Colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) of cesium lead halide perovskites (CsPbX₃, X = Cl, Br or I) are emerging as an exciting class of optoelectronic materials, but the retention of their colloidal and structural integrity during isolation, purification and handling still represents a critical issue. The impelling questions concerning their intrinsic chemical instability are connected to the dynamic nature of the bonding between the inorganic surface and the long-chain capping ligands. However, the key aspects of CsPbX₃'s surface chemistry that directly impact their stability remain elusive. In this contribution, we provide an in-depth investigation of the surface properties of differently composed CsPbX₃ NCs, prepared by traditional hot-injection methods. The study, mainly relying on solution NMR spectroscopy, is backed up by elemental analysis as well as morphological, structural and optical investigations. We ascertained that the nature of the ligand adsorption/desorption processes at the NC surface is dependent on its elemental composition, thus explaining the origin of the instability afflicting CsPbI₃ NCs. We also evaluated the effect of NC purification as well as of the degradation pathways involving the organic shell on the surface chemistry of CsPbX₃ NCs. This study paves the way for new post-functionalization strategies for this promising class of nanomaterials.

Photocatalytic nanomaterials such as TiO₂ are receiving a great deal of attention owing to their potential applications in environmental remediation. Nonetheless, the low efficiency of this class of materials in the visible range has, so far, hampered their large-scale application. The increasing demand for highly efficient, visible-light-active photocatalysts can be addressed by hybrid nanostructured materials in which two or more units, each characterised by peculiar physical properties, surface chemistry and morphology, are combined together into a single nano-object with unprecedented chemical–physical properties. The present review intends to focus on hybrid nanomaterials, based on TiO₂ nanoparticles able to perform visible-light-driven photocatalytic processes for environmental applications. We give a brief overview of the synthetic approaches recently proposed in the literature to synthesise hybrid nanocrystals and discuss the potential applications of such nanostructures in water remediation, abatement of atmospheric pollutants (including NO_x and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)) and their use in self-cleaning surfaces.

Mesoporous silica nanostructures (MSNs) attract high interest due to their unique and tunable physical chemical features, including high specific surface area and large pore volume, that hold a great potential in a variety of fields, i.e., adsorption, catalysis, and biomedicine. An essential feature for biomedical application of MSNs is limiting MSN size in the sub-micrometer regime to control uptake and cell viability. However, careful size tuning in such a regime remains still challenging. We aim to tackling this issue by developing two synthetic procedures for MSN size modulation, performed in homogenous aqueous/ethanol solution or two-phase aqueous/ethyl acetate system. Both approaches make use of tetraethyl orthosilicate as precursor, in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, as structure-directing agent, and NaOH, as base-catalyst. NaOH catalyzed syntheses usually require high temperature (>80 °C) and large reaction medium volume to trigger MSN formation and limit aggregation. Here, a successful modulation of MSNs size from 40 up to 150 nm is demonstrated to be achieved by purposely balancing synthesis conditions, being able, in addition, to keep reaction temperature not higher than 50 °C (30 °C and 50 °C, respectively) and reaction mixture volume low. Through a comprehensive and in-depth systematic morphological and structural investigation, the mechanism and kinetics that sustain the control of MSNs size in such low dimensional regime are defined, highlighting that modulation of size and pores of the structures are mainly mediated by base concentration, reaction time and temperature and ageing, for the homogenous phase approach, and by temperature for the two-phase synthesis. Finally, an in vitro study is performed on bEnd.3 cells to investigate on the cytotoxicity of the MNSs.