Global-optimized energy storage performance in multilayer ferroelectric ceramic capacitors.

Multilayer ceramic capacitor as a vital core-component for various applications is always in the spotlight. Next-generation electrical and electronic systems elaborate further requirements of multilayer ceramic capacitors in terms of higher energy storage capabilities, better stabilities, environmental-friendly lead-free, etc., where these major obstacles may restrict each other.

Boosting the durability of RuO via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer.

Ruthenium dioxide has attracted extensive attention as a promising catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction in acid. However, the over-oxidation of RuO into soluble HRuO species results in a poor durability, which hinders the practical application of RuO in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Here, we report a confinement strategy by enriching a high local concentration of in-situ formed HRuO species, which can effectively suppress the RuO degradation by shifting the redox equilibrium away from the RuO over-oxidation, greatly boosting its durability during acidic oxygen evolution.

Nano-seeding catalysts for high-density arrays of horizontally aligned carbon nanotubes with wafer-scale uniformity.

In the realm of modern materials science, horizontally aligned carbon nanotube arrays stand as promising materials for the development of next-generation integrated circuits. However, their large-scale integration has been impeded by the constraints of current fabrication techniques, which struggle to achieve the necessary uniformity, density, and size control of carbon nanotube arrays. Overcoming this challenge necessitates a significant shift in fabrication approaches.

2D MoS-based reconfigurable analog hardware.

Biological neural circuits demonstrate exceptional adaptability to diverse tasks by dynamically adjusting neural connections to efficiently process information. However, current two-dimension materials-based neuromorphic hardware mainly focuses on specific devices to individually mimic artificial synapse or heterosynapse or soma and encoding the inner neural states to realize corresponding mock object function. Recent advancements suggest that integrating multiple two-dimension material devices to realize brain-like functions including the inter-mutual connecting assembly engineering has become a new research trend.

Spontaneous bifacial capping of perovskite film for efficient and mechanically stable flexible solar cell.

Flexible perovskite solar cells (F-PSCs) are appealing for their flexibility and high power-to-weight ratios. However, the fragile grain boundaries (GBs) in perovskite films can lead to stress and strain cracks under bending conditions, limiting the performance and stability of F-PSCs. Herein, we show that the perovskite film can facilely achieve in situ bifacial capping via introducing 4-(methoxy)benzylamine hydrobromide (MeOBABr) as the precursor additive.

Compositionally-graded ferroelectric thin films by solution epitaxy produce excellent dielectric stability.

The composition in ferroelectric oxide films is decisive for optimizing properties and device performances. Controlling a composition distribution in these films by a facile approach is thus highly desired. In this work, we report a solution epitaxy of PbZrTiO films with a continuous gradient of Zr concentration, realized by a competitive growth at ~220 °C.

Engineering spatially-confined conduits to tune nerve self-organization and allodynic responses via YAP-mediated mechanotransduction.

Chronic allodynia stemming from peripheral stump neuromas can persist for extended periods, significantly compromising patients' quality of life. Conventional managements for nerve stumps have demonstrated limited effectiveness in ensuring their orderly termination. In this study, we present a spatially confined conduit strategy, designed to enhance the self-organization of regenerating nerves after truncation.

Ir-O-Mn embedded in porous nanosheets enhances charge transfer in low-iridium PEM electrolyzers.

Using metal oxides to disperse iridium (Ir) in the anode layer proves effective for lowering Ir loading in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWE). However, the reported low-Ir-based catalysts still suffer from unsatisfying electrolytic efficiency and durability under practical industrial working conditions, mainly due to insufficient catalytic activity and mass transport in the catalyst layer. Herein we report a class of porous heterogeneous nanosheet catalyst with abundant Ir-O-Mn bonds, achieving a notable mass activity of 4 A mg for oxygen evolution reaction at an overpotential of 300 mV, which is 150.

Electronic structure formed by YO-doping in lithium position assists improvement of charging-voltage for high-nickel cathodes.

High-capacity power battery can be attained through the elevation of the cut-off voltage for LiNiCoMnO high-nickel material. Nevertheless, unstable lattice oxygen would be released during the lithium deep extraction. To solve the above issues, the electronic structure is reconstructed by substituting Li ions with Y ions.

Visible light-driven copper vanadate/biochar nanocomposite for heterogeneous photocatalysis degradation of tetracycline: Performance, mechanism, and application of machine learning.

Water pollution caused by antibiotics is considered a major and growing issue. To address this challenge, high-performance copper vanadate-based biochar (CuVO/BC) nanocomposite photocatalysts were prepared to develop an efficient visible light-driven photocatalytic system for the remediation of tetracycline (TC) contaminated water. The effects of photocatalyst mass, solution pH, pollutant concentration, and common anions on the TC degradation were investigated in detail.

Self-healing, deformable and safe integrated supercapacitor enabled by synergistic effect of multiple physical interactions in gel polymer electrolyte with dual-role Co.

With the rapid development of wearable electronic devices, flexible supercapacitors have gained strong interest. However, traditional sandwich supercapacitors have weak interfacial binding, resulting in high interface resistance and poor deformability. Herein, a self-healing integrated supercapacitor based on a polyacrylic acid-polyisodecyl methacrylate-CoSO gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) was developed.

Sea-Island Micelle Structured Hydrogel Scaffold: A Dual-Action Approach to Combat Cartilage Damage under RA Conditions.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune joint disease characterized by persistent synovial inflammation and cartilage damage. The current clinical treatments primarily utilize drugs such as triptolide (TP) to address inflammation, yet they are unable to directly repair damaged cartilage. Furthermore, the persistent inflammation often undermines the effectiveness of traditional cartilage repair strategies, preventing them from achieving optimal outcomes.

Boosting Impedance Matching by Depositing Gradiently Conductive Atomic Layers on Porous Polyimide for Lightweight, Flexible, Broadband, and Strong Microwave Absorption.

Gradient structures are effective for microwave absorbing but suffer from inadequate lightweight and poor flexibility, making them fall behind the comprehensive requirements of electromagnetic protection. Herein, we propose a hierarchical gradient structure by integration with porous and sandwich structures. Specifically, polyimide (PI) foams are used as a robust and flexible skeleton, in which the foam cell walls are sandwiched by TiCT, ZnO, and ZrO atomic layers in sequence.

Trace Cu Doping Enabled High Rate and Long Cycle Life Sodium Iron Phosphate Cathode for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

NaFe(PO)(PO) (NFPP) is currently receiving a lot of attention, as it combines the advantages of NaFePO and NaFePO in terms of cost, energy density, and cycle stability. However, the issues of intrinsic poor electronic conductivity and difficult high-purity preparation may impede its practical application. Herein, the pivotal role of Cu doping in strengthening the polyanion structure and improving its electrochemical properties is comprehensively investigated.

Release of Bisphenol A and Other Volatile Chemicals from New Epoxy Drinking Water Pipe Liners: The Role of Manufacturing Conditions.

Cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP) technology has begun to be adopted for drinking water pipe repairs, and limited information exists about its drinking water quality impacts. CIPP involves the manufacture of a new plastic pipe inside a buried damaged pipe. In this study, the chemical composition of the raw materials and CIPP water quality impacts were examined.

Tantalum-stabilized ruthenium oxide electrocatalysts for industrial water electrolysis.

The iridium oxide (IrO) catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction used industrially (in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers) is scarce and costly. Although ruthenium oxide (RuO) is a promising alternative, its poor stability has hindered practical application. We used well-defined extended surface models to identify that RuO undergoes structure-dependent corrosion that causes Ru dissolution.

Laser-Induced Phase Control of Morphotropic Phase Boundary Hafnium-Zirconium Oxide.

A novel approach to delicately control the phase of a ferroelectric has been developed using a continuous-wave laser scanning annealing (CW-LSA) process. After proper process optimization, the equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of 3.5 Å with a dielectric constant (κ) of 68 Å is achieved from HZO in a metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) capacitor structure.

constructed polymer-layer-modified solid electrolyte enables high-performance all-solid-state batteries.

Side reactions between electrolyte and anode hinder the application of solid-state batteries. Here, a polymer-containing composite solid-state electrolyte (LiPSCl@PCSSE) was obtained through polymerization on LiPSCl. The novel electrolyte was indicated to inhibit side reactions, and the pouch cell showed excellent performance, demonstrating its practical application owing to the employment of LiPSCl@PCSSE.

A multi-responsive 3D deformable soft actuator with tunable structural color enabled by a graphene/cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer composite.

Intelligent soft robots that integrate both structural color and controllable actuation ability have attracted substantial attention for constructing biomimetic systems, biomedical devices, and soft robotics. However, simultaneously endowing single-layer cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer (CLCE) soft actuators with reversible 3D deformability and vivid structural color changes is still challenging. Herein, a multi-responsive (force, heat and light) single-layer 3D deformable soft actuator with vivid structural color-changing ability is realized through the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) deposition-induced Janus structure of the CLCE using a precisely-controlled evaporation method.

Subnano AlO Coatings for Kinetics and Stability Optimization of LiNiCoMnO via O-Based Atomic Layer Deposition.

The Ni-rich LiNiCoMnO cathode (NCM, ≥ 0.6) suffers rapid capacity decay due to serious surface degradations from the corrosion of the electrolyte. The processes of the HO- and O-based AlO atomic layer deposition (ALD) on the single-crystal LiNiCoMnO (NCM83) are investigated by measurements to understand the mechanism of their different impacts on the electrochemical performance of NCM83.

Optical and Electrical Dual-Mode Detection of a Carcinogenic Substance Based on Synergy of Liquid Crystals and Ionic Liquids.

Visual, sensitive, and selective detection of carcinogenic substances is highly desired in portable health protection and practical medicine production. However, achieving this goal presents significant challenges with the traditional single-mode sensors reported so far, as they have limited sensing mechanisms and provide only a single output signal. Here, we report an effective optical and electrical dual-mode sensor for the visual, sensitive, and selective detection of -nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), a typical volatile carcinogenic substance, leveraging the synergy of ionic liquid-doped liquid crystals (IL-LC).

Construction of stable Cu/Cu sites at the fullerene/Cu(OH)F interface to boost the electroreduction of CO to C products.

Herein, the reduction of the Cu oxidation state during the CO electro-reduction reaction (CORR) is effectively inhibited by depositing C supramolecular clusters onto the Cu(OH)F surface. By utilizing the unique electronic buffering capacity of C, a significant number of Cu/Cu sites are created, leading to a remarkable faradaic efficiency of C products up to 76.9% and exceptional stability.

From Guest-Induced Crystallization to Molecular Imprinting: Calculation-Guided Discovery of Hydrogen-Bonded Tetrazole Frameworks for p-Xylene Separation.

Exploring host-guest interactions to regulate hydrogen-bonding assembly offers a promising approach for developing advanced porous crystal materials (PCMs). However, screening compatible guests with appropriate geometries and host-guest interactions that could inhibit the dense packing of building blocks remains a primary challenge. This study presents a novel guest-induced crystallization (GIC) strategy, guided by thermodynamic calculations, to develop porous hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) using structurally challenging tetrazole building units.