Al nanoparticles (NPs) exhibit excellent localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) properties and have been considered a promising alternative to plasmonic Au or Ag NPs. However, it remains difficult to fabricate Al NPs with uniform size and controllable morphology over a large area on substrates, which seriously hinders the in-depth exploration of their properties and applications. Herein, we have developed a self-assembly nanoparticle template method to realize the controllable preparation of bowl-shaped Al NPs (Al nanobowls (Al NBs)) with tunable sizes from 36 to 131 nm on the substrate surface, accompanied by tunable LSPR spectral responses from 272 to 480 nm. Among them, 131 nm Al NBs exhibit superior fluorescence enhancement ability (1932.2-fold) and a low detection limit (78.6 pM) towards 5-carboxyfluorescein, exceeding comparable Ag NBs and Au nanospheres (NSs). This can be attributed to the strong electromagnetic enhancement induced by the LSPR effect and the effective inhibition of fluorescence quenching caused by the self-passivated oxide layer. Therefore, the successful fabrication of Al NBs on substrates is of vital significance for their promising applications, including surface-enhanced spectroscopy, sensitive fluorescence detection, light-harvesting devices, biosensing, and ultraviolet (UV) plasmonics.

High-performance electrocatalysts for water splitting at all pH values have attracted considerable interest in the field of sustainable hydrogen evolution. Herein, we report an efficient electrocatalyst with a nanocrystalline cobalt phosphide (CoP) network for water splitting in the pH range of 0-14. The novel flexible electrocatalyst is derived from a desirable nanocrystalline CoP network grown on a conductive Hastelloy belt. This kind of self-supported CoP network is directly used as an electrocatalytic cathode for hydrogen evolution. The nanocrystalline network structure results in superior performance with a low onset overpotential of ~45 mV over a broad pH range of 0 to 14 and affords a catalytic current density of 100 mA·cm^-2 even in neutral media. The CoP network exhibits excellent catalytic properties not only at extreme pH values (0 and 14) but also in neutral media (pH = 7), which is comparable to the behavior of state-of-the-art platinum-based metals. The system exhibits an excellent flexible property and maintains remarkable catalytic stability during continuous 100-h-long electrolysis even after 100 cycles of bending/extending from 100° to 250°.