Cover image provided courtesy of Jianguang Zhou, Research Center for Analytical Instrumentation, Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, State Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology, Zhejiang University, China.

Recent theoretical and experimental investigations are reviewed. Detailed recommendations for conducting crystallization from solution aimed at obtaining a crystalline product with pre-selected crystal size distribution (CSD) are given on this basis. With this aim in view, equations have been devised that enable calculation of suitable parameters for conducting the purposive crystallization process.

2D vanadium disulfide (VS₂) is synthesized by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition on SiO₂/Si, fluorphlogopite mica, and h-BN substrates. Corresponding to dissimilar temperatures, the effect of substrate position on VS₂ growth shows large area VS₂ films are attained when the substrate temperature is 650 °C whereas VS₂ single crystals are obtained at 550 °C.

The dominant photoluminescence (PL) process is revealed as an optical transition from the Fermi energy to the top of valence band independent of temperature for heavily Si-doped GaAsN, and the evaluation method of its electron effective mass is proposed using PL peak energy, intrinsic bandgap energy, the increased energy of the Burstein–Moss effect, and the decreased energy of the bandgap narrowing.

New energy levels design between the bandgap of CdS nanobelts (NBs) by selective dopants and the resulting modulation of specific radiative recombination rate that dominate the luminescence properties are the essence of crystal imperfection modulation engineering (CIME) toward the tuning of luminescent properties of CdS.

The particle number density by quick heating of microwave can be quantitatively predicted using bubble size profiles measured during the irradiation. Addition of anti-solvent is found to be beneficial in obtaining higher particle number density. These confirm tandem positive effect of microwave and anti-solvent to promote nucleation promotion in nanoparticle synthesis process.

A new self-assembly method for the controlled assembly of 3,3′-diamino-4,4′-azoxyfurazan (DAAF) and 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene (FOX-7) is reported. The detonation velocity of DAAF/FOX-7 microspheres is about 0.5 km s⁻¹ compared to that of DAAF. The characteristic drop height of impact sensitivity is more than 100 cm, which demonstrates that the DAAF/FOX-7 microspheres exhibit good safety performance.

The anhydrous acid uric crystals synthesized by an acidic-base neutralization show an orthorhombic-like shape structured by stacked layer sheets of at least 600 nm of thickness. A nonlinear adjustment shows that the crystals grow almost two times faster longitudinally than transversally, with predicted sizes of 68.71 and 23.95 µm, respectively.

The supramolecular self-assembly of the outer surface of cucurbit[n]uril is one of the main areas of focus in cucurbit[n]uril chemistry. The crystal structure is determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and characterized. This work focuses on the supramolecular self-assembly between CyP₅Q[5], FeCl₂, FeCl₃ and CyP₆Q[6] and HClO₄ through the interaction of the outer surface.