Article describes an experiment where a self-organized 2D nanolaminate with an average lamella thickness of ~22 nm was formed in the subsurface of a cold-sprayed WC-reinforced metal matrix composite (MMC) Cu-MoS2-WC during oscillatory sliding, resulting in more stable friction and improved wear resistance.

Article describes how plasmons associated with zero-dimensional (0D) metal nanoparticles and their synergistic interactions with excitons in two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors offer opportunities for remarkable spectral tunability not otherwise evident in the pristine parent materials, which necessitates an in-depth study elucidating the nature of the plasmonic and excitonic interactions, jointly referred to as plexcitons in order to understand the foundational aspects of the light–matter interactions in hybrid 0D–2D systems. The authors examine the plexcitonic interactions of van der Waals (vdWs) hybrid structures composed of 2D WSe2 and 0D Au nanoparticles (Au-NPs) in their spherical (Au-Sp) and bi-pyramidical (Au-BP) architectures, which demonstrates that geometry-mediated response of the AuNPs provides another degree of freedom to modulate the carrier photodynamics in WSe₂.