DNA nanostructures are ideal templates for bottom-up assembly and fabrication of nanomaterials. Their structures can be tailored for a given application and modified with pinpoint precision. They offer the best of top down and bottom up assembly. We highlight recent progress in DNA nanotechnology and in particular advances that are relevant to the materials chemistry community. Examples of using DNA nanostructure to address materials chemistry challenges are highlighted.

Adsorption of molecules from the ambient environment significantly changes the optical, electrical, electrochemical, and tribological properties of 2D materials.

Both doping and compositing in TiO 2 are exceedingly effective strategies to overcome the compound's shortcomings, such as invalid visible-light response and enormous recombination of photogenerated carriers. Herein, a convenient and costeffective route has been put forward to in situ synthesize nanolayered heterostructure based on N-doped TiO 2 nanoparticles and Ndoped carbon (N-TiO 2 /NC) using 2D layered N-MXene (N−Ti 3 C 2 T x ) as the template. The as-obtained N-TiO 2 /NC nanocomposite displays greatly enhanced visible light absorption property, superior carrier separation and transport ability. As a result, the nanolayered N-TiO 2 /NC heterostructure exhibits a satisfactory H 2 evolution rate from water-splitting (102.6 μmol g −1 h −1 ) under visible-light without any additional cocatalyst. The study provides a new strategy for the synthesis of defective nanoheterostructure and expands the applications of MXene family.