The precision treatment of tumors with minimal side effects is associated with improved human health and quality of life. In recent years, phototherapy has attracted significant attention in tumor therapy due to its versatility, spatiotemporal controllability, non-resistance, and minimal side effects. Carbon dots (CDs) are considered promising phototherapy reagents because of their simple preparation, facilitated surface modification, tunable energy bands, excellent electron-transfer capabilities, remarkable photoelectric and photothermal conversion properties, and outstanding biocompatibility. This review summarizes recent advancements in photo-responsive CDs for photodynamic therapy and the emerging photocatalytic therapy of tumors. Finally, the article discusses the main challenges associated with the development of photo-responsive CDs for oncology therapeutics and strategies to overcome these challenges.

Advanced materials could perform functions in response to external stimuli. These are responsive materials. In order for us to develop advanced functional systems with a good responsive nature, we need to create a methodology that goes one step further. It is the artificial architecture of functional material systems based on the knowledge of nanotechnology. The task will be fulfilled by the new concept of nanoarchitectonics. Nanoarchitectonics integrates nanotechnology with various material sciences, basic chemistry, microfabrication techniques, and biological processes to architect functional material systems from atomic, molecular, and nanomaterial units. This review will deal with the nanoarchitectonics of responsive materials related with phenomena at interfaces. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of responsive materials nanoarchitectonics at interfaces for functional systems of various sizes, this review article is organized by size for various functional systems. Specifically, this review has grouped them into (i) molecular level response, (ii) nanodevice level response, (iii) material level response, and (iv) living cell level response. If the social demand for these materials is fully recognized, such development is expected to efficiently progress. This review article would play a role in stimulating such development.

Chirality is a fundamental property in nature, which is essential for the existence and survival of living organisms. Smart responsive chiroptical materials have garnered increasing attention due to their unique structural characteristics and potential applications. Among these, azobenzene (Azo), as a typical photoresponsive chromophore, plays a crucial role in constructing and controlling chiral structures. The unique cis-trans isomerization, liquid crystallinity, and other physicochemical properties allow for a wide range of tunability in stimuli-responsive chiroptical materials. Herein, we review the research studies in the field of chiral/achiral Azo building blocks for multilevel chiral generation as well as chiral switching, and summarize the recent advances on the applications of the chiral Azo structures from micro to macro levels. Finally, we aim to provide an overview of the potential challenges and new research opportunities for the development of novel smart responsive chiroptical materials.

The transient and elusive intermediate states are the keys in self-assembly processes, which are common phenomena shaping the structure, properties, and functionalities of assembled materials across many scientific domains. However, the understanding about the intermediate states of self-assembly process is always challenging and limited. In this review, we focus on these states by combining theoretical and experimental approaches. By examining a wide variety of selfassembly systems that span from biological to metal-organic nanostructures, this review uncovers the wealth of intermediate states of self-assembled materials. In addition to combining the current knowledge, it will identify challenges and provide a new insight into the opportunities for future research.

Considering the continuous advances in the synthesis and clinical applications of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), precision therapies that employ mAbs are essential. In recent years, extensive efforts have been invested in developing novel strategies or technologies for detection of mAbs. Given the availability of advanced biosensing materials, various assemblies of multifunctional materials can be prepared by intelligent design when evaluating targets for mAbs. This article provides an overview of the recent advances and functional applications of biosensing materials for mAb detection. Subsequently, we present the approaches by which mAb receptors are combined with materials to construct stimulusresponsive analytical platforms that evaluate the contents and activities of mAbs in biological systems, enabling real-time monitoring and diagnosis that could facilitate administration of mAbs during treatment. Furthermore, the review examines various applications of biosensing for mAb detection and implications in real-world contexts; it also discusses ongoing challenges and future prospects.

Inorganic photochromic materials, as emerging photoresponsive materials, have attracted unparalleled interest because of their potential applications in various photoactive devices such as smart windows, optical memories, and photochromic decorations. Over the past decades, great research efforts have been focused on further development of high-performance photochromic materials, revealing the underlying physical mechanism as well as exploring new advanced applications. However, significant challenges still exist in achieving large photochromic contrast, realizing color-tunable response, and confirming the detailed photochromic processes. In this review, the latest progress of inorganic photochromic materials is summarized from the aspects of the advance of new materials, the mechanism of photochromism, the techniques for evaluating and revealing photochromism, and the methods for regulating photochromic behavior. The emerging applications of photochromic materials for optical information storage, photocatalysis, optical anti-counterfeiting, radiation dosimetry and so on are also discussed. The perspectives and challenges of photochromic materials in terms of practical applications are presented. This review aims to provide fundamentals about the mechanism, properties and applications of inorganic photochromic materials and promote the application of photochromic materials in various optical devices.

In this study, a series of high liposoluble near-infrared emissive aggregation-induced emission luminogens with triphenylamine derivatives as donor units and 1-indanone as electron acceptor units are developed. Specifically, MTTOI has promising lipid droplets targeting ability and viscosity-response characteristics, and it can monitor the viscosity fluctuations in living cells in real time. It is found that MTTOI is able to fulfill the activation of the apoptosis-related signaling pathways under white light, and it can also activate the ferroptosis to synergize apoptosis resulting in tumor elimination. Interestingly, the occurrence of ferroptosis is positively related to the enhancement of immunogenic cell-death effect, thus boosting the tumor infiltration of CD8+ Tcells and reducing the proportion of regulatory Tcells by cooperating with dendritic cells, which can not only carry out primary antitumor treatment, but also prevent tumor metastasis through strong immunological memory effect. Moreover, in vivo experimental results confirm that MTTOI successfully effectuates fatty liver tissue imaging. MTTOI fluorescence signals can be captured at the tumor site after 3 days of administration due to its high fat-solubility and ease of fusion with tumors. This classic example could promote the further development of phototherapeutic agents in preclinical research and clinical applications.

Commodity fraud poses significant economic and public health risks while jeopardizing market stability. A promising avenue for addressing this issue involves the incorporation of physical unclonable function (PUF) in anti-counterfeiting labels for commodity authentication purposes. PUFs are a large number of unbreakable security labels generated through a random process, which exhibit unique physical pattern responses that are impervious to replication. In particular, a novel kind of a PUF model, called structural color-based PUFs, combing the structural color characteristics of angle-dependent stability and brightness with unclonable property, offers unassailable encryption capabilities and serves as a formidable safeguard against forgery. This review undertakes a comprehensive summary of recent advancements in PUF technology leveraging structural color materials. Moreover, it provides a systematic description of the recognition and authentication technology employed in optical structural color PUFs. Finally, a prospective summary and outlook is proposed to explain existing challenges, and highlight potential developments in anti-counterfeiting technology incorporating structural color PUF labels.

Liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) have gained tremendous attention in recent years due to their great potentials from fabrication of responsive actuators and sensors to construction of intelligent soft robotic and light modulators. However, conventional LCPs with permanent cross-links present tedious and unmodifiable stimuliresponsiveness. Recently, dynamic bonds capable to reversibly break and reform have been integrated into LCP, imparting intrinsic dynamic characteristics. The dynamic LCP possesses unprecedented diverse functionalities including reprogrammability, recyclability, and self-healing ability, becoming much more adaptive to surrounding environmental changes compared with the conventional counterpart. In this review, recent progress of dynamic bond-based LCPs is summarized. The mechanism, preparation, and functionalities of dynamic LCPs based on dynamic noncovalent bond (DNCB) and dynamic covalent bond (DCB) are poised to be discussed, followed by introducing emergent LCPs combining both of DNCB and DCB. Consequently, the unique functionalities of dynamic bond-based LCPs will be given. Finally, outlooks of development of the dynamic bond-based LCPs are presented.

For centuries, humans have never stopped exploring the nature of light and manipulating it, since light carries multiple information through its intrinsic waveparticle dualism, including wavelength, amplitude, phase, polarization, spin/orbital angular momentum, etc., which determines the physical language and basic manners we perceive the objective world. Conventional optical devices, such as lenses, prisms, and lasers, are composed of solid elements that are bulky, making it difficult to manipulate light dynamically with multiple degrees-of-freedom. Comparatively, some responsive soft matters, especially represented by liquid crystals (LCs), possess distinctive orientational order and spontaneous self-assembled superstructures, enabling the digital programming of microstructures and multiple degrees-of-freedom manipulation of their optical characteristics. The optical manipulation based on these soft superstructures, that is, the “soft-matter-photonics”, is playing an impressive role in integrated functional devices, especially in the present age of information explosion. Herein, we review the latest advances, respectively, in the microstructure configurations, multiple degrees-of-freedom manipulations, and the relevant prospective applications. Additionally, scientific issues and technical challenges that hinder the programing operation and optical manipulations are discussed. Toward a four-dimensional optical manipulation of soft condensed matter, this review may have wide implications on a variety of applications, including the integrated fabrication of compact elements, multi-channel information processing and high-capacity optical communications.

Stimuli-responsive fluorescent hydrogels are three-dimensional networked polymeric materials with tunable luminescence and dynamic properties, which play an important role as a water-rich soft material in the fields of information encryption, bionic actuation, bioimaging, environmental monitoring, and luminescent materials. Compared with conventional hydrogels, their unique luminescent properties allow the visualization of microscopic dynamics within the polymer network. By rational inclusion of dynamic motifs, such as photoswitches, AIEgens, lanthanide complexes, and host–guest complexes, these materials are endowed with tunability of emission, shape, and phase in time and space in response to environmental effectors. In this review, we summarize the fabrication strategies that are mainly used by recently reported stimuli-responsive fluorescent hydrogels and the applications of these materials.

Compared with traditional rigid actuators, soft actuators exhibit a large number of advantages, including enhanced flexibility, reconfigurability, and adaptability, which motivate us to develop artificial soft actuators with widespread applications. Soft actuators with MXene nanomaterials are regarded as highly promising candidates for advancing the development of bioinspired soft robotics as a consequence of their unprecedented physicochemical characteristics, such as high electronic conductivity, thermal conductivity, photothermal conversion capability, and abundant surface functional groups. Herein, a comprehensive overview of the recent advancement of soft actuators with MXene nanomaterials and their extensive applications from the perspective of bioinspiration is provided. First, synthetic methods of MXene and their properties are briefly summarized. Subsequently, soft actuators with MXene nanomaterials (including photoresponsive soft actuators, electroresponsive soft actuators, and chemoresponsive soft actuators) are sequentially investigated with a focus on the fabrication approaches, actuation properties, underlying mechanisms, and promising applications. At the end, the future challenges and opportunities for the rapid development of soft actuators with MXene nanomaterials are discussed.

Intelligent materials with responsive behaviors toward external stimuli, such as light, temperature, pH, redox, and solvent have been increasingly fascinating. Reversible noncovalent interactions provide an efficient way to construct stimuliresponsive materials. Macrocyclic compounds, such as cyclodextrins, cucurbit[n]urils, calix[n]arenes, crown ethers, and related macrocycles, are useful skeletons for constructing such materials through host–guest interactions. Pillar[n]arenes are pillar-shaped macrocyclic hosts developed by our groups in 2008, in which the repeated 1,4-dialkoxybenzene units are connected by methylene bridges at the para position. The versatile functionality, easy modification, excellent size-dependent host–guest complexation, and adjustable electron density of the cavity endow pillar[n]arenes with excellent properties compared with other cyclic host molecules. Moreover, the unique planar chirality and chirality inversion generated by unit rotation make pillar[n]arenes ideal platforms for investigating chirality inversion, induction, and transformation. In this review, we describe stimuli-responsive topological, optical, chiroptical, supramolecular assemblies, and solid-state materials based on the host–guest complexation and structural regulation of pillar[n]arenes.

Intrinsically stretchable electronics have gained extensive interest recently, due to their promising application in wearable electronics, bio-integrated electronics, and healthcare devices. All of the components of such stretchable electronics need to be stretchable and mechanically robust to accommodate complex movements. The design and fabrication of robust intrinsically stretchable electronic materials represent a critical challenge in this emerging field. In this review, we focus on the latest studies of intrinsically stretchable electronics, covering the strategies for achieving intrinsically stretchable electronic materials, the recent progresses in the key electronic materials including intrinsically stretchable conductors, semiconductors, dielectrics, and the devices produced by them. Finally, some suggestions and prospects for the future development of intrinsically stretchable electronics are proposed.

Electrochromic (EC) technology has been regarded as a promising energy-saving technology in various applications, including smart windows, displays, thermal management, rear views, etc. Benefiting from the progress in electrochromic material synthesis, electrochromic electrode fabrication, and electrochromic device configuration design, the focus in electrochromic community has gradually shifted to multifunctional electrochromic devices (ECDs) in the era of Internet of Things. Multifunctional ECDs, such as electrochromic energy storage devices, multi-color displays, deformable ECDs, smart windows, etc. have been showcased the ability to expand potential applications. In this review, the available device configurations, performance indexes and advanced characterization techniques for multifunctional ECDs are introduced and classified accordingly. The applications of multifunctional ECDs for energy storage, multicolor displays, deformable devices, selfchargeable devices, smart windows, actuators, etc., are exemplified. The future development trends and perspectives of multifunctional ECDs are also overlooked. The aim of this review is to guide and inspire further efforts in the exploration of novel and advanced multifunctional ECDs.