An ultraviolet (UV) irradiation-based in situ silver nanoparticle (AgNP) synthesis approach has drawn significant attention for functionalizing a great variety of biomaterials. Here, we designed an AgNP-functionalized 3D-printed polylactic acid (PLA) composite scaffold with a green physical approach by employing the UV irradiation (1, 2, and 3 h) method without using any reducing agent or heat treatments. In situ AgNP synthesis was performed under different UV exposure times. The zeta sizer analysis results demonstrated that AgNPs were highly monodisperse with the particle size of 20 ± 2.2, 30 ± 3.6, and 50 ± 4.8 nm under various UV light exposure times. In situ synthesis of AgNPs on 3D-printed PLA scaffolds significantly changed the surface hydrophilicity of the 3D-printed scaffolds. These results showed that UV irradiation-based in situ AgNP synthesis on 3D-printed PLA scaffolds can be useful in various biomedical applications, such as cell culture scaffolds, biosensors, and wound healing applications.

Modern electronics have been geared toward exploring novel electronic materials that can encompass a broad set of unusual functionalities absent in conventional platforms. In this regard, two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors are highly promising, owing to their large mechanical resilience coupled with superior transport properties and van der Waals (vdW) attraction-enabled relaxed assembly. Moreover, 2D TMD heterolayers based on chemically distinct constituent layers exhibit even more intriguing properties beyond their mono-component counterparts, which can materialize only when they are manufactured on a technologically practical wafer-scale. This mini-review provides a comprehensive overview of recent progress in exploring wafer-scale 2D TMD heterolayers of various kinds. It extensively surveys a variety of manufacturing strategies and discusses their scientific working principles, resulting 2D TMD heterolayers, their material properties, and device applications. Moreover, it offers extended discussion on remaining challenges and future outlooks toward further improving the material quality of 2D TMD heterolayers in both material and manufacturing aspects.