Dialectics of nature: Temporal and spatial regulation in material sciences

The cooperative interaction distance measure has been proposed as a novel law pertaining to dialectics of nature, and has been extensively carried out in the design of functional nanomaterials. However, the temporal and spatial dimensions are akin to yin and yang, and thus temporal regulation needs to be accounted for when implementing the above-mentioned principle. Here, we summarize recent advances in temporally and spatially regulated materials and devices. We showcase the temporal regulation of organic semiconductors for organic photovoltaics (OPVs) using the example of exciton lifetime manipulation. As an example of spatial regulation, we consider the distribution of charge carriers in core–shell quantum dot (QD) nanocrystals for modulating their optical properties. Long exciton lifetime can in principle increase the exciton diffussion length, which is desiable for high-efficiency large-area OPV devices. Spatially regulated QDs are highly valuable emitters for light-emitting applications. We aim to show that cooperative spatio-temporal regulation of nanomaterils is of vital importance to the development of functional devices.