The layered transition-metal dichalcogenide $1\mathrm{T}\text{−}{\mathrm{TaS}}_2$ has been recently found to undergo a Mott-insulator-to-superconductor transition induced by high pressure, charge doping, or isovalent substitution. By combining scanning tunneling microscopy measurements and first-principles calculations, we investigate the atomic scale electronic structure of the $1\mathrm{T}\text{−}{\mathrm{TaS}}_2$ Mott insulator and its evolution to the metallic state upon isovalent substitution of S with Se. We identify two distinct types of orbital textures—one localized and the other extended—and demonstrate that the interplay between them is the key factor that determines the electronic structure. In particular, we show that the continuous evolution of the charge gap visualized by scanning tunneling microscopy is due to the immersion of the localized-orbital-induced Hubbard bands into the extended-orbital-spanned Fermi sea, featuring a unique evolution from a Mott gap to a charge-transfer gap. This new mechanism of Mottness collapse revealed here suggests an interesting route for creating novel electronic states and designing future electronic devices.

The kagome bands hosting exotic quantum phases generally and understandably pertain only to a kagome lattice. This has severely hampered the research of kagome physics due to the lack of real kagome-lattice materials. Interestingly, we discover that a coloring-triangle (CT) lattice, named after color-triangle tiling, also hosts kagome bands. We demonstrate first theoretically the equivalency between the kagome and CT lattices, and then computationally in photonic (waveguide lattice) and electronic (Au overlayer on electride $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{N}$ surface) systems by first-principles calculations. The theory can be generalized to even distorted kagome and CT lattices to exhibit ideal kagome bands. Our findings open an avenue to explore the alluding kagome physics.

A method using ink-jet printing for constructing multi-enzyme systems was proposed, in which a precisely defined enzyme ratio and two-dimensional distribution was obtained by the preset ‘color’ values. The applications of the print-on-paper multi-enzyme systems were exemplified by the detection of glucose and the design of an enzyme-enabled two-dimensional code.