# Scientific figure templates

> 192 editable figure templates (graphical abstracts) for chemistry and materials science, each citing the papers it follows.

URL: https://www.labcanvas.com/templates

Every template opens in the LabCanvas figure editor with every layer editable. Updated 2026-10-14.

## [Multipanel figures](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel)

Journal figures with lettered panels: ready-made layouts (2 × 2, one large and three small, 3 × 2) and complete examples for nanoparticle characterization, cell assays, in vivo studies, battery testing and protein structure prediction. Graphs stay linked to their data; images are stand-ins to replace.

- [Four-panel figure (2 × 2)](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-2-2) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-2-2.md)): The most common journal figure: four equal panels a–d on one grid, with a schematic, an image and two graphs. Replace each panel with your own content; the letters, titles and spacing stay consistent.
- [One large panel and three small (1 + 3)](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/large-panel-three-small-1-3) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/large-panel-three-small-1-3.md)): A large panel for the main schematic or image on the left, and three graphs stacked on the right: the layout for a figure that leads with a mechanism and backs it with data.
- [Six-panel figure (3 × 2)](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/six-panel-figure-3-2) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/six-panel-figure-3-2.md)): Six panels a–f in three columns: a schematic and two images on top, three graphs below. The layout for a figure that compares conditions by eye and then by numbers.
- [Six-panel figure: characterizing gold nanoparticles](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/six-panel-figure-characterizing-gold-nanoparticles) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/six-panel-figure-characterizing-gold-nanoparticles.md)): A complete characterization figure for citrate-capped gold nanoparticles: the synthesis, a TEM image, the size histogram, the UV–vis plasmon band, the powder XRD pattern and the hydrodynamic size from DLS. Every graph is editable with its own data sheet; replace the example data and the TEM stand-in with your own.
- [Four-panel figure: cell viability and cytotoxicity](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-cell-viability-cytotoxicity) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-cell-viability-cytotoxicity.md)): A cell-based assay figure: the treatment workflow on a 96-well plate, live/dead fluorescence images of control and treated cells, dose–response curves with fitted IC₅₀ values for two cell lines, and viability at one dose with every replicate and a one-way ANOVA against the control.
- [Four-panel figure: tumour growth and survival in vivo](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-tumour-growth-survival-vivo) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-tumour-growth-survival-vivo.md)): An in vivo efficacy figure: the dosing schedule on a timeline, tumour volume over time for three groups (mean ± SEM), Kaplan–Meier survival with a log-rank test, and body weight as a measure of tolerability.
- [Four-panel figure: battery cathode performance](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-battery-cathode-performance) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-battery-cathode-performance.md)): An electrochemistry figure for a cathode material: the cell, discharge profiles over cycling, capacity at rising C-rates and back, and long-term cycling with Coulombic efficiency on a second axis.
- [Four-panel figure: a predicted protein structure and its confidence](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-predicted-protein-structure-confidence) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/multipanel/four-panel-figure-predicted-protein-structure-confidence.md)): A structure-prediction figure: the predicted model coloured by confidence, the per-residue pLDDT along the sequence, the predicted aligned error (PAE) map that shows which domains are placed confidently, and the predicted contact map.

## [Journal covers](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/journal-cover-art)

Cover designs with a top journal’s restraint: one full-bleed 3D render from the 3D Studio’s cover scenes (double-click it to change the scene, camera and depth of field), a big masthead, the issue line and the cover story. The journal name and lines are placeholders to replace.

- [Journal cover: genome editing](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/journal-cover-art/dna-genome-editing-journal-cover) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/journal-cover-art/dna-genome-editing-journal-cover.md)): A cover in the style of a top journal: a full-bleed DNA render with glowing particles out of focus, a large serif masthead, the issue line and one cover story. Replace the name and lines; double-click the picture to change the 3D scene.
- [Journal cover: single-atom catalysis](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/journal-cover-art/single-atom-catalysis-journal-cover) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/journal-cover-art/single-atom-catalysis-journal-cover.md)): A bold modern cover: glowing single-atom sites in graphene seen low across the sheet, a heavy sans masthead with a gold rule, a special-issue tag and the cover story. Replace the name and lines; double-click the picture to change the 3D scene.

## [Graphene synthesis](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis)

Graphical abstracts of the main routes to graphene: top-down exfoliation and oxidation of graphite, and bottom-up growth on metals and SiC.

- [Mechanical exfoliation with adhesive tape](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/mechanical-exfoliation-scotch-tape-graphene) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/mechanical-exfoliation-scotch-tape-graphene.md)): Graphene was first isolated by peeling graphite with ordinary adhesive tape. Repeated peeling thins the flakes on the tape, which is then pressed onto an oxidized silicon wafer, where single layers are spotted by their faint optical contrast and confirmed by Raman spectroscopy or AFM.
- [Liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/liquid-phase-exfoliation-graphene) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/liquid-phase-exfoliation-graphene.md)): Graphite is split into thin sheets directly in a liquid. The layers are first loosened by expansion and solvothermal intercalation, then torn apart by ultrasound in a solvent whose surface energy matches graphene, such as NMP. Centrifugation removes the thick flakes and leaves stable dispersions of few-layer graphene.
- [Graphene oxide: synthesis and characterization](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/graphene-oxide-synthesis-characterization) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/graphene-oxide-synthesis-characterization.md)): A six-panel figure on graphene oxide: the modified Hummers' route from graphite through graphite oxide and GO to reduced GO, the Lerf–Klinowski structural model with its oxygen groups, and representative XRD, Raman, FTIR and XPS C 1s spectra comparing graphite, GO and rGO.
- [Doped carbon nanosheets from layered biochar](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/doped-carbon-nanosheets-layered-biochar) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/doped-carbon-nanosheets-layered-biochar.md)): A layer-by-layer precursor of alternating inorganic and organic layers is carbonized in place, and the inorganic template is then leached out with acid. Liquid-phase exfoliation splits the resulting multilayered biochar into thin, porous carbon nanosheets co-doped with Fe, N and S, used as oxygen-reduction catalysts and supercapacitor electrodes.
- [Electrochemical exfoliation of graphite](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/electrochemical-exfoliation-graphene) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/electrochemical-exfoliation-graphene.md)): A graphite electrode is made the anode in an aqueous salt solution such as ammonium sulfate. Under a DC bias, sulfate anions and water enter the graphite edges and the gases they produce force the layers apart, so few-layer graphene flakes detach into the electrolyte. The flakes are filtered, washed and re-dispersed.
- [Hummers method: graphite to GO to rGO](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/hummers-method-graphene-oxide-rgo) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/hummers-method-graphene-oxide-rgo.md)): Graphite is oxidized in concentrated sulfuric acid with sodium nitrate and potassium permanganate, diluted with water, treated with hydrogen peroxide and sonicated into graphene oxide (GO) sheets. Reducing the GO, for example with hydrazine hydrate or sodium borohydride, removes most of the oxygen groups and gives reduced graphene oxide (rGO).
- [Improved Hummers method with K₂FeO₄](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/improved-hummers-method-k2feo4) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/improved-hummers-method-k2feo4.md)): A NaNO₃-free variant of the Hummers method in which potassium ferrate (K₂FeO₄) takes over part of the oxidizing work of KMnO₄. Graphite is intercalated and oxidized in sulfuric acid in two stages, then diluted with hot water to give graphene oxide.
- [CVD growth of graphene on copper and nickel](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/cvd-graphene-growth-copper-nickel) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/cvd-graphene-growth-copper-nickel.md)): In chemical vapour deposition, methane breaks down on a hot metal foil and its carbon assembles into graphene. Copper dissolves almost no carbon, so growth happens on the surface and stops once one layer covers the foil. Nickel dissolves carbon at the growth temperature and releases it as it cools, giving few-layer graphene whose thickness depends on the cooling rate.
- [CVD graphene on copper and PMMA transfer](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/cvd-graphene-pmma-transfer) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/cvd-graphene-pmma-transfer.md)): Graphene grown by CVD on copper foil has to be moved onto an insulating substrate before it can be used in devices. A thin PMMA film is spin-coated on top as a support, the copper is etched away so that the PMMA/graphene film floats, and the film is scooped onto SiO₂/Si; acetone then dissolves the PMMA.
- [Epitaxial graphene on SiC](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/epitaxial-graphene-sic) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/epitaxial-graphene-sic.md)): Graphene can be grown directly on a silicon carbide wafer, with no transfer. Hydrogen etching first leaves clean, regular atomic terraces. Heating in argon then drives silicon off the surface so that the carbon left behind forms graphene nuclei, and adding methane lets these nuclei grow into a continuous layer.
- [Graphene on SiC for remote epitaxy and layer transfer](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/graphene-remote-epitaxy-layer-transfer) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-synthesis/graphene-remote-epitaxy-layer-transfer.md)): Epitaxial graphene on SiC can serve as a reusable growth template. A single-crystal GaN film is grown on the graphene, a nickel stressor layer and tape are added, and the film peels off cleanly along the weak graphene interface. It is then placed on any host substrate, while the graphene/SiC wafer goes back for the next growth.

## [Graphene research](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research)

Working with graphene once it is made: characterizing a flake (optical contrast, AFM, Raman, electron diffraction, field effect), making a transistor, transferring films, the wider 2D family, the production routes side by side, and laser-induced and flash graphene. Every panel is a live generator computed from the cited papers.

- [Characterizing graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/characterizing-graphene) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/characterizing-graphene.md)): Six measurements tell you what a graphene flake is. Optical contrast on SiO₂/Si finds it, AFM and the Raman spectrum count its layers, the Raman D band gives the distance between its defects, electron diffraction tells one layer from two, and a field-effect device gives its carrier density and mobility.
- [Making a graphene transistor](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/making-graphene-transistor) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/making-graphene-transistor.md)): A graphene field-effect transistor is made with two rounds of lithography: the first patterns the graphene into a channel with an oxygen plasma, the second adds Cr/Au contacts by lift-off. The doped silicon under the oxide is the gate, and the resistance against gate voltage gives the Dirac point, the carrier density and the mobility.
- [Graphene transfer methods compared](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-transfer-methods-compared) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-transfer-methods-compared.md)): CVD graphene grows on metal and has to be moved before it is used. Wet transfer holds it in PMMA while the copper is etched away; roll-to-roll does the same with thermal release tape at metre scale; bubbling lifts it off with hydrogen so the metal can be used again; and dry stamping and van der Waals pick-up place single flakes and build hBN-encapsulated stacks.
- [The graphene family of 2D materials](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-family-2d-materials) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-family-2d-materials.md)): Graphene is one of many crystals a few atoms thick. Hexagonal boron nitride is a flat insulator, monolayer MoS₂ a direct-gap semiconductor, phosphorene a p-type semiconductor with a puckered, anisotropic lattice, borophene a 2D metal and CrI₃ a magnet, and all of them can be stacked layer by layer into van der Waals heterostructures.
- [Making graphene: six routes compared](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/making-graphene-six-routes-compared) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/making-graphene-six-routes-compared.md)): Graphene is made top-down, by taking graphite apart, or bottom-up, from carbon atoms. Tape gives few-atom-thick crystals of remarkably high quality, solvents and shear give dispersions by the litre, oxidation gives graphene oxide that stays defective after reduction, CVD on copper and growth on SiC give films, and flash Joule heating turns cheap carbon into gram-scale graphene in under a second.
- [Laser-induced and flash graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/laser-induced-flash-graphene) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/laser-induced-flash-graphene.md)): Two fast, solvent-free ways to graphene. A pulsed CO₂ laser converts the surface of a polyimide film into porous graphene that can be written straight into micro-supercapacitor electrodes; a sub-second electrical flash through coal, carbon black or plastic waste turns it into gram-scale turbostratic graphene.
- [Reading a graphene Raman spectrum](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/reading-graphene-raman-spectrum) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/reading-graphene-raman-spectrum.md)): A one-page guide to the Raman spectrum of graphene: how the 2D band changes from one layer to graphite, the NPL monolayer criteria, what the 2D width says about the substrate, the defect distance from I(D)/I(G), the defect type from I(D)/I(D′), and the strain–doping map that separates the two.
- [Characterizing graphene oxide](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/characterizing-graphene-oxide) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/characterizing-graphene-oxide.md)): Six measurements of graphene oxide and reduced GO in one figure: the XPS C 1s components, FTIR bands of the oxygen groups, ¹³C solid-state NMR, the XRD interlayer spacing, the Raman D and G bands and carbon K-edge NEXAFS, each computed from reported values.
- [Seeing graphene: a microscopy guide](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/seeing-graphene-microscopy-guide) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/seeing-graphene-microscopy-guide.md)): Six ways to look at graphene in one figure: optical contrast on SiO₂/Si, AFM heights and bubbles on hBN, SEM of CVD domains on copper, the TEM lattice and its diffraction, the STM moiré of graphene on hBN and LEED of epitaxial graphene on SiC.
- [Dirac physics of graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/dirac-physics-graphene) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/dirac-physics-graphene.md)): The electronic structure of graphene in six computed panels: the honeycomb lattice and its Brillouin zone, the tight-binding π bands meeting at the Dirac points, the Dirac cone, ARPES of the linear bands, the half-integer quantum Hall effect and the bilayer whose gap opens with an interlayer asymmetry.
- [Twisted bilayers and moiré superlattices](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/twisted-bilayers-moire-superlattices) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/twisted-bilayers-moire-superlattices.md)): Twisted bilayer graphene and graphene on hBN in six panels: tear-and-stack assembly, the moiré pattern and its period, the two layers in 3D, the magic angle of 1.1°, the moiré of graphene on hBN from the 1.8 % lattice mismatch, and the moiré seen by STM.
- [Defects and doping in graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/defects-doping-graphene) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/defects-doping-graphene.md)): Defects and dopants in graphene in six panels: the Stone–Wales defect, a single vacancy, a grain boundary of 5-7 pairs, the nitrogen sites of N-doped graphene, transfer curves whose Dirac point shifts with doping, and the N 1s XPS that tells the nitrogen sites apart.
- [Functionalised graphene and 3D forms](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/functionalised-graphene-3d-forms) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/functionalised-graphene-3d-forms.md)): Graphene chemistry and architecture in six panels: covalent nitrophenyl groups, fluorographene and noncovalent pyrenebutyrate on the sheet, and graphene foam grown on nickel, a graphene aerogel and crumpled graphene balls in 3D.
- [More ways to make graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/more-ways-make-graphene) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/more-ways-make-graphene.md)): Six more routes to graphene: hot-wall against cold-wall CVD, plasma-enhanced CVD of vertical graphene, wafer-scale single crystals on Ge(110), nanoribbons by unzipping nanotubes, six ways to reduce graphene oxide, and graphite intercalation stages for exfoliation.
- [Processing graphene devices](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/processing-graphene-devices) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/processing-graphene-devices.md)): Six processing steps for graphene devices: annealing away PMMA residue, surface and substitutional chemical doping, ALD oxide on pristine and PTCA-functionalised graphene, ionic-liquid gating, one-dimensional edge contacts to hBN-encapsulated graphene, and the block-copolymer nanomesh.
- [Graphene electronics](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-electronics) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-electronics.md)): Graphene devices in six panels: a Hall bar on SiO₂/Si, an hBN-encapsulated device with edge contacts, the field-effect transfer curve, RF transistors with an f_T benchmark, a suspended mechanical resonator, and the quantum Hall resistance standard on epitaxial graphene.
- [Graphene for energy](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-energy) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-energy.md)): Graphene in energy storage and conversion in six panels: activated graphene with nanometre pores, laser-scribed graphene from a DVD drive, micro-supercapacitors written on one disc, nitrogen-doped graphene for oxygen reduction against platinum, and graphene/silicon Schottky solar cells.
- [Graphene sensors and optoelectronics](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-sensors-optoelectronics) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-sensors-optoelectronics.md)): Graphene sensing and optoelectronics in six panels: single NO₂ molecules detected as resistance steps, a metal–graphene–metal photodetector and its frequency response, a flexible transparent electrode and transparent neural electrodes that neurons are imaged through.
- [Graphene membranes and water](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-membranes-water) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-membranes-water.md)): Graphene separation membranes in six panels: nanoporous single-layer graphene for desalination, swollen and confined graphene-oxide laminates sieving ions, porous graphene sieving gases, protons crossing monolayer graphene, and an rGO-coated sponge separating oil from water.
- [Graphene scale-up and quality control](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-scale-up-quality-control) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-scale-up-quality-control.md)): Graphene manufacturing in six panels: roll-to-roll CVD in a concentric-tube reactor, a roll-to-roll transfer line onto PET, metre-sized single crystals on industrial Cu foil, THz sheet-conductance and Raman quality maps, and the framework that classifies graphene-based materials.

## [Nanomaterial synthesis](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis)

Graphical abstracts of common nanomaterial syntheses: metal, oxide and carbon nanoparticles, nanorods, carbon nitride, mesoporous silica, MOFs, MXenes and liposomes.

- [Green synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/green-synthesis-silver-gold-nanoparticles) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/green-synthesis-silver-gold-nanoparticles.md)): Leaves are boiled in water and the filtered extract is added to silver nitrate or chloroauric acid. Phytochemicals in the extract, such as polyphenols and flavonoids, reduce Ag⁺ and Au³⁺ to metal atoms that nucleate into nanoparticles, and the same molecules cap the particles. The colloid changes colour as the particles form: yellow-brown for silver, ruby red to purple for gold.
- [Turkevich citrate reduction of gold nanoparticles](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/turkevich-method-gold-nanoparticles) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/turkevich-method-gold-nanoparticles.md)): Trisodium citrate is added to a boiling solution of chloroauric acid. Citrate reduces Au(III) to gold atoms, which form nuclei that grow into spherical nanoparticles, and the adsorbed citrate gives them a negative charge that keeps the colloid stable. The pale yellow solution turns wine red. Frens showed that the citrate-to-gold ratio sets the particle size.
- [Seed-mediated growth of gold nanorods](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/seed-mediated-growth-gold-nanorods) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/seed-mediated-growth-gold-nanorods.md)): Small CTAB-capped gold seeds are made by reducing HAuCl₄ with ice-cold sodium borohydride in CTAB. They are added to a growth solution of CTAB, HAuCl₄, silver nitrate and ascorbic acid, where ascorbic acid has already reduced Au(III) to colourless Au(I). On the seeds, gold is deposited mainly at the tips, because the CTAB bilayer and silver block the side facets, so the particles grow into rods with two plasmon bands.
- [Co-precipitation of magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/magnetite-fe3o4-nanoparticles-co-precipitation) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/magnetite-fe3o4-nanoparticles-co-precipitation.md)): Ferrous and ferric salts in a 1 : 2 ratio are precipitated together by adding a base such as ammonia, under nitrogen so that Fe²⁺ is not oxidized. Black magnetite nanoparticles form at once; a magnet pulls them out of the liquid, and they are washed and can be coated with silica, polymers or small molecules. Small magnetite particles are superparamagnetic.
- [Hydrothermal synthesis of carbon dots](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/carbon-dots-hydrothermal-synthesis) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/carbon-dots-hydrothermal-synthesis.md)): Citric acid and ethylenediamine are dissolved in water and heated in a sealed Teflon-lined autoclave. They condense into polymer-like clusters that carbonize into carbon dots: nanometre-sized particles with a partly graphitic core and amino, carboxyl and hydroxyl groups on the surface. After dialysis the dots give bright blue fluorescence under UV light, with quantum yields of up to about 80 % in the original report.
- [g-C₃N₄ by thermal polymerization](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/g-c3n4-thermal-polymerization-melamine) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/g-c3n4-thermal-polymerization-melamine.md)): Melamine is heated in a covered crucible in a muffle furnace. It loses ammonia and condenses into graphitic carbon nitride, a yellow, layered polymer built from tri-s-triazine (heptazine) units linked by nitrogen. Heating the bulk powder again in air etches it into nanosheets about 2 nm thick with a much larger surface area, for visible-light photocatalysis.
- [Hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanorod arrays](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/zno-nanorods-hydrothermal-growth) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/zno-nanorods-hydrothermal-growth.md)): A substrate is coated with ZnO nanocrystals that act as seeds and annealed. It is then hung face-down in an aqueous solution of zinc nitrate and hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) in equal amounts and heated gently. HMTA slowly releases hydroxide, zinc hydroxide forms and converts to ZnO on the seeds, and hexagonal wurtzite rods grow along their c-axis into a dense, vertically aligned array.
- [Sol–gel synthesis of TiO₂ and SiO₂](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/sol-gel-synthesis-tio2-sio2) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/sol-gel-synthesis-tio2-sio2.md)): A metal alkoxide such as titanium isopropoxide (for TiO₂) or tetraethyl orthosilicate (for SiO₂) is mixed with water in alcohol, with an acid or base as catalyst. The alkoxide groups hydrolyse to M–OH, which condense into M–O–M bridges: first a sol of small particles, then a gel whose network spans the whole liquid. Drying gives a dense xerogel or, with supercritical drying, a light aerogel; calcination removes organics and crystallizes the oxide.
- [Stöber synthesis of monodisperse silica spheres](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/stober-method-silica-nanoparticles) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/stober-method-silica-nanoparticles.md)): Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) is added to a stirred mixture of ethanol, water and ammonia. Ammonia catalyses the hydrolysis of TEOS to silicic acid and its condensation into Si–O–Si; nuclei form and then grow evenly, giving a milky suspension of uniform silica spheres. Stöber, Fink and Bohn obtained diameters from below 0.05 µm to 2 µm by choosing the alcohol, ammonia and water amounts.
- [MCM-41 mesoporous silica by surfactant templating](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/mcm-41-mesoporous-silica-synthesis) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/mcm-41-mesoporous-silica-synthesis.md)): Cationic surfactant (CTAB) in water forms spherical micelles and, at higher concentration, rod-like micelles that pack into a hexagonal array. Silicate from TEOS under basic conditions condenses around the rods. Removing the surfactant by calcination or extraction leaves silica with a honeycomb of uniform channels, tunable from about 1.5 to over 10 nm, which can be loaded with drugs or catalysts.
- [MOF synthesis: ZIF-8 and UiO-66](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/zif-8-uio-66-mof-synthesis) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/zif-8-uio-66-mof-synthesis.md)): Metal–organic frameworks form when metal ions or clusters link through organic ligands into porous crystals. ZIF-8 forms rapidly when methanol solutions of a zinc salt and 2-methylimidazole are mixed at room temperature: Zn²⁺ tetrahedra joined by imidazolates make sodalite cages and rhombic-dodecahedral crystals. UiO-66 is made solvothermally from ZrCl₄ and terephthalic acid in DMF; Zr₆O₄(OH)₄ clusters each bind twelve terephthalates, and after solvent exchange and activation the octahedral crystals are porous and very stable.
- [MXene (Ti₃C₂Tₓ) by selective etching of Ti₃AlC₂](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/mxene-ti3c2-selective-etching) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/mxene-ti3c2-selective-etching.md)): The MAX phase Ti₃AlC₂ is a layered carbide in which Ti₃C₂ layers are held together by aluminium. Hydrofluoric acid, or a mixture of LiF and HCl that forms HF in situ, dissolves the Al layers selectively and leaves an accordion-like stack of Ti₃C₂Tₓ layers whose surfaces carry –O, –OH and –F terminations. Cations such as Li⁺ or organic molecules intercalate between the layers, and sonication or simple hand shaking separates them into single flakes that form a stable colloid.
- [Liposomes by thin-film hydration and extrusion](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/liposomes-thin-film-hydration-extrusion) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-synthesis/liposomes-thin-film-hydration-extrusion.md)): Phospholipids such as phosphatidylcholine, usually with cholesterol, are dissolved in chloroform and the solvent is removed on a rotary evaporator, leaving a thin lipid film on the flask wall. Hydrating the film with an aqueous buffer above the lipids’ phase-transition temperature swells it into multilamellar vesicles. Extrusion through a polycarbonate membrane (or sonication) turns them into unilamellar liposomes, with hydrophilic drugs in the water core and hydrophobic drugs in the bilayer.

## [Nanomaterial guides](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides)

One-page guides to making and measuring nanomaterials: six wet-chemical routes, growth from seeds, nucleation and ripening, physical and gas-phase routes, microfluidics and electrospinning, shape control, size and charge in liquid, composition by STEM and ICP-MS, nanomedicine, tests, catalysts and devices, and a whole project in pictograms. Every panel is a live generator; every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.

- [Six wet-chemical routes to nanoparticles](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/six-wet-chemical-routes-nanoparticles) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/six-wet-chemical-routes-nanoparticles.md)): Six wet-chemical syntheses on one page, each drawn step by step: citrate reduction of gold (Turkevich), the Brust–Schiffrin two-phase synthesis of thiol-protected gold, silver nanowires by the polyol route, hot injection against heat-up for semiconductor nanocrystals, co-precipitation of magnetite and reverse micelles. The steps and numbers are the ones the cited papers report.
- [Nanorods, nanowires and nanocages from seeds](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/nanorods-nanowires-nanocages-seeds) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/nanorods-nanowires-nanocages-seeds.md)): Growth from seeds in six panels: seed-mediated gold nanorods step by step and one rod with CTAB and silver on its sides, a penta-twinned silver nanowire capped by PVP, and galvanic replacement turning silver nanocubes into nanoboxes, nanocages and nanoframes. Each caption quotes the cited papers.
- [How nanoparticles nucleate, grow and ripen](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/how-nanoparticles-nucleate-grow-ripen) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/how-nanoparticles-nucleate-grow-ripen.md)): Six ways the sizes of nanoparticles are set, drawn as particles and arrows: burst nucleation and diffusion-controlled growth, seeds that form first in the Turkevich synthesis and then grow, Ostwald ripening, oriented attachment, digestive ripening and size-selective precipitation afterwards. Each caption quotes the cited papers.
- [Physical and gas-phase routes to nanoparticles](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/physical-gas-phase-routes-nanoparticles) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/physical-gas-phase-routes-nanoparticles.md)): Six physical and gas-phase processes for making or coating particles: laser ablation in liquid and its plasma-to-colloid sequence, the temperature zones of flame spray pyrolysis, a magnetron gas-aggregation cluster source with a mass filter, spray drying of a droplet into a glassy microparticle, and the trimethylaluminium–water cycle of atomic layer deposition. Each caption quotes the cited papers.
- [Microfluidic synthesis and electrospinning](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/microfluidic-synthesis-electrospinning) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/microfluidic-synthesis-electrospinning.md)): Continuous processes in six panels: hydrodynamic flow focusing, a staggered herringbone mixer, glass-capillary 3D focusing and droplet microfluidics for nanoparticle synthesis, then the electrospinning set-up and its four steps from Taylor cone to fibre mat. Each caption quotes the cited papers.
- [Shape control of metal nanocrystals](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/shape-control-metal-nanocrystals) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/shape-control-metal-nanocrystals.md)): Why metal nanocrystals come out as cubes, cuboctahedra, octahedra, bipyramids, decahedra, icosahedra, wires or plates: single-crystal seeds take the shape set by the growth rates along ⟨111⟩ and ⟨100⟩, capping agents such as PVP, bromide and citrate pick the facet that is exposed, and twinned or faulted seeds grow into bipyramids, multiply twinned particles, wires and plates. After Xia et al. 2009.
- [Measuring nanoparticles in liquid: size and charge](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/measuring-nanoparticles-liquid-size-charge) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/measuring-nanoparticles-liquid-size-charge.md)): Six principles for characterising a colloid: dynamic light scattering and what its hydrodynamic diameter includes, nanoparticle tracking analysis, the electrical double layer and the zeta potential, the electrophoresis cell that measures it, and small-angle X-ray scattering. Instruments and principles only, with every caption quoted from the cited papers.
- [What nanoparticles are made of: STEM, ICP-MS and magnetometry](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/what-nanoparticles-are-made-stem-icp-ms-magnetometry) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/what-nanoparticles-are-made-stem-icp-ms-magnetometry.md)): Six principles for finding what nanoparticles are made of and how their elements are arranged: preparing a TEM grid, HAADF-STEM with its Z-contrast, EDS detectors around the specimen, ICP-MS from acid digestion to the plasma, single-particle ICP-MS and the vibrating-sample magnetometer. Instruments and principles only, with every caption quoted from the cited papers.
- [Nanoparticles in medicine: heating, imaging, targeting and killing bacteria](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/nanoparticles-medicine-heating-imaging-targeting-killing-bacteria) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/nanoparticles-medicine-heating-imaging-targeting-killing-bacteria.md)): Six nanomedicine principles on one page: photothermal therapy with gold nanorods, magnetic hyperthermia with iron oxide, T1 and T2 MRI contrast agents, upconversion nanoparticles for imaging deep in tissue, theranostic particles that leave leaky tumour vessels, and antibacterial silver. Schematics only, with every caption quoted from the cited papers.
- [Nanoparticles in tests, catalysts and devices](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/nanoparticles-tests-catalysts-devices) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/nanoparticles-tests-catalysts-devices.md)): Six applications of nanoparticles outside medicine: colorimetric detection with oligonucleotide–gold probes, the lateral flow strip, plasmonic hot-electron photocatalysis, the three-way catalytic converter, quantum-dot colour conversion on blue micro-LEDs and mineral sunscreens of TiO₂ and ZnO. Schematics only, with every caption quoted from the cited papers.
- [From synthesis to application: a nanoparticle workflow in pictograms](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/synthesis-application-nanoparticle-workflow-pictograms) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-guides/synthesis-application-nanoparticle-workflow-pictograms.md)): A nanoparticle project in 24 editable pictograms: six ways to make the particles, six steps to clean them up and choose their surface, six ways to measure them and six places they are put to work. Every pictogram is a live generator that can be restyled flat, outline or 3D in your colours; the details describe each stage with its references.

## [Metal–organic frameworks](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks)

Benchmark MOFs built atom by atom at real dimensions: synthesis, structure, reticular design, defects, post-synthetic modification, characterization, CO₂ capture, water harvesting and drug delivery.

- [MOF-5: synthesis and structure](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mof-5-synthesis-structure) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mof-5-synthesis-structure.md)): MOF-5 (IRMOF-1) is the prototypical metal–organic framework. Zinc nitrate and terephthalic acid heated in N,N-diethylformamide give colourless cubic crystals of Zn₄O(BDC)₃: octahedral Zn₄O(CO₂)₆ clusters joined by benzene links into a cubic net with cavities about 12 and 15 Å across. Emptied carefully and kept dry, it is one of the most porous solids known.
- [HKUST-1: copper paddlewheels and open metal sites](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/hkust-1-cu-btc-open-metal-sites) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/hkust-1-cu-btc-open-metal-sites.md)): HKUST-1 (Cu-BTC) forms in high yield when copper(II) nitrate and trimesic acid are heated in water and ethanol. Pairs of Cu²⁺ ions bridged by four carboxylates (paddlewheels) are joined by the triangular trimesate into a cubic framework with 1 nm channels. Each copper carries a water molecule; heating under vacuum removes it and leaves an open metal site that binds guests, and pyridine can take its place.
- [Isoreticular MOFs: one net, designed pores](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/irmof-isoreticular-series-pore-size) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/irmof-isoreticular-series-pore-size.md)): Keeping the Zn₄O node and the cubic net of MOF-5 while changing only the linker gave a series of 16 isoreticular frameworks (IRMOFs): longer struts (naphthalene, biphenyl, terphenyl…) widen the pores step by step, and groups on the benzene ring (–Br, –NH₂, alkoxy, fused rings) change what lines them. Open space reaches 91.1% of the crystal and the pores run from 3.8 to 28.8 Å.
- [UiO-66: modulators and missing-linker defects](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/uio-66-missing-linker-defects-modulators) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/uio-66-missing-linker-defects-modulators.md)): Monocarboxylic acids added to the synthesis of UiO-66 compete with terephthalate for the Zr₆ clusters. With more modulator the crystals grow separate and larger, and more linkers go missing, their places taken by modulator, hydroxide or water. The defects open up the framework, and thermogravimetry counts them: an ideal UiO-66 plateau is 2.20 times its ZrO₂ residue.
- [MIL-101(Cr): supertetrahedra and giant cages](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mil-101-cr-supertetrahedra-mesoporous-cages) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mil-101-cr-supertetrahedra-mesoporous-cages.md)): MIL-101 is a chromium terephthalate made hydrothermally with HF. Trimers of CrO₆ octahedra and terephthalate links form supertetrahedra, which share corners like the tetrahedra of a zeolite (MTN topology). The result is a cubic cell of about 702,000 ų with mesoporous cages about 30 and 34 Å across and a Langmuir surface area near 5,900 m² g⁻¹.
- [Post-synthetic modification of a MOF](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mof-post-synthetic-modification-irmof-3) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mof-post-synthetic-modification-irmof-3.md)): Functional groups can be added to a framework after it has formed. The amino groups that line the pores of IRMOF-3 react with acetic anhydride like an aniline would, turning into amides throughout the crystal while the framework stays intact. The powder pattern confirms the structure is kept, and ¹H NMR of digested crystals gives the conversion.
- [Characterizing a new MOF](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mof-characterization-pxrd-bet-tga) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mof-characterization-pxrd-bet-tga.md)): A new framework is only as good as its evidence. Solvent has to leave the pores without the crystal collapsing; then the powder pattern shows the bulk is the phase solved from the crystal structure, a nitrogen isotherm at 77 K shows the pores are open (a type I curve for a microporous MOF, with the BET area taken from the low-pressure range that meets the consistency criteria), and thermogravimetry shows the composition. Drawn here for UiO-66.
- [Mg-MOF-74: open metal sites for CO₂ capture](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mg-mof-74-co2-capture) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mg-mof-74-co2-capture.md)): In Mg-MOF-74, chains of magnesium ions joined by 2,5-dioxidoterephthalate line one-dimensional hexagonal channels. Removing the solvent leaves a bare Mg²⁺ site every few ångströms along each channel, and these hold CO₂ strongly. In a packed bed fed with CO₂ and methane, methane passes straight through while CO₂ is held back; the bed reaches 8.9 wt% dynamic capacity and gives the CO₂ up again at 80 °C.
- [MOF-801: water from desert air](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mof-801-water-harvesting) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mof-801-water-harvesting.md)): MOF-801 is a zirconium fumarate with the same net as UiO-66 and small pores that fill with water over a narrow range of low humidity. A layer of it in a simple box takes up water from the air at night; by day, sunlight warms it, the vapour condenses on a cooler surface and drips out as liquid. With ambient sunlight only, this gave 2.8 litres of water per kilogram of MOF per day at 20% relative humidity.
- [Iron MOF nanoparticles for drug delivery](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mil-100-fe-nanoparticles-drug-delivery) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/metal-organic-frameworks/mil-100-fe-nanoparticles-drug-delivery.md)): Nanoparticles of MIL-100(Fe), an iron(III) trimesate with mesoporous cages, soak up large amounts of drugs that are hard to formulate, such as busulfan, the antiviral AZT triphosphate, cidofovir and doxorubicin. A PEG coat can be added for longer circulation. The particles release their cargo over time, break down to iron and trimesic acid, and the iron makes them visible by MRI.

## [MOF guides](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides)

One-page guides to metal–organic frameworks: solvothermal, room-temperature and modulated synthesis, fast, green and scalable routes and how crystals form, activation and shaping, thin films and membranes, MOF glasses, MOF-derived materials and composites, reticular design and topology, isoreticular expansion, interpenetration and multivariate MOFs, flexibility and defects, post-synthetic modification, water stability and conductive MOFs, and the characterization methods. Every panel is a live generator; every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.

- [MOF synthesis: solvothermal, room temperature, modulated](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/mof-synthesis-solvothermal-room-temperature-modulated) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/mof-synthesis-solvothermal-room-temperature-modulated.md)): The classic routes to metal–organic frameworks on one page: solvothermal MOF-5 in a Teflon-lined vessel, UiO-66 step by step, hydrothermal HKUST-1 from molecules to the framework, ZIF-8 mixed at room temperature in methanol, how the Hmim/Zn ratio sets its crystals, and modulators that compete with the linker. Every step and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Fast, green and scalable MOF synthesis](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/fast-green-scalable-mof-synthesis) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/fast-green-scalable-mof-synthesis.md)): Rapid and scalable routes to metal–organic frameworks on one page: oven, ultrasound and microwave times compared, ZIF-8 by ball milling with a liquid and a salt, ZIF-8 by solvent-free twin-screw extrusion, HKUST-1 by anodic dissolution of copper, nanoMOF spheres by spray drying, and how a crystal forms from building units. Every step and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Activating and shaping MOFs](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/activating-shaping-mofs) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/activating-shaping-mofs.md)): MOF activation and shaping on one page: solvent exchange followed by heating under vacuum, the three ways to empty the pores (vacuum, supercritical CO₂, freeze-drying), pore collapse as the solvent leaves, and the shaped forms (pellets, extrudates, granules, sol–gel and 3D-printed monoliths), what lies inside them and a dense sol–gel monolith. Every step and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [MOF thin films and membranes](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/mof-thin-films-membranes) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/mof-thin-films-membranes.md)): MOF films and membranes on one page: layer-by-layer growth of SURMOFs on a self-assembled monolayer, vapour-phase conversion of ZnO into ZIF-8, the six ways to make a film (with Langmuir–Blodgett and patterning), the kinds of membrane (supported, mixed-matrix, nanosheet, hollow-fibre), seeded growth of a ZIF-8 membrane and molecular sieving of propylene from propane. Every step and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [MOF glasses, MOF-derived materials and composites](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/mof-glasses-mof-derived-materials-composites) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/mof-glasses-mof-derived-materials-composites.md)): What MOFs become on one page: ZIF-62 melted under argon and quenched into a glass, the network of the crystal, the liquid and the glass, a crystal–glass composite of MIL-53 in ZIF-62, ZIF-8 carbonised in a tube furnace, the routes from MOFs to carbons, metal nanoparticles, single atoms and oxides, and MOF composites with nanoparticles, fibres and graphene. Every step and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Reticular design: building units, linkers and nets](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/reticular-design-building-units-linkers-nets) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/reticular-design-building-units-linkers-nets.md)): Reticular design of metal–organic frameworks on one page: MOF-5 from Zn₄O units and BDC on the pcu net, HKUST-1 deconstructed into the tbo net, UiO-66 on fcu, the library of inorganic SBUs and organic linkers by their points of extension, and the RCSR nets of well-known MOFs. Every statement and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Isoreticular expansion, interpenetration, MTV MOFs](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/isoreticular-expansion-interpenetration-mtv-mofs) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/isoreticular-expansion-interpenetration-mtv-mofs.md)): Isoreticular design on one page: the IRMOF series from MOF-5 to IRMOF-16, IRMOF-74-I to -XI with apertures up to 98 Å, HKUST-1 and MOF-399 on the tbo net, interpenetrated IRMOF-9 against IRMOF-10, ways to prevent or use interpenetration, and multivariate MOF-5 with several functional groups on one backbone. Every statement and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Flexible and defective MOFs](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/flexible-defective-mofs) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/flexible-defective-mofs.md)): MOF flexibility and defects on one page: MIL-53 breathing between large and narrow pores with water, the imidazolate linker swing that opens ZIF-8, the sudden pore contraction of DUT-49 that pushes methane out, missing-linker and missing-cluster defects in UiO-66, correlated missing clusters in reo nano-regions, and what caps the freed sites. Every statement and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Post-synthetic modification, stability, conductivity](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/post-synthetic-modification-stability-conductivity) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/post-synthetic-modification-stability-conductivity.md)): Changing and keeping MOFs on one page: the five kinds of post-synthetic modification (covalent, dative, linker exchange, metal-ion exchange, metalation by ALD), how water hydrolyses a metal–linker bond, hard–soft pairing of metal and linker, the strategies that make MOFs water-stable, the conductive honeycomb Ni₃(HITP)₂ and the routes charge takes through a MOF. Every statement and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Characterizing MOFs: pores, structure, defects and uptake](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/characterizing-mofs-pores-structure-defects-uptake) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/mof-guides/characterizing-mofs-pores-structure-defects-uptake.md)): MOF characterization set-ups on one page: a volumetric gas sorption analyser with its degassing and free-space steps, 3D electron diffraction of a nanocrystal at a low dose, digestion ¹H NMR to count linkers and capping groups, a single crystal in a gas cell for in situ diffraction, a breakthrough rig for dry and humid gas mixtures, and gravimetric water sorption. The set-ups and numbers are quoted from the cited papers; no panel is measured data.

## [Covalent organic frameworks](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks)

COFs built atom by atom at real dimensions: the first boronate COFs, linkage chemistry, β-ketoenamine stability, 3D and triazine frameworks, characterization, catalysis, photocatalytic hydrogen and membranes.

- [COF-1 and COF-5: the first COFs](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-1-cof-5-boroxine-boronate-ester) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-1-cof-5-boroxine-boronate-ester.md)): The first covalent organic frameworks were made in 2005 by condensing boronic acids. Benzene-1,4-diboronic acid alone loses water to form flat six-membered boroxine rings (COF-1); together with hexahydroxytriphenylene it forms five-membered boronate esters (COF-5). Both crystallize as porous layers built only from light elements: COF-1 stacks staggered, COF-5 eclipsed, leaving open channels 27 Å across.
- [COF linkages: from reversible to robust](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-linkages-boroxine-imine-ketoenamine-triazine) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-linkages-boroxine-imine-ketoenamine-triazine.md)): A COF crystallizes only if its bonds can break and re-form while it grows, so that mistakes heal. Boron–oxygen rings (boroxines, boronate esters) do this easily but fall apart in water; imines are sturdier; hydrazones and azines add hydrogen bonds; Tp-based imines turn irreversibly into β-ketoenamines that survive acid and base; and triazine rings made from nitriles in molten salt are tougher still.
- [TpPa COFs: β-ketoenamine links that survive acid and base](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/tppa-1-ketoenamine-cof-acid-base-stability) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/tppa-1-ketoenamine-cof-acid-base-stability.md)): TpPa-1 and TpPa-2 are made from 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol (Tp) and p-phenylenediamine or its 2,5-dimethyl analogue. The Schiff base forms first, as the enol-imine, but the proton moves irreversibly from oxygen to nitrogen and only the keto-enamine remains. With no imine bond left to hydrolyse, both COFs survive 9 N hydrochloric acid and boiling water; TpPa-2 also survives 9 N sodium hydroxide.
- [COF-LZU1: an imine COF that holds palladium](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-lzu1-pd-suzuki-coupling-catalysis) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-lzu1-pd-suzuki-coupling-catalysis.md)): COF-LZU1 condenses 1,3,5-triformylbenzene with p-phenylenediamine into imine-linked layers that stack eclipsed, so the imine nitrogens of neighbouring layers line up. A simple post-treatment loads Pd(II) into the framework. The resulting Pd/COF-LZU1 catalyses Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling across a broad range of aryl halides and boronic acids in 96–98% yield, and stays stable and easy to recycle.
- [3D COFs: COF-102 and COF-300](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/3d-cof-102-cof-300-diamond-net) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/3d-cof-102-cof-300-diamond-net.md)): Tetrahedral building blocks take covalent organic frameworks into three dimensions. Boronic acids on a tetraphenylmethane or -silane core condense into boroxine rings, each joining three tetrahedra (COF-102 and COF-103): crystals of very low density with surface areas of 3472 and 4210 m² g⁻¹. Tetra(4-anilyl)methane and terephthaldehyde give imine-linked COF-300 on a diamond net; five such nets grow through one another, yet 7.2 Å pores remain.
- [CTF-1: triazine frameworks from molten salt](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/ctf-1-ionothermal-covalent-triazine-framework) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/ctf-1-ionothermal-covalent-triazine-framework.md)): Covalent triazine frameworks are made without any condensation water: aromatic nitriles trimerize into triazine rings in molten zinc chloride at 400 °C, the salt serving as solvent and catalyst. 1,4-Dicyanobenzene gives CTF-1, layers of triazine rings joined by phenylene that can come out ordered or amorphous. The products are microporous, high-performance polymers with very large surface areas, suited to gas storage, sensing and catalyst supports.
- [Characterizing a 2D COF](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-characterization-pxrd-ftir-nmr) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-characterization-pxrd-ftir-nmr.md)): Four questions decide whether a new 2D COF is the framework that was designed. Does the powder pattern match the one computed for the layers, and for which stacking? Are the pores open, and how wide? Did the linkage form, with the starting groups used up? And how much heat does it take? Drawn with COF-5 for structure and porosity, and an imine COF for the bonds.
- [COF-366-Co: cobalt porphyrin COF for CO₂ reduction](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-366-co-porphyrin-co2-reduction) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-366-co-porphyrin-co2-reduction.md)): Cobalt porphyrins joined by imine struts form square-grid layers that stack into a porous solid with a catalytic cobalt site at every corner. On an electrode in water at pH 7, the framework reduces CO₂ to CO with 90% Faradaic efficiency and up to 290,000 turnovers per cobalt, at an overpotential of −0.55 V: a 26-fold gain in activity over the molecular cobalt complex, with no degradation over 24 hours.
- [COF photocatalysts for hydrogen from water](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-photocatalytic-hydrogen-evolution) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-photocatalytic-hydrogen-evolution.md)): Some COFs are semiconductors that absorb visible light. TFPT-COF, hydrazone-linked triazine and phenyl units in honeycomb layers with 3.8 nm pores, produces hydrogen from water under visible light once platinum is added as the proton reduction catalyst, and keeps doing so without degrading. In a series of azine-linked COFs made from hydrazine, swapping C–H for N in the central ring of the aldehyde (N₀ to N₃) raises the rate of hydrogen evolution step by step.
- [COF thin films for molecular separation](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-thin-film-membranes-interfacial-crystallization) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/covalent-organic-frameworks/cof-thin-film-membranes-interfacial-crystallization.md)): COFs usually come out as insoluble powders. Grown instead where two liquids that do not mix meet, β-ketoenamine COFs form continuous, free-standing films under ambient conditions; they can be lifted onto any support and made thinner than 100 nm. Tp-Bpy, from Tp and a bipyridine diamine, has a surface area of 1151 m² g⁻¹ and lets acetonitrile through at 339 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹ while holding dissolved molecules back.

## [Battery materials](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials)

Lithium batteries from the crystal up: how a lithium-ion cell works, LiCoO₂, LiFePO₄, LiMn₂O₄ and Ni-rich NMC cathodes, graphite and its SEI, silicon anodes, lithium–sulfur, solid-state electrolytes, and making and testing a coin cell.

- [Inside a lithium-ion cell, from can to crystal (3D renders)](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/inside-lithium-ion-cell-can-crystal-3d-renders) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/inside-lithium-ion-cell-can-crystal-3d-renders.md)): A graphical abstract made of path-traced 3D renders: a cylindrical lithium-ion cell cut away, its electrode stack in cross-section, and the two crystals that host the lithium, layered LiCoO₂ and graphite. Every render keeps its 3D scene: double-click one to open it in the 3D studio, turn it, restyle it and update it in the figure.
- [How a lithium-ion battery works](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lithium-ion-battery-how-it-works-rocking-chair) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lithium-ion-battery-how-it-works-rocking-chair.md)): A lithium-ion battery stores energy by moving lithium ions between two host materials. Charging drives Li⁺ out of layered LiCoO₂, through the electrolyte and into graphite while electrons go round the outside circuit; on discharge both flow back and power the load. The electrolyte only survives between its LUMO and HOMO, and graphite sits above that window, so a thin passivating layer (the SEI) has to form for the cell to work.
- [LiCoO₂: the layered oxide cathode](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/licoo2-layered-oxide-cathode-structure) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/licoo2-layered-oxide-cathode-structure.md)): Lithium cobalt oxide, the cathode of the first lithium-ion cells, is built of CoO₂ slabs with lithium in the layers between them, where it can move freely in two dimensions. Charging pulls lithium out to Li₁₋ₓCoO₂ near 3.9 V; at about half the lithium the ions order and the lattice distorts, so in practice only about half of the 274 mAh g⁻¹ is used.
- [LiFePO₄: the olivine cathode](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lifepo4-olivine-cathode-two-phase) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lifepo4-olivine-cathode-two-phase.md)): Lithium iron phosphate is cheap, non-toxic and very stable: iron and phosphate build a rigid olivine framework, and lithium sits in one-dimensional channels running through it. Lithium leaves at about 3.5 V by turning LiFePO₄ into FePO₄, two phases sharing one framework, which gives the famously flat voltage. Making the particles small and coating them with carbon was what unlocked nearly all of the 170 mAh g⁻¹.
- [LiMn₂O₄: the spinel cathode](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/limn2o4-spinel-cathode-jahn-teller) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/limn2o4-spinel-cathode-jahn-teller.md)): Manganese spinel is cheap and fast: MnO₆ octahedra form a three-dimensional framework, and lithium in tetrahedral sites can move in all three directions. Lithium comes out in two steps near 4 V. Push more lithium in, though, and Mn³⁺ appears; its Jahn–Teller distortion stretches the octahedra and the cubic crystal turns tetragonal, and Mn³⁺ can dissolve into the electrolyte, the spinel’s weak points.
- [Ni-rich NMC: more capacity, less stability](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/nmc811-nickel-rich-cathode-co-precipitation) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/nmc811-nickel-rich-cathode-co-precipitation.md)): NMC cathodes replace most of LiCoO₂’s cobalt with nickel and some manganese, all sharing one layer of the same structure. They are made by co-precipitating a mixed hydroxide as dense spheres and then heating it with a lithium salt. The more nickel, the more capacity, as NMC811 shows; but retention and thermal stability fall with it, and particles crack along their grain boundaries as they cycle.
- [The graphite anode: staging and the SEI](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/graphite-anode-staging-sei-formation) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/graphite-anode-staging-sei-formation.md)): Graphite stores lithium between its graphene layers, filling them in stages, every fourth, third, second and finally every gallery as LiC₆, which opens the layers by about 10%. Graphite works in carbonate electrolytes only because the electrolyte decomposes on the first charge into a thin solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) that lets lithium ions through but stops electrons. The lithium locked in the SEI is lost from the cell.
- [Silicon anodes: huge capacity, huge swelling](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/silicon-anode-volume-expansion-nanowires) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/silicon-anode-volume-expansion-nanowires.md)): Silicon can take up almost ten times more lithium per gram than graphite, but it swells to nearly four times its volume as it does. Bulk particles crack, lose contact and grow fresh SEI on every new surface, so the capacity fades. Silicon nanowires grown straight on the current collector have room to swell: they stay whole and connected, and keep most of their capacity over cycling.
- [Lithium–sulfur: a carbon host and the polysulfide shuttle](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lithium-sulfur-battery-cmk-3-polysulfide-shuttle) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lithium-sulfur-battery-cmk-3-polysulfide-shuttle.md)): Sulfur can store far more lithium per gram than any oxide cathode, by turning all the way into Li₂S. But sulfur and Li₂S are insulators, the solid swells as it reacts, and the polysulfides formed on the way dissolve and shuttle to the lithium anode. Melting sulfur into the narrow channels of an ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK-3) wired it up and helped keep the polysulfides in place.
- [Solid-state batteries: ceramic electrolytes](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/solid-state-battery-lgps-llzo-electrolytes) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/solid-state-battery-lgps-llzo-electrolytes.md)): A solid-state battery replaces the flammable liquid electrolyte with a ceramic that conducts lithium ions, which could also make a lithium-metal anode practical. Some solids now conduct as well as liquids: the sulfide Li₁₀GeP₂S₁₂ reaches 12 mS cm⁻¹ at room temperature, and the garnet oxide Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ is a fast, stable conductor. The hard part is the interfaces, where contact, chemistry and lithium filaments decide whether the cell lasts.
- [Making and testing a coin cell](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/cr2032-coin-cell-assembly-testing) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/cr2032-coin-cell-assembly-testing.md)): Most new battery materials are first tried in a CR2032 coin cell, a steel can 20 mm across and 3.2 mm thick. The electrode is cast from a slurry onto metal foil and punched into discs; the cell is stacked in an argon glovebox, filled with electrolyte and crimped shut. Formation cycles, long cycling with coulombic efficiency and impedance then show how the material behaves, as long as cells are made and tested the same way each time.

## [Battery & energy storage guides](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides)

One-page guides to batteries and energy storage: making cathode, anode and electrolyte materials, making electrodes, building and forming cells, how electrodes store lithium, electrolytes and interphases, lithium metal and solid-state cells, sodium- and potassium-ion cells, ageing, abuse and thermal runaway, seeing inside a working cell, electrochemical and safety tests, packs, cars and grid storage, recycling, second life and other storage, and a battery’s life in pictograms. Every panel is a live generator; every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.

- [Making cathode materials: NMC and LiFePO₄](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/making-cathode-materials-nmc-lifepo4) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/making-cathode-materials-nmc-lifepo4.md)): Cathode synthesis on one page: the Ni–Mn–Co hydroxide precursor co-precipitated in a stirred tank, lithiated and calcined in oxygen into layered NMC, polycrystalline against single-crystal particles, LiFePO₄ made hydrothermally and coated with carbon, and an Al₂O₃ coating grown by atomic layer deposition. Every step and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Anode and electrolyte materials](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/anode-electrolyte-materials) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/anode-electrolyte-materials.md)): Anode and electrolyte materials on one page: hard carbon pyrolysed from biomass or resin and how it stores sodium, silicon nanoparticles held in yolk–shell and pomegranate carbon, a LiPF₆ carbonate electrolyte made in a glovebox, the HF that trace water makes from it, and the argyrodite solid electrolyte Li₆PS₅Cl. Every step and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Making battery electrodes: from slurry to slit coils](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/making-battery-electrodes-slurry-slit-coils) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/making-battery-electrodes-slurry-slit-coils.md)): Electrode manufacturing on one page: slurry mixing in a planetary mixer, slot-die coating and drying with solvent recovery, the coating bead and its defects, calendering between heated rolls, slitting and the cut edge, and the dry route with fibrillated PTFE. The steps and the shares of cost, time and energy are quoted from the cited papers.
- [Building and forming a battery cell](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/building-forming-battery-cell) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/building-forming-battery-cell.md)): Cell assembly on one page: winding and stacking in a dry room, cylindrical, prismatic and pouch formats, an 18650 cell in section with its mandrel, PTC switch and CID vent disk, the tabless 4680 design, and electrolyte filling, formation and aging. Every step and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [How electrodes store lithium](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/how-electrodes-store-lithium) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/how-electrodes-store-lithium.md)): How battery electrodes store lithium, on one page: intercalation into a layered host, alloying with silicon that swells and cracks, conversion of a metal oxide into metal nanoparticles in Li₂O, the solvation sheath round Li⁺, the SEI on graphite and the electrolyte window between LUMO and HOMO. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Electrolytes and interphases](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/electrolytes-interphases) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/electrolytes-interphases.md)): Electrolyte design on one page: the superconcentrated LiFSA/DMC network, a localized high-concentration electrolyte with an inert diluent, desolvation at graphite, the two-layer SEI on silicon, a CEI on NCM811, and manganese and nickel crossing from the cathode to the graphite. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Lithium metal and solid-state batteries](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/lithium-metal-solid-state-batteries) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/lithium-metal-solid-state-batteries.md)): Lithium metal and solid-state cells on one page: plating and stripping with a cracking SEI and dead lithium, dendrites as faceted nanowires, an anode-free cell on coated copper, a sulfide composite cathode, voids and grain-boundary lithium at a solid electrolyte, and an ALD Al₂O₃ layer that lets lithium wet a garnet. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/sodium-ion-potassium-ion-batteries) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/sodium-ion-potassium-ion-batteries.md)): Beyond lithium on one page: a sodium-ion cell with aluminium foil on both electrodes, hard carbon and where it stores sodium, a P2 layered oxide, a Prussian blue analogue and a NASICON phosphate cathode, and potassium entering graphite in stages. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [How lithium-ion cells age](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/how-lithium-ion-cells-age) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/how-lithium-ion-cells-age.md)): Lithium-ion degradation on one page: where a cell ages, the SEI and cracking on graphite, lithium plating, the degrading cathode, manganese crossing to the anode and the gas that swells a pouch cell. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Battery safety: abuse and thermal runaway](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/battery-safety-abuse-thermal-runaway) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/battery-safety-abuse-thermal-runaway.md)): Lithium-ion safety on one page: nail penetration, overcharge and oven abuse tests, the thermal-runaway temperature ladder from SEI decomposition to oxygen release, a shutdown separator, and runaway spreading through a module. Every caption and temperature is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Seeing inside a working battery](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/seeing-inside-working-battery) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/seeing-inside-working-battery.md)): Battery characterisation set-ups on one page: an operando X-ray diffraction cell, XPS of the SEI without air with sputter depth profiling, synchrotron X-ray tomography of an 18650 cell, neutron imaging of gas in a pouch cell, operando neutron diffraction of a cylindrical cell, and why neutrons see lithium. The set-ups and numbers are quoted from the cited papers; no panel is measured data.
- [Electrochemical and safety measurements](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/electrochemical-safety-measurements) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/electrochemical-safety-measurements.md)): Battery measurements on one page: electrochemical impedance from the perturbation to the equivalent circuit, a three-electrode cell with a lithium reference, online gas analysis by mass spectrometry, accelerating rate calorimetry by heat–wait–seek, and titration gas chromatography of dead lithium. The methods and numbers are quoted from the cited papers; no panel is measured data.
- [From cells to packs, cars and the grid](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/cells-packs-cars-grid) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/cells-packs-cars-grid.md)): Battery systems on one page: an exploded battery pack, passive and active cell balancing, four ways to manage the temperature, a cell-to-pack design, an electric car with its pack and drive, and a grid storage container with its fire and gas safety. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [Recycling, second life and other energy storage](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/recycling-second-life-other-energy-storage) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/recycling-second-life-other-energy-storage.md)): The end of a battery’s life and the wider storage picture on one page: pretreatment of spent batteries, hydrometallurgical and direct recycling, the second-life loop from the car to stationary storage, and the other ways to store energy, from pumped hydro, compressed air, flywheels and heat to hydrogen, supercapacitors, flow batteries and lithium-ion. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.
- [A battery’s life in pictograms: make, build, test, use and recycle](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/battery-s-life-pictograms-make-build-test-use-recycle) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/battery-s-life-pictograms-make-build-test-use-recycle.md)): A battery’s life in 24 editable pictograms: six steps to make the materials, six to build the cell, six ways to test it and six for its use and recycling. Every pictogram is a live generator that can be restyled flat, outline or 3D in your colours; the details describe each stage with its references.

## [Electrocatalysis](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis)

Electrocatalysts atom by atom, with computed polarization, Tafel and free-energy plots: water splitting, the OER mechanism, single-atom catalysts, CO₂ reduction on copper and gas-diffusion electrolyzers, Pt-alloy fuel-cell cathodes, MoS₂ edges, NiFe LDH, MOF-derived catalysts and benchmarking.

- [Water splitting: hydrogen and oxygen evolution](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/water-splitting-her-oer-overpotential) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/water-splitting-her-oer-overpotential.md)): An electrolyzer splits water into hydrogen at the cathode and oxygen at the anode. Thermodynamics asks for 1.23 V, but each electrode adds an overpotential, and that is what catalysts cut. The common figure of merit is the overpotential at 10 mA cm⁻²; hydrogen evolution is fastest on catalysts that bind hydrogen neither too strongly nor too weakly.
- [The OER mechanism: four proton–electron steps](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/oer-mechanism-free-energy-diagram) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/oer-mechanism-free-energy-diagram.md)): Oxygen evolution on an oxide takes four proton–electron steps on one metal site, through HO*, O* and HOO*. Together they need 4.92 eV, 1.23 eV per electron; on a real catalyst the steps are uneven and the largest one sets the overpotential. Because HOO* and HO* bind together, oxides fall on one volcano, with a floor under their overpotential.
- [Single-atom catalysts: one metal atom, four nitrogens](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/single-atom-catalysts-co-n-c-zif-pyrolysis) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/single-atom-catalysts-co-n-c-zif-pyrolysis.md)): A single-atom catalyst spreads its metal as isolated atoms, each held by nitrogen in a carbon sheet, so every metal atom can be an active site. Pyrolysing a bimetallic Zn/Co framework does it: the linker turns into N-doped carbon, zinc evaporates above 800 °C, and cobalt stays behind as single atoms that reduce oxygen better than commercial platinum on carbon.
- [CO₂ reduction on copper: many products](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/co2-reduction-copper-c2-products) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/co2-reduction-copper-c2-products.md)): Most metals reduce CO₂ to one simple product: formate on tin, indium or lead, CO on silver or gold. Copper is the exception: it holds on to CO and couples carbons, making methane, ethylene, ethanol and a dozen more products, with hydrogen competing all the way. Which ones you get depends strongly on the potential.
- [CO₂ electrolyzers: gas-diffusion electrodes](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/co2-electrolyzer-flow-cell-gas-diffusion-electrode) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/co2-electrolyzer-flow-cell-gas-diffusion-electrode.md)): In an H-cell, CO₂ must dissolve before it reaches the catalyst, and that caps the current. Flow electrolyzers feed CO₂ as a gas through a gas-diffusion electrode right up to the catalyst, reaching more than 200 mA cm⁻². On copper at an abrupt interface in hydroxide, CO₂ became ethylene with 70% efficiency for 150 hours.
- [Fuel cells: oxygen reduction on platinum alloys](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/pem-fuel-cell-orr-pt3ni-platinum-skin) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/pem-fuel-cell-orr-pt3ni-platinum-skin.md)): A PEM fuel cell turns hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity; the slow step is oxygen reduction at the platinum cathode. Alloying helps: Pt₃Ni(111), with a pure platinum skin over a nickel-rich layer, reduced oxygen 10 times faster than Pt(111) and 90 times faster than the Pt/C catalysts in use.
- [MoS₂ for hydrogen: the edges do the work](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/mos2-edge-sites-hydrogen-evolution) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/mos2-edge-sites-hydrogen-evolution.md)): Molybdenum disulfide is a cheap, layered alternative to platinum for making hydrogen, but only the edges of its layers are active: the flat basal plane hardly binds hydrogen. Counting the sites of MoS₂ nanoparticles showed activity rising in step with the number of edge sites, so MoS₂ catalysts are built to expose as many edges as possible.
- [NiFe layered double hydroxides for oxygen evolution](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/nife-ldh-oxygen-evolution-catalyst) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/nife-ldh-oxygen-evolution-catalyst.md)): Nickel–iron layered double hydroxides are the benchmark oxygen-evolution catalysts in alkaline water. Iron in the nickel hydroxide layers boosts activity by orders of magnitude, far more than its effect on conductivity explains; grown as ultrathin plates on carbon nanotubes, NiFe-LDH outperformed iridium. Even trace iron in the KOH electrolyte matters.
- [MOF-derived catalysts: from framework to carbon](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/mof-derived-fe-n-c-electrocatalysts) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/mof-derived-fe-n-c-electrocatalysts.md)): Heat a metal–organic framework and its linkers become nitrogen-doped carbon that often keeps the crystal’s shape, while its metals end up as single atoms held by nitrogen or as small particles. Iron catalysts made this way reduce oxygen without platinum: one matched a platinum cathode at 0.9 V, and isolated iron atoms beat commercial Pt/C.
- [Benchmarking an electrocatalyst](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/electrocatalyst-benchmarking-lsv-tafel-ecsa-eis) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/electrocatalysis/electrocatalyst-benchmarking-lsv-tafel-ecsa-eis.md)): To compare catalysts across labs, measure them the same way: in a three-electrode cell with a rotating disk, correct for the ohmic drop, report the overpotential at 10 mA cm⁻², the Tafel slope, the active surface area from the double-layer capacitance, the charge-transfer resistance, and how the potential holds over time.

## [Graphical abstracts](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts)

Graphical abstracts for materials science, energy, electronics and biology, each with its own composition and live 3D models you can turn: solar cells, batteries, catalysis, memory and spintronics, quantum and 2D materials, shape-memory alloys, metamaterials, structural colour, bioinspired surfaces and more. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.

- [Perovskite solar cell: from crystal to device](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/perovskite-solar-cell-crystal-device) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/perovskite-solar-cell-crystal-device.md)): A zoom-in cascade through a perovskite solar cell: the device stack, its light-absorbing polycrystalline film between the two charge contacts, and the ABX₃ crystal of corner-sharing octahedra as a live 3D model. Light frees electrons and holes in the film; TiO₂ takes the electrons, spiro-OMeTAD the holes, and the electrodes carry the current out. Milestones from 3.8% in 2009 to a certified 25.5% in 2021.
- [How an OLED makes light](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/how-oled-makes-light) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/how-oled-makes-light.md)): A graphical abstract of an organic light-emitting diode: holes and electrons step in from the electrodes over a ladder of HOMO and LUMO levels, cross the transport layers of an exploded pixel stack and meet in the emissive layer. There they pair up as one singlet for every three triplet excitons, and fluorescent, phosphorescent or TADF emitters decide how many of them become light. A live 3D pixel and a live 3D rubrene molecule can be turned in the figure.
- [Fibre-reinforced composites: from layup to strength](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/fibre-reinforced-composites-layup-strength) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/fibre-reinforced-composites-layup-strength.md)): A split-screen graphical abstract: on one side a brittle epoxy matrix that cracks, on the other stiff carbon fibres that carry the load. An exploded quasi-isotropic laminate, plies at 0°, 45°, 90° and −45°, spans the divide, and a strip along the bottom shows how laminates fail: fibre breakage, matrix cracking, delamination and kinking.
- [Tough hydrogels: sacrificial bonds that break so the gel does not](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/tough-hydrogels-sacrificial-bonds-that-break-so-gel-does-not) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/tough-hydrogels-sacrificial-bonds-that-break-so-gel-does-not.md)): A radial graphical abstract on tough hydrogels: a live 3D water-swollen polymer network at the hub, with four satellites on its structure, the sacrificial-bond mechanism, the numbers and the uses. Ordinary gels are brittle; double-network and ionic–covalent hybrid gels add weak bonds that break first and dissipate energy, lifting the fracture energy from about 10 to about 9,000 J m⁻².
- [Sodium-ion batteries: abundant sodium, stored in hard carbon](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/sodium-ion-batteries-abundant-sodium-stored-hard-carbon) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/sodium-ion-batteries-abundant-sodium-stored-hard-carbon.md)): A split graphical abstract: a navy band makes the case for sodium against lithium (abundance, ion size, potential and the aluminium current collector), and the white field follows the sodium ion from the cell into hard carbon, where a sloping region of adsorption and a low-voltage plateau of pore filling and intercalation store it.
- [Supercapacitor electrodes: zooming in on ions in carbon pores](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/supercapacitor-electrodes-zooming-ions-carbon-pores) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/supercapacitor-electrodes-zooming-ions-carbon-pores.md)): A zoom-in cascade from a supercapacitor cell to the porous carbon of its electrode, the double layer of ions on a charged wall, and a sub-nanometre pore where ions shed their solvent. A footer compares the two ways to store charge, ion adsorption and fast surface redox, with the pore sizes that changed the field and the volumetric capacitance of MXene.
- [Thermoelectrics: scattering heat-carrying phonons at every length scale](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/thermoelectrics-scattering-heat-carrying-phonons-at-every-length-scale) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/thermoelectrics-scattering-heat-carrying-phonons-at-every-length-scale.md)): A length-scale ladder for thermoelectric materials: waste heat enters, and the phonons that carry it are scattered by atomic disorder and anharmonic bonds, by nanoscale precipitates and by mesoscale grain boundaries before a thermoelectric module turns heat into electricity. Record figures of merit from SnSe crystals, hierarchical PbTe–SrTe and nanocrystalline BiSbTe run along the bottom.
- [Hydrogen storage materials: four ways to hold H₂](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/hydrogen-storage-materials-four-ways-hold-h2) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/hydrogen-storage-materials-four-ways-hold-h2.md)): A radial graphical abstract with a hydrogen molecule at the hub and the four ways to store it on the spokes: compressed gas, cryogenic liquid, physisorption in a metal–organic framework and chemical binding in magnesium hydride. A bottom strip shows how alloying, nanostructuring, nanoconfinement and catalysts tame magnesium hydride.
- [Redox flow batteries: energy in the tanks, power in the stack](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/redox-flow-batteries-energy-tanks-power-stack) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/redox-flow-batteries-energy-tanks-power-stack.md)): A redox flow battery cut open inside a circulating loop of its two electrolytes, tagged with the idea that defines it: energy scales with the tanks and power with the stack. The all-vanadium chemistry and a metal-free quinone are compared on the right, with a carbon-felt electrode and the key performance numbers along the bottom.
- [Nanozymes: nanoparticles that act like enzymes](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/nanozymes-nanoparticles-that-act-like-enzymes) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/nanozymes-nanoparticles-that-act-like-enzymes.md)): A radial graphical abstract: one nanoparticle at the hub and four enzyme-like activities around it, each on the material that showed it. Magnetite oxidizes substrates like a peroxidase, gold oxidizes glucose like glucose oxidase, and ceria scavenges superoxide or splits hydrogen peroxide depending on how much Ce³⁺ its surface carries.
- [High-entropy alloys: five metals, one phase](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/high-entropy-alloys-five-metals-phase) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/high-entropy-alloys-five-metals-phase.md)): A funnel-shaped graphical abstract: five metals pour into one high-entropy alloy nanoparticle, made either by a 55 ms carbothermal shock or by slowly reducing a mixed precursor. Below, what a single random solid solution buys: a bulk alloy that gets tougher in the cold, one shared fcc lattice and nanoparticle catalysts.
- [Self-healing polymers: four ways to close a crack](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/self-healing-polymers-four-ways-close-crack) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/self-healing-polymers-four-ways-close-crack.md)): A timeline drawn along one crack that closes from left to right. Microcapsules of healing agent mend a crack once, thermally re-mendable links mend it many times with heat, a microvascular network delivers agent again and again, and a hydrogen-bonded rubber heals at room temperature when the cut faces are pressed together.
- [Monolayer MoS₂: from one atomic layer to logic](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/monolayer-mos2-atomic-layer-logic) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/monolayer-mos2-atomic-layer-logic.md)): A chain of four lenses builds a chip up from one S–Mo–S layer: thinned to a monolayer, MoS₂ turns into a direct-gap semiconductor that lights up; a top-gated monolayer transistor switches by a factor of 10⁸; and the layer carries inverters, NOR logic and gates just 1 nm long.
- [Daytime radiative cooling: cooling under the sun with the cold of space](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/daytime-radiative-cooling-cooling-under-sun-cold-space) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/daytime-radiative-cooling-cooling-under-sun-cold-space.md)): A sky-and-ground graphical abstract: a cooler on a rooftop sends sunlight back and radiates heat to space through the 8–13 µm atmospheric window, staying below the air temperature in full sun with no electricity. Three ways to build it sit on the ground: a seven-layer photonic stack, a glass–polymer metamaterial and a porous polymer paint.
- [Silica aerogel: from sol to superinsulator](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/silica-aerogel-sol-superinsulator) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/silica-aerogel-sol-superinsulator.md)): A timeline of how silica aerogel is made: a silica sol gels into a wet particle network, ages, and is dried without letting its pores collapse, by supercritical CO₂ or by ambient-pressure drying after silylation. The result is a solid that is mostly air, with very low density and thermal conductivity, used for insulation, Cherenkov detectors and oil sorption.
- [Shape-selective catalysis in zeolites: from pellet to pore window](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/shape-selective-catalysis-zeolites-pellet-pore-window) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/shape-selective-catalysis-zeolites-pellet-pore-window.md)): A concentric zoom into a zeolite catalyst: a shaped pellet of crystals, the ZSM-5 framework of corner-sharing TO₄ tetrahedra (a live 3D model), a pore channel lined with Brønsted acid sites, and a 10-ring window where slim para-xylene slips out while bulkier ortho-xylene is held back. Side captions explain each level, the three kinds of shape selectivity and where zeolites are used in refining and petrochemistry.
- [Liquid crystals: order between solid and liquid](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/liquid-crystals-order-between-solid-liquid) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/liquid-crystals-order-between-solid-liquid.md)): A phase spectrum of a rod-like liquid crystal: on heating, 8CB goes from crystal to smectic A, nematic and isotropic liquid, losing positional order before orientational order. A live 3D nematic shows the director, the shared axis that walls or an electric field can turn, and a twisted-nematic pixel between crossed polarisers shows how that becomes bright and dark in a display.
- [Crystal defects that shape materials](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/crystal-defects-that-shape-materials) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/crystal-defects-that-shape-materials.md)): A quadrant graphical abstract of crystal defects by dimension around a live 3D edge dislocation: point defects that let atoms diffuse and dope semiconductors, dislocations that carry plastic flow, grain boundaries that strengthen by Hall–Petch, and precipitates and voids that harden alloys or start fracture. Every statement and number is taken from the cited papers.
- [Memristors for brain-inspired computing: the synapse and its electronic twin](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/memristors-brain-inspired-computing-synapse-electronic-twin) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/memristors-brain-inspired-computing-synapse-electronic-twin.md)): A mirrored graphical abstract: the biological synapse on the left, the memristor on the right, and a central spine that pairs them row by row. Synaptic strength maps to conductance, spike-timing learning to voltage pulses, and a neural network to a crossbar array that multiplies in memory.
- [Triboelectric nanogenerators: turning everyday motion into electricity](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/triboelectric-nanogenerators-turning-everyday-motion-into-electricity) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/triboelectric-nanogenerators-turning-everyday-motion-into-electricity.md)): The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) drawn as a four-stage cycle: two materials touch and charge, pulling them apart drives electrons through a load, they rest balanced, and pressing them together sends the electrons back, so every press and release gives a pair of opposite current pulses. Around the cycle sit the material pair, the piezoelectric ZnO-nanowire cousin, a nanofibre textile harvester as a live 3D model and a row of uses, from wearables and self-powered sensors to wind and ocean waves.
- [Organic solar cells: non-fullerene acceptors climb past the fullerene ceiling](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/organic-solar-cells-non-fullerene-acceptors-climb-past-fullerene-ceiling) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/organic-solar-cells-non-fullerene-acceptors-climb-past-fullerene-ceiling.md)): A ledger of record efficiencies for organic solar cells: fullerene acceptors stalled near 11%, while fused-ring non-fullerene acceptors (ITIC, then the crescent-shaped Y6 and its derivatives) climbed past 21%. A bulk-heterojunction film on the left shows how the donor–acceptor blend turns light into current, and the acceptors and the light they harvest line up above the ledger.
- [Solid oxide cells: one ceramic cell, run as a fuel cell or an electrolyzer](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/solid-oxide-cells-ceramic-cell-run-as-fuel-cell-or-electrolyzer) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/solid-oxide-cells-ceramic-cell-run-as-fuel-cell-or-electrolyzer.md)): A cut through a solid oxide cell from edge to edge: porous perovskite oxygen electrode, dense yttria-stabilized zirconia electrolyte and Ni–YSZ fuel electrode. On the left the cell runs as a fuel cell, oxide ions moving down to burn hydrogen into water and electricity; on the right the same cell runs backwards as an electrolyzer, splitting steam into hydrogen. Oxygen vacancies made by yttrium doping let the oxide ions hop through the zirconia at 700–1000 °C.
- [Aqueous zinc-ion batteries: taming the zinc anode, from electrolyte to cathode](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/aqueous-zinc-ion-batteries-taming-zinc-anode-electrolyte-cathode) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/aqueous-zinc-ion-batteries-taming-zinc-anode-electrolyte-cathode.md)): A honeycomb of twelve tiles on aqueous zinc-ion batteries: why zinc is an attractive anode in water (820 mAh g⁻¹, −0.76 V, safe), what goes wrong on it (hexagonal dendrites, hydrogen gas, corrosion and by-products), how electrolytes and interfaces fix it (additives that rebuild the Zn²⁺ water shell, water-in-salt electrolytes, a graphene template), and the MnO₂ and vanadium-oxide cathodes that host Zn²⁺.
- [Photocatalyst sheets: from one SrTiO₃ particle to a 100 m² hydrogen farm](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/photocatalyst-sheets-srtio3-particle-100-m2-hydrogen-farm) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/photocatalyst-sheets-srtio3-particle-100-m2-hydrogen-farm.md)): A survey-map graphical abstract of particulate photocatalysts for overall water splitting: an aerial view of a 100 m² array of panel reactors, with map pins leading to the aluminium-doped SrTiO₃ particle (cocatalysts for hydrogen and oxygen on different facets, 96% external quantum efficiency in the UV), the photocatalyst-sheet panel, and the polyimide membrane that recovers hydrogen safely from the mixed gas.
- [Making ammonia: Haber–Bosch on iron versus lithium-mediated electrosynthesis](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/making-ammonia-haber-bosch-iron-versus-lithium-mediated-electrosynthesis) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/making-ammonia-haber-bosch-iron-versus-lithium-mediated-electrosynthesis.md)): Two roads from nitrogen to ammonia drawn as a fork that rejoins: the Haber–Bosch process on a promoted iron catalyst at about 700 K and 100 atm, fed with hydrogen from natural gas, and lithium-mediated electrochemical nitrogen reduction at room temperature and 1 bar, where plated lithium splits N₂ and a proton shuttle turns the nitride into ammonia. A comparison of the two sits inside the fork.
- [Phase-change memory: writing bits as glass or crystal](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/phase-change-memory-writing-bits-as-glass-or-crystal) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/phase-change-memory-writing-bits-as-glass-or-crystal.md)): An infinity loop for phase-change memory: a heat pulse melts and quenches Ge–Sb–Te into a high-resistance glass (RESET), a gentler one anneals it back into a low-resistance crystal (SET), and both states last at room temperature. Write pulses, record switching speeds and the uses, from rewritable discs to brain-inspired computing, run along the bottom.
- [Two-dimensional magnets: magnetism, one layer at a time](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/two-dimensional-magnets-magnetism-layer-at-time) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/two-dimensional-magnets-magnetism-layer-at-time.md)): A staircase of CrI₃ stacks: a single layer is an Ising ferromagnet, two layers make a layered antiferromagnet that a gate can flip, four layers between graphene filter spins with a record tunnelling magnetoresistance, and the bulk is a ferromagnet again. Around it: why one layer needs an easy axis to order, how Kerr microscopy sees it, and metallic Fe₃GeTe₂ gated to room temperature.
- [Topological insulators: insulating inside, conducting at the edge](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/topological-insulators-insulating-inside-conducting-at-edge) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/topological-insulators-insulating-inside-conducting-at-edge.md)): The figure is the insulator: its frame is a two-lane edge channel where spin-up and spin-down electrons travel in opposite directions, while inside a quintuple-layer slab of Bi₂Se₃, a surface Dirac cone crossing the bulk gap (live 3D) and spin–momentum locking explain why the surface conducts and resists backscattering. Four landmark results run along the bottom.
- [Ferroelectric hafnium oxide: a polar phase in a chip dielectric](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/ferroelectric-hafnium-oxide-polar-phase-chip-dielectric) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/ferroelectric-hafnium-oxide-polar-phase-chip-dielectric.md)): An energy landscape for ferroelectric HfO₂: a double well whose two minima are the two polarization states and whose barrier an electric field pushes the film over. Around it: how thin, doped hafnia forms a non-centrosymmetric orthorhombic phase (live 3D cell), why it suits silicon processing, how far it scales (switching at 1 nm, dipoles ~3 Å wide) and the memories it enables.
- [MRAM: a bit stored in the spins of a tunnel junction](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/mram-bit-stored-spins-tunnel-junction) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/mram-bit-stored-spins-tunnel-junction.md)): The layers of a CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junction run across the figure as bands: with parallel magnetizations electrons tunnel easily (low resistance), a spin-polarized current writes the bit by spin-transfer torque, and antiparallel magnetizations block tunnelling (high resistance). A live 3D rock-salt lattice shows the MgO barrier; below, the room-temperature tunnelling magnetoresistance that crystalline MgO unlocked, the perpendicular junction’s numbers and where MRAM is used.
- [Shape-memory alloys: NiTi switches between austenite and martensite](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/shape-memory-alloys-niti-switches-between-austenite-martensite) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/shape-memory-alloys-niti-switches-between-austenite-martensite.md)): A triangle cycle for nickel–titanium: cooled, the cubic austenite turns into twinned martensite without changing shape; loaded, the twins reorient and the wire bends; heated above Af, the alloy returns to austenite and to its remembered shape. Above Af, stress alone does the same round trip (superelasticity), with 6–8 % recoverable strain, transformation temperatures set by composition and uses from actuators to elastocaloric cooling.
- [Mechanical metamaterials: properties from geometry, not chemistry](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/mechanical-metamaterials-properties-geometry-not-chemistry) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/mechanical-metamaterials-properties-geometry-not-chemistry.md)): An engineering drawing sheet for architected materials: two specimens of the same solid, one a regular honeycomb that thins when pulled and one a re-entrant honeycomb that widens (a negative Poisson’s ratio), a ruler of Poisson’s ratio from +0.5 to −1 with the cells that reach it, and a 3D strut lattice whose members stretch instead of bending, keeping its stiffness per unit mass over three orders of magnitude in density.
- [Structural colour: photonic crystals colour without dyes](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/structural-colour-photonic-crystals-colour-without-dyes) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/structural-colour-photonic-crystals-colour-without-dyes.md)): A fan of light: white light falls on an opal of close-packed spheres and one colour comes back, set by the spacing of the spheres through Bragg reflection, blue for small spheres and red for large ones. Cards show where the idea goes next: inverse opals that change colour when their pores fill, the helicoidal cellulose behind the blue Pollia fruit, and nanocellulose films tuned across the visible.
- [Transparent wood: take out the lignin, fill in a matching polymer](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/transparent-wood-take-out-lignin-fill-matching-polymer) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/transparent-wood-take-out-lignin-fill-matching-polymer.md)): A staircase of four wood blocks: natural wood, the white cellulose template left when the light-absorbing lignin is removed, the template filled with a polymer whose refractive index matches the cell walls, and transparent wood that passes up to 90 % of the light. Above the steps, why it turns clear; below them, what it brings: low haze, a third of glass’s thermal conductivity and far more work of fracture, for light-transmitting buildings and solar-cell windows.
- [Superhydrophobic surfaces: the lotus effect, read on a protractor](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/superhydrophobic-surfaces-lotus-effect-read-protractor) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/superhydrophobic-surfaces-lotus-effect-read-protractor.md)): A contact-angle protractor from 0° to 180°: water spreads below 90°, beads above it, and beyond 150° (with drops sliding off below 5°) the surface is superhydrophobic, like the lotus leaf at 163°. Underneath, the two ways a drop sits on roughness (Wenzel, filling the grooves; Cassie–Baxter, resting on air), drops rolling off with the dirt, and the lotus leaf’s papillae and wax tubules in numbers.
- [Direct lithium extraction: picking Li⁺ out of brine](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/direct-lithium-extraction-picking-li-out-brine) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/direct-lithium-extraction-picking-li-out-brine.md)): An ion Sankey: every ion in a salar brine is a ribbon, and two gates sort them. A nanofiltration membrane turns back the doubly charged Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ (Li⁺ and Mg²⁺ are the same size), a lithium-ion sieve turns back Na⁺ and K⁺, and only a thin thread of Li⁺ reaches the lithium chloride and Li₂CO₃, in hours or days instead of the 1–2 years of evaporation ponds.
- [Breaking forever chemicals: four ways to cleave the C–F bond](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/breaking-forever-chemicals-four-ways-cleave-c-f-bond) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/breaking-forever-chemicals-four-ways-cleave-c-f-bond.md)): A PFOA molecule laid out like a labelled specimen: the strongest single bond in organic chemistry in a sheath of fluorine. Four numbered routes cleave it, electro-oxidation, hydrated electrons, alkali at low temperature and supercritical water, and on the right the chain unzips one CF₂ unit at a time into fluoride.
- [Enzymatic PET recycling: the right enzyme at the right temperature](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/enzymatic-pet-recycling-right-enzyme-at-right-temperature) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/enzymatic-pet-recycling-right-enzyme-at-right-temperature.md)): A thermometer from 30 to 80 °C is the spine: PET hydrolases hang off it at the temperatures they work at, from the bacterium that lives on PET at 30 °C to an engineered cutinase in the narrow window just above the glass transition. On the right, the enzyme cuts PET’s ester bonds into terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol, which go back into new bottles.
- [Electrochromic smart windows: glass that tints on demand](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/electrochromic-smart-windows-glass-that-tints-demand) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/electrochromic-smart-windows-glass-that-tints-demand.md)): An architect’s elevation: a facade whose windows tint from clear to tungsten-bronze blue, and a section through one pane, bleached and coloured, where Li⁺ and electrons move from a nickel oxide counter electrode into tungsten oxide and turn it blue. Three numbers give the stakes: windows let in most of a building’s summer solar gain, a WO₃/NiO device switches thousands of times, and simulations save about a sixth of a building’s energy.
- [Low-carbon cement: less clinker, and CO₂ back into the concrete](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/low-carbon-cement-less-clinker-co2-back-into-concrete) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/low-carbon-cement-less-clinker-co2-back-into-concrete.md)): A cement works in elevation: the kiln where limestone gives off its own CO₂ as it turns to lime, beside the CO₂ of the fuel. In the yard, two silos filled like bar charts show the clinker share falling from 71 % in today’s average cement to about 50 % in limestone calcined clay cement, and precast blocks take CO₂ back in as calcium carbonate.
- [How the zebrafish heart rebuilds itself](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/how-zebrafish-heart-rebuilds-itself) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/how-zebrafish-heart-rebuilds-itself.md)): A recovery-curve graphical abstract: after losing part of its ventricle, the zebrafish heart climbs back to whole muscle over about two months. Wound-edge cardiomyocytes dedifferentiate and divide, the epicardium and endocardium build a regenerative scaffold, and the new muscle becomes electrically coupled — with no permanent scar.
- [The Drosophila circadian clock](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/drosophila-circadian-clock) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/drosophila-circadian-clock.md)): A clock-dial graphical abstract of the Drosophila molecular clock: the CLOCK–CYCLE activator switches on period and timeless at dawn, PER and TIM proteins build through the day and cross into the nucleus to shut their own genes off at night, and the ~24 h loop restarts. DOUBLETIME sets the delay; sunlight acting through CRYPTOCHROME removes TIM and resets the clock. The three founding period mutants (19 h, ~24 h, 28 h) are shown as small dials.
- [Bacteriophages against biofilms](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/bacteriophages-against-biofilms) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/bacteriophages-against-biofilms.md)): A cutaway graphical abstract: a biofilm in cross-section, read left to right as phages break a bacterial stronghold. The EPS matrix shields the bacteria from antibiotics; phage depolymerases cut the matrix open and let the phages in; the phages replicate and lyse the cells, and antibiotics then finish the survivors — phage–antibiotic synergy.
- [CRISPR diagnostics: find a sequence, light a signal](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/crispr-diagnostics-find-sequence-light-signal) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/crispr-diagnostics-find-sequence-light-signal.md)): A test-strip graphical abstract of CRISPR diagnostics. A sample is amplified at one temperature, a Cas enzyme guided by its crRNA recognises the target sequence and then cuts reporter molecules at random — Cas12 cuts single-stranded DNA (DETECTR), Cas13 cuts RNA (SHERLOCK) — and the freed reporter is read as fluorescence or as a line on a lateral-flow strip, in well under an hour.
- [Cell-free protein synthesis: DNA in, protein out](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/cell-free-protein-synthesis-dna-protein-out) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/cell-free-protein-synthesis-dna-protein-out.md)): A pipeline graphical abstract of cell-free protein synthesis. A DNA template goes into an open reaction — a cell extract or the reconstituted PURE system — which transcribes and translates it in one tube, with no cell wall or genome in the way, and a protein comes out within hours. Freeze-dried, the same reaction becomes portable for rapid prototyping, paper biosensors and on-demand production.
- [Hydrogen embrittlement of steels: trap the hydrogen before it finds the crack](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/hydrogen-embrittlement-steels-trap-hydrogen-before-it-finds-crack) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/hydrogen-embrittlement-steels-trap-hydrogen-before-it-finds-crack.md)): A tensile specimen cut open to its grains and read as the path of one hydrogen atom: H₂ splits at the surface, the atoms hop between tetrahedral sites of the iron lattice, defects hold some back, fine carbides lock them away and, where hydrogen gets through, a crack opens. Five cards explain each station, from the sources of hydrogen to the two mechanisms (HEDE and HELP) and the designed traps that make steels more resistant.
- [Chemically strengthened glass: a log of the ion-exchanged surface](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/chemically-strengthened-glass-log-ion-exchanged-surface) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/chemically-strengthened-glass-log-ion-exchanged-surface.md)): A well log of an ion-exchanged glass, read from the surface down: in molten KNO₃, larger K⁺ ions replace Na⁺, so the surface is squeezed into compression (up to about 1000 MPa) that falls to zero at the depth of layer, balanced by a small tension in the core. Tracks for the ions, the K⁺ fraction, the stress, a surface flaw held shut and the remarks share one depth axis.
- [Bulk metallic glasses: outrun the crystal](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/bulk-metallic-glasses-outrun-crystal) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/bulk-metallic-glasses-outrun-crystal.md)): A time–temperature–transformation chart as the whole figure: a metal melt becomes a glass only if its cooling curve misses the crystallization nose. Pure metals need more than 10¹² K/s; multicomponent alloys of mismatched atoms push the nose to long times, so bulk metallic glasses form below about 1 K/s. Reheated above the glass transition, they can be moulded like polymers; a side column shows the two products, a DSC trace and the numbers.
- [Electronic skin: soft sensors that stretch, press and feel](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/electronic-skin-soft-sensors-that-stretch-press-feel) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/electronic-skin-soft-sensors-that-stretch-press-feel.md)): Stretchable electronic skin drawn as its own circuit: rigid islands joined by gold serpentine bridges, read in order. A soft elastomer skin, pressure sensing with a microstructured dielectric, strain sensing with nanoscale crack junctions (gauge factor above 2,000), an array that tells normal from shear force, and a robot gripper that uses it to feel slip.
- [Lead-free piezoceramics: a family tree that grows d₃₃](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/lead-free-piezoceramics-family-tree-that-grows-d33) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/lead-free-piezoceramics-family-tree-that-grows-d33.md)): A family tree of lead-free piezoelectric ceramics rooted in PZT (more than 60 wt % lead) and the perovskite skeleton all candidates share. Branches lead to potassium sodium niobate, barium titanate and bismuth sodium titanate; each landmark result is a leaf placed on a shared d₃₃ axis, from 416 pC/N (2004) to 650 pC/N in untextured KNN and 788 pC/N in textured BaTiO₃, mostly by sitting on a phase boundary where polarization rotates easily.
- [Quantum sensing with NV centres: one defect in diamond, read by light](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/quantum-sensing-nv-centres-defect-diamond-read-light) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/quantum-sensing-nv-centres-defect-diamond-read-light.md)): A nitrogen–vacancy centre in diamond holds an electron spin that green light sets and red fluorescence reads. A magnetic field splits its 2.87 GHz microwave resonance and heat shifts it, so a single defect at the apex of a scanning diamond tip maps magnetic domains, 2D magnets and nuclear spins at the nanoscale.
- [Upconversion nanoparticles: two infrared photons in, one visible photon out](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/upconversion-nanoparticles-two-infrared-photons-visible-photon-out) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/upconversion-nanoparticles-two-infrared-photons-visible-photon-out.md)): Lanthanide upconversion written as a sum: two near-infrared photons absorbed by ytterbium ions in a NaYF₄ core are relayed to erbium, which emits one visible photon. Under the sum, the energy ladder, how a shell lifts quantum yields from fractions of a percent towards 13%, and uses written as small equations: hidden inks, 28 nm nanoscopy and zebrafish embryos.
- [Molecular solar thermal storage: sunlight kept as strain, released as heat](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/molecular-solar-thermal-storage-sunlight-kept-as-strain-released-as-heat) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/molecular-solar-thermal-storage-sunlight-kept-as-strain-released-as-heat.md)): A photoswitch charged by sunlight keeps the energy as the strain of a high-energy isomer: norbornadiene becomes quadricyclane, which can be stored for days to years and turned back by a catalyst to release heat. Drawn as a bridge from day to night, with azobenzene as a second switch, the efficiency ceiling and the first devices.
- [Gallium liquid metals: a metal you can pour, print and stretch](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/gallium-liquid-metals-metal-you-can-pour-print-stretch) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/gallium-liquid-metals-metal-you-can-pour-print-stretch.md)): Gallium alloys such as EGaIn and Galinstan are liquid near room temperature yet conduct like metals. A nanometres-thin oxide skin lets them hold printed shapes, so they become wires that stretch, composites that heal a cut and liquid surfaces for chemistry. Drawn as one serpentine liquid-metal wire whose loops carry the story.
- [Atomic layer deposition: building a film one layer per cycle](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/atomic-layer-deposition-building-film-layer-per-cycle) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphical-abstracts/atomic-layer-deposition-building-film-layer-per-cycle.md)): Atomic layer deposition of alumina drawn as a coil, one turn per cycle: a trimethylaluminium pulse, a purge, a water pulse and a purge, each half-reaction stopping by itself, so every cycle adds the same sub-monolayer. Below, the self-limiting chemistry, conformal coating of deep trenches and particles, and uses in chips, batteries and catalysts.

## [Drug discovery & proteins](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/drug-discovery)

Protein structure and AI for proteins: AlphaFold predictions and confidence, the AlphaFold 2 and 3 architectures, folding and its energy landscape, and protein language models.

- [AlphaFold: a predicted structure and how sure it is](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/drug-discovery/alphafold-predicted-structure-how-sure-it-is) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/drug-discovery/alphafold-predicted-structure-how-sure-it-is.md)): From a sequence and its alignment to a 3D model coloured by confidence: per-residue pLDDT, the predicted aligned error between domains, and AlphaFold 3 complexes with ligands. The AlphaFold Database opened with over 360,000 predicted structures across 21 proteomes.
- [Inside AlphaFold 2 and AlphaFold 3](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/drug-discovery/inside-alphafold-2-alphafold-3) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/drug-discovery/inside-alphafold-2-alphafold-3.md)): The two architectures side by side: AlphaFold 2 refines an MSA and a pair representation through 48 Evoformer blocks and builds the chain with a structure module; AlphaFold 3 keeps a lighter 4-block MSA module, 48 Pairformer blocks and generates atom coordinates with a diffusion module, for complexes of proteins, nucleic acids, small molecules and ions.
- [Protein folding: the energy landscape](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/drug-discovery/protein-folding-energy-landscape) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/drug-discovery/protein-folding-energy-landscape.md)): Why a chain finds its fold: a random search would take forever (Levinthal), but the energy landscape is a funnel with many downhill routes to one native state, the free-energy minimum that the sequence sets (Anfinsen). With the backbone angles of the native state, a free-energy surface and a molecular dynamics box.
- [From coevolution to protein language models](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/drug-discovery/coevolution-protein-language-models) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/drug-discovery/coevolution-protein-language-models.md)): Residues in contact mutate together, so an alignment holds the fold (direct-coupling analysis). Language models trained only on sequences learn the same: ESM-2 scaled to 15 billion parameters predicts structures directly, and ESMFold built an atlas of more than 617 million metagenomic proteins.

## [Nanomaterial applications](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-applications)

Graphical abstracts and posters on what nanomaterials are used for: energy storage, drug delivery and more.

- [Nanomaterials for energy storage](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-applications/nanomaterials-energy-storage-batteries-supercapacitors) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-applications/nanomaterials-energy-storage-batteries-supercapacitors.md)): A poster-style graphical abstract on why nanostructuring helps batteries and supercapacitors: shorter Li⁺ diffusion paths, more surface, strain accommodation and surface redox, then a 0D to 3D toolbox (Si@C yolk–shell particles, CNTs and Si nanowires, MXene and graphene sheets, MOFs).
- [Targeted drug delivery with nanoparticles](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-applications/targeted-drug-delivery-nanoparticles) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/nanomaterial-applications/targeted-drug-delivery-nanoparticles.md)): A 3D-style graphical abstract of nanoparticle drug delivery: the anatomy of a multifunctional liposomal carrier (targeting ligands, PEG corona, bilayer, drug payloads, imaging agent), passive tumour targeting through the EPR effect, and active targeting with receptor-mediated endocytosis and triggered drug release.