The Quest for Green Solvents for the Sustainable Production of Nanosheets of Two-Dimensional (2D) Materials, a Key Issue in the Roadmap for the Ecology Transition in the Flatland.

The recent advent of two-dimensional (2D) materials has had a ground-breaking impact on science and technology. To exploit in technology their unique thickness-dependent physicochemical properties, the large-scale production of 2D materials is mandatory, but it represents an open challenge still due to various pitfalls and severe limitations including the toxicity of state-of-the-art solvents. Thus, liquid-phase exfoliation based on green and bioderived solvents represents an ideal methodology for massive production.

NiSe and CoSe Topological Nodal-Line Semimetals: A Sustainable Platform for Efficient Thermoplasmonics and Solar-Driven Photothermal Membrane Distillation.

The control of heat at the nanoscale via the excitation of localized surface plasmons in nanoparticles (NPs) irradiated with light holds great potential in several fields (cancer therapy, catalysis, desalination). To date, most thermoplasmonic applications are based on Ag and Au NPs, whose cost of raw materials inevitably limits the scalability for industrial applications requiring large amounts of photothermal NPs, as in the case of desalination plants. On the other hand, alternative nanomaterials proposed so far exhibit severe restrictions associated with the insufficient photothermal efficacy in the visible, the poor chemical stability, and the challenging scalability.