologies were retained after carbonization, which has never been seen for low-molecular weight compounds. Furthermore, adding pyridine as a nitrogen dopant in the self-assembly step successfully afforded nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets containing mainly pyridinic nitrogen species.

Monocomponent quantum dots (QDs) possess limited electron−hole delocalization capacity upon photoexcitation that suppresses the efficiency of photoenergy harvesting devices. Type II heterostructures offer band offsets at conduction and valence bands depending upon the band gaps of the constituent QDs which largely depend on their sizes. Hence, by keeping the size of one constituent QD fixed while varying the size of the other QD selectively, the band offsets at the interface can be engineered selectively. We report on the tuning of band offsets by synthesizing component size modulated heterostructures composed of a fixed sized ZnSe QD and size tuned CdS QDs with variable band gaps. The resultant heterostructures show spontaneous charge carrier separation across the interface upon photoexcitation depending on the extent of band offsets. Formation mechanism, epitaxial relationship, and the intrinsic nature of interface of the heterostructures are investigated. Experimental results are corroborated with ab initio electronic structure calculations based on density functional theory. Spontaneous charge carrier delocalization across the interface depends on the magnitude of band offsets, which facilitates fabrication of QD sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). Improved device performances of QDSSCs in comparison to the limited photon-to-current conversion efficiencies of monocomponent QDs demonstrates the significance of band offsets for natural charge carrier separation.