http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/rss/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1521-4095

This article designs and prepares a photo-responsive H2S composite nerve transplantation conduit using electrospinning technology and drug delivery system, combining aligned structure, RGD peptide, H2S, and Zn-CA MOFs. This system can not only achieve artificially controlled H2S release, but also slowly release Zn2+, achieving the joint regulation of Zn2+ and H2S in the nerve regeneration microenvironment.

After injury, the imbalance of the regeneration microenvironment caused by inflammation, oxidative stress, insufficient neurovascularization, and inadequate energy supply affects nerve regeneration. Drug-delivery nerve conduits play a role in repairing the regenerative microenvironment. However, traditional drugs often fail to cross the blood-nerve barrier and lack multifunctionality, limiting the effectiveness of conduit therapy. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a multifunctional conduit that regulate the regeneration microenvironment timely and effectively. Herein, a photo-responsive hydrogen sulfide (H2S) composite nerve conduit, artificially controlled H2S release, is developed. A new structure of zinc-citric acid organic metal framework (Zn-CA MOFs) is utilized to improve its drug loading rate, achieving the joint regulation of the nerve regeneration microenvironment by H2S and Zn2+. In addition, RGD modification of polyester amide (P(CL-MMD-MAC)-RGD)) combined with aligned structure is used to improve the performance of the conduit. Relevant results demonstrate that H2S and Zn2+ can regulate inflammatory response and oxidative stress and promote mitochondrial function recovery and angiogenesis. Furthermore, the aligned structure can promote cell adhesion and guide cell directed migration. Overall, this study provides a method of combining gas neurotransmitters with ions to improve the nerve regeneration microenvironment, accelerate nerve regeneration, and restore motor function.

Functionalized artificial cellular micromotors are synthesized to achieve phototropic movement under light conditions. The protons released by the light reaction inside the micromotor combine with the natural ATP synthase on the surface to synthesize and release ATP, which slows down the disease process of degenerative knee osteoarthritis to a certain extent.

Combining artificial cellular compartmentalization and intelligent motion benefits of micro/nanomotors, light is used as energy input to construct an artificial cell-based micromotor capable of photosynthetic anabolism and intelligent directional movement. This system is assembled from phospholipids functionalized with F-ATP synthase and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoparticles (Vesical@MoS2-ATPase). The underlying mechanism involves the generation of protons (H+) through photo-hydrolysis of MoS2 nanoparticles within vesicles, which generates a local electroosmotic flow inside the vesicles and drives the negatively charged MoS2 toward light. The established proton gradient across the phospholipid membrane, in turn, drives the ATP synthase to catalyze ATP production. Both in vitro and in vivo models demonstrate that the micromotor can elevate local intracellular ATP levels upon light and improve the metabolism of denatured chondrocytes. This cell mimicry, with capabilities of migration and biosynthesis, emerges as a promising platform for the next generation of functional bio-interface.

An efficient strategy is proposed for achieving highly bright and narrowband organic hyperafterglow by isolating conjugated energy donor with circularly polarized luminescence and energy acceptor with multi-resonance effect into a rigid host. Efficient energy and chirality transfers afford multi-color hyperafterglow with photoluminescence efficiency of≈90%, full-width at half maxima of 31–39 nm, lifetime of 120–770 ms, and luminescent dissymmetry of≈10−3.

Pure room-temperature phosphorescence (pRTP) promises great advantages in both exciton utilization and lifetime manipulation over existing organic luminophores for a variety of emerging applications, but the low brightness, low efficiency, and low color purity constrain the afterglow luminescence significantly. Here, a promising approach to design highly bright, efficient, and narrowband pRTP with long-lifetime for organic hyperafterglow is proposed by isolating a conjugated energy donor with circularly polarized (CP) luminescence and energy acceptor with multi-resonance effect into a rigid host. It is shown that the aggregation of chiral P-containing binaphthyl promotes the generation of CP-pRTP and afterglow with high brightness up to ≈50 cd m−2, while the simultaneous energy transfer and chirality transfer afford multi-color organic hyperafterglow with photoluminescence efficiency of ≈90%, full-width at half maxima of 31–39 nm, lifetime of 120–770 ms, and luminescent dissymmetry of ≈10−3. Also, excellent stability capable of resisting quenching effects of oxygen, organic solvents, and aqueous solutions of strong acids and bases are observed. With these advantages, applications of chirality information encryption, afterglow grayscale imaging, and 3D high-resolution afterglow models are realized, promoting significantly the fundamental understandings on the modulation of organic afterglow brightness and construction of high-performance pRTP materials with advanced photophysical properties and applications.

Crystalline-packing donor–acceptor molecular structures into dipolar crystals enables slow phonon dynamics from lattice vibrations when optical phonons develop mutual-opposite phase relations. Through electron–phonon coupling, slow phonon dynamics interact with light-emitting singlet charge-transfer states containing contribution from triplets through triplet-to-singlet intersystem crossing, consequently leading to extended excited states dynamics with prolonged PL lifetime shown as super-delayed fluorescence in dipolar organic crystals.

Phonon dynamics are a critical factor to control the optical properties of excited states in light-emitting materials. Here, we report an extremely slow relaxation of photoexcited lattice vibrations enabled by assembling the donor-acceptor (D–A) molecules [2-(9,9-dimethylacridin-10(9H)-yl)-9,9-dimethyl-9H-thioxanthene 10,10-dioxide], namely AC molecules, into dipolar crystal. By using photoexcitation-modulated Raman spectroscopy, we find that the crystalline-lattice vibrations monitored by Raman-scattering laser beam of 785 nm demonstrate an un-usual slow relaxation in the time scale of seconds after ceasing photoexcitation beam of 343 nm in such dipolar crystal. This presents extremely slow phonon dynamics enabled by crystalline-assembling the D–A molecules into a dipolar crystal. Simultaneously, the photoluminescence (PL) exhibits a prolonged behavior, lasting 10 ms after ceasing photoexcitation in dipolar AC crystal. This phenomenon provides an experimental hypothesis that the slow phonon dynamics function as an important mechanism to unusually prolong excited states dynamics upon crystalline-assembling the D–A molecules into dipolar crystal. This hypothesis can be verified by directly suppressing the phonon dynamics through freezing D–A molecular liquid into dipolar crystalline solid at 77 K to largely prolong the PL to 1 s- after removing photoexcitation. Clearly, crystalline-assembling D–A molecules provide the necessary conditions to enable slow phonon dynamics toward prolonging excited states dynamics.

Since the water-induced corrosion in aqueous electrolytes, including spontaneous chemical and electrochemical hydrogen evolution corrosion, will have a very adverse impact on the lifespan and rate performance of aqueous batteries. Through theoretical simulation, a strategy of anionic polarity index is proposed to resist corrosion by manipulating interfacial and solvated water simultaneously, thus realizing stable and fast Zn aqueous batteries.

Despite aqueous electrolyte endowing batteries with the merits of safe operation, low-cost fabrication, and high ionic conductivity, water-induced corrosion, including spontaneous chemical and electrochemical hydrogen evolution corrosion, adversely affects lifespan and rate capability. There is still a lack of selection criteria for benchmarking corrosion behavior qualitatively. Through theoretical simulation, an anionic polarity index (API) tactic is proposed to resist corrosion by manipulating interfacial and solvated water concomitantly, thus realizing stable and fast Zn aqueous batteries (ZABs). As proof of concept, a low-cost zinc salt of 0.5 m zinc bis(4-hydroxybenzenesulphonate) (Zn(HBS)2) with low-API anion is prioritized. Combined in situ spectroscopic and electrochemical analyses reveal that, even in a low-concentration electrolyte, the low-API anion reduces interfacial water in the inner Helmholtz plane, shielding the chemical water dissociation. Meanwhile, their entering into the solvation sheath of Zn2+ lowers the solvent-separated ion pair, suppressing the electrochemical corrosion. The elaborated API-screened zinc salt endows fast plating kinetics of 50 mA cm−2 (119.1 mV polarization), high coulombic efficiency of 99.8%, dendrite-free cycling over 1600 h, and prolonged lifespan over 5000 cycles for the Zn-V cell. The results provide new metrics that can benchmark the success of ZABs for large-scale energy storage.

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) in liquid films achieve breakthrough vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers across red, green, and blue spectra. By leveraging entropic ligands for ultrahigh solubility and integrating microfluidic cooling, this work overcomes thermal quenching, enabling stable lasing at MHz repetition rates. The platform unlocks customizable, solution-processed lasers for tunable wavelengths and diverse applications.

Colloidal quantum dots (cQD) are heralded for their tunable bandgaps, solution-processibility, and cost-effectiveness, making them ideal candidates for lasing applications. However, previous cQD lasing demonstrations have largely depended on close-packed solid-state films, which are deemed essential to counteract the rapid decay of material gain. In this study, a novel approach is introduced utilizing “entropic ligands and solvent” to enhance the solubility of cQDs in solution. By achieving the necessary critical volume fraction for lasing, this strategy leads to the groundbreaking development of the first liquid-state vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) based on cQDs across the blue and green spectrum, encompassing diverse material systems such as CdSe-based and InP-based cQDs. Furthermore, by integrating the liquid-state VCSEL with a microfluidic channel, it is demonstrated that heat dissipation during intense excitation is pivotal for cQD lasing likely across various excitation modes—whether pulsed or continuous-wave, optically or electrically-pumped—and different media, including liquid and solid states. The research will lay the foundation for a new era of liquid-state cQD lasers for specific occasions, distinguished by their customizable and largely-variable wavelengths, compact form factors, diverse materials basis, and dependable performance.

Self-oxygenating PROTAC microneedle (MN) is engineered to circumvent the blood-brain-barrier (BBB) and achieve spatiotemporally-confined bromodomain and extraterminal protein 4 (BRD4) protein degradation. PPT7 NPs are swiftly released for rapid cellular uptake, confining the region of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and ARV771 production upon 671 nm laser irradiation. BM NPs are continuously released for generating oxygen (O2) to alleviate tumor hypoxia. This PROTAC-delivered MN significantly inhibits tumor growth in both subcutaneous and orthotopic GBM tumor models.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive subtype of primary brain tumors, which marginally respond to standard chemotherapy due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the low tumor specificity of the therapeutics. Herein, a double-layered microneedle (MN) patch is rationally engineered by integrating acid and light dual-activatable PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera (PROTAC) nanoparticles and self-oxygenating BSA-MnO2 (BM) nanoparticles for GBM treatment. The MN is administrated at the tumor site to locally deliver the PROTAC prodrug and BM nanoparticles. The PROTAC nanoparticles are rapidly released from the outer layer of the MN and specifically activated in the acidic intracellular environment of tumor cells. Subsequently, near-infrared light activates the photosensitizer to produce singlet oxygen (1O2) through photodynamic therapy (PDT), thereby triggering spatiotemporally-tunable degradation of bromodomain and extraterminal protein 4 (BRD4). The BM nanoparticles, in the inner layer of the MN, serve as an oxygen supply station, and counteracts tumor hypoxia by converting hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into oxygen (O2), thus promoting PDT and PROTAC activation. This PROTAC prodrug-integrated MN significantly inhibits tumor growth in both subcutaneous and orthotopic GBM tumor models. This study describes the first spatiotemporally-tunable protein degradation strategy for highly efficient GBM therapy, potentially advancing precise therapy of other kinds of refractory brain tumors.

This research presents a novel class of multicompartment photonic pigments derived from vegetable oils, leveraging biodegradable bottlebrush block copolymers to effectively mitigate Ostwald ripening in complex emulsion systems. Through the development of an innovative structural model, non-iridescent pure red hues are achieved in photonic glass, enabling unprecedented versatility in chromatic engineering via an RGB three-primary color mixing strategy.

Non-iridescent photonic glass pigments of block copolymers show great potential for sustainable structural coloration. However, the ability to create accurate RGB color mixtures for real-world applications is limited by the prevalent use of non-degradable, fossil oil-derived components and the difficulty in achieving pure red hues. This work presents an alternative strategy for achieving more sustainable structural coloration by fabricating composite photonic pigments through controlled self-assembly of water, vegetable oil, and biodegradable bottlebrush block copolymers (BBCPs) in a complex emulsion system. The obtained photonic balls feature unprecedented multicompartment structures characterized by a short-range ordered assembly of water nanodroplets stabilized by the BBCPs, along with oil droplets stabilized by these nanodroplets, which substantially enhances resistance to Ostwald ripening. Furthermore, a new structural model is introduced to eliminate disordered scattering, successfully creating a pure red structural color and overcoming a long-standing limitation in versatile chromatic engineering.

Smart windows with anti-UV, fast-response, and thermally stable characteristics for all-day modulation are crafted, demonstrating appealing stability and durability for practical building energy-saving applications.

Thermochromic smart windows offer energy-saving potential through temperature-responsive optical transmittance adjustments, yet face challenges in achieving anti-UV radiation, fast response, and high-temperature stability characteristics for long-term use. Herein, the rational design of Hofmeister effect-enhanced, nanoparticle-shielded composite hydrogels, composed of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC), poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) (PDMAA), sodium sulfate, and polydopamine nanoparticles, for anti-UV, fast-response, and all-day-modulated smart windows is reported. Specifically, a three-dimensional network of PDMAA is created as the supporting skeleton, markedly enhancing the thermal stability of pristine HPMC hydrogels. Sodium sulfate induces a Hofmeister effect, lowering the lower critical solution temperature to 32 °C while accelerating phase transition rates fivefold (30 s vs. 150 s). Intriguingly, small-sized polydopamine nanoparticles simultaneously enable high luminous transmittance of 66.9% and outstanding anti-UV capability. Additionally, the smart window showcases a high solar modulation (51.2%) and maintains a 10.2 °C temperature reduction versus a glass window during all-day modulation applications. The design strategy is effective, opening up new avenues for manufacturing fast-response and durable thermochromic smart windows for energy savings and emission reduction.

A mixed electrolyte (IL-FB (1:5)) for aluminum ion batteries is synthesized by incorporating fluorobenzene into ionic liquid electrolyte. The IL-FB (1:5) promotes mass transport, enabling cycling for 7500 h under high current density and capacity (8 mA cm−2, 8 mAh cm−2). IL-FB (1:5) also exhibits significantly improved wetting ability with the polypropylene separator, guaranteeing 60% reduction in the cost of the AIB.

The energy industry has taken notice of aluminum ion batteries (AIB) for their low cost, high safety, and high capacity. However, using the ionic liquid electrolyte results in the uneven Al electrodeposition and the reliance on expensive glass fiber separators, due to the sluggish mass transport and low wettability for the polypropylene separator. Herein, a mixed electrolyte is introduced by incorporating the co-solvent fluorobenzene into the traditional AlCl3/1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ionic liquid, in which the fluorobenzene (FB) mitigates electrostatic interactions between ions and facilitates the ion diffusion. The optimization principle for the mixed electrolyte is proposed based on maximizing the mass transportation, as indicated by the limiting current density. The optimized mixed electrolyte IL-FB (1:5) offers the highest limiting current density of 12 mA cm−2, highly reversible plate/stripe of Al, and thus stable cycling for 7500 h with the high current density and capacity (8 mA cm−2, 8 mAh cm−2). Furthermore, IL-FB (1:5) also shows enhanced wettability for the polypropylene separator. The AIB with the polypropylene separator, exhibiting 60% decrease in cost, is achieved for the first time by using IL-FB (1:5), presenting a crucial step toward the initial practical application.

A nonpolar soluble 2D perovskite, noted as TPA2PbI4, is developed to construct controllable mixed-dimensional perovskite heterojunctions without solid reactions with the initial 3D perovskite films. This strategy improves both the performance of small-area perovskite solar cells and large-area perovskite modules, promoting 30 cm × 30 cm FAPbI3 perovskite submodules to achieve a certified efficiency of 22.06%.

Constructing mixed-dimensional heterojunctions through ion exchange between functional organic ammonium halides and the already-deposited bulk 3D perovskite films is a widely adopted strategy to effectively passivate and stabilize perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Such process poses challenges in precisely controlling the composition and distribution of the heterojunctions across the film, in particular for large-area applications. Here, a soft 2D perovskite based on tetrapheptyl-ammonium iodide (TPAI), noted as TPA2PbI4 is reported. It is the first-reported nonpolar readily soluble 2D perovskite, leading to highly compact and oriented perovskite layers. In addition, this nonpolar soluble TPA2PbI4 is beneficial to universally construct thickness-controllable mixed-dimensional perovskite heterojunctions to suppress the non-radiative recombination and promote charge-carrier transfer on all the FA-, MA- and CsPbI3 PSCs. Such a unique strategy is also suitable for upscaling fabrication, demonstrated by 30 cm × 30 cm FAPbI3 perovskite submodules with a certified efficiency of 22.06%.

By optimizing building blocks and linking modes, a dimeric acceptor, named DY-FL, is innovatively designed and synthesized. Benefiting from the efficient molecular design strategy, DY-FL-based binary OSCs rendered an efficiency of 19.78%. Importantly, DY-FL-based devices showcased significantly enhanced photo/thermal stability in comparison to small molecule acceptor-based OSCs.

The development of organic solar cells (OSCs) with high efficiency and stability is highly desirable to facilitate its commercial applications. Although dimeric acceptors with distinctive advantages have been widely studied, high-performance binary OSCs based on such molecules have rarely been achieved. In this work, a new dimeric acceptor (DY-FL) is constructed by simultaneously optimizing the linking sites and units, as well as the building blocks. Thanks to the effective molecular design, DY-FL provides improved molecular stacking for fibrous morphology with favorable exciton/charge dynamics. Consequently, DY-FL-based binary OSCs render a superior power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.78%, representing a record-breaking efficiency for binary OSCs based on dimeric acceptors. Importantly, DY-FL-based devices display significantly enhanced operational stability under external stimuli such as light and heat, in comparison to their small molecule acceptor (Y-F)-based counterpart. These findings highlight the significance of building blocks and linking modes, providing insight into the effective molecular design strategy of dimeric acceptors for state-of-the-art OSCs.

Instead of using chemical cross–linkers, it is shown that PEDOT:PSS thin films for bioelectronics become water-stable after a simple heat treatment. The heat treatment is compatible with a range of rigid and elastomeric substrates and films are stable in vivo for >20 days. 2D and 3D PEDOT:PSS structures can be patterned by delivering heat with a focused femtosecond laser.

Organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors have emerged as a key material for the development of bioelectronic devices due to their soft mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and high volumetric capacitance. In particular, PEDOT:PSS has become a choice material because it is highly conductive, easily processible, and commercially available. However, PEDOT:PSS is dispersible in water, leading to delamination of films when exposed to biological environments. For this reason, chemical cross–linking agents such as (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GOPS) are used to stabilize PEDOT:PSS films in water, but at the cost of decreased electrical performance. Here, it is shown that PEDOT:PSS thin films become water-stable by simply baking at high temperatures (>150 °C) for a short time (≈ 2 min). It is shown that heat-treated PEDOT:PSS films are as stable as their chemically-cross–linked counterparts, with their performance maintained for >20 days both in vitro and in vivo. The heat-treated films eliminate electrically insulating cross–linkers, resulting in a 3× increase in volumetric capacitance. Applying thermal energy using a focused femtosecond laser enables direct patterning of 3D PEDOT:PSS microstructures. The thermal treatment method is compatible with a wide range of substrates and is readily substituted into existing workflows for manufacturing devices, enabling its rapid adoption in the field of bioelectronics.

Incorporating ordered oxyphilic In sites into Rh to form RhIn intermetallic compounds (IMCs) facilitates the ultra-low-potential electrooxidation of ethylene glycol into the high-value chemical, glycolic acid. The synthesized RhIn IMCs also exhibit outstanding electrocatalytic performance for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Using RhIn IMCs as bifunctional catalysts, a two-electrode system is established for ethylene glycol electrooxidation coupled with hydrogen production.

The upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-derived ethylene glycol (EG) to glycolic acid (GA, a biodegradable polymer monomer) via electrocatalysis not only produces valuable chemicals but also mitigates plastic pollution. However, the current reports for electrooxidation of EG-to-GA usually operate at reaction potentials of >1.0 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), much higher than the theoretical potential (0.065 V vs RHE), resulting in substantial energy wastage. Herein, body-centered cubic RhIn intermetallic compounds (IMCs) anchored on carbon support (denoted as RhIn/C) are synthesized, which shows excellent performance for the EG-to-GA with an onset potential of only 0.35 V vs RHE, lower than the values reported in current literature. The catalyst also possesses satisfactory GA selectivity (85% at 0.65 V vs RHE). Experimental results combined with density functional theory calculations demonstrate that RhIn IMCs enhance the adsorption of EG and OH−, facilitating the generation of reactive oxygen species and thereby improving catalytic performance. RhIn/C also exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction, ensuring that it can be used as a bifunctional catalyst in the two-electrode system for EG electrooxidation coupled with hydrogen production. This work opens new avenues for reducing the energy consumption of electrocatalytic upcycling of PET-derived EG and clean energy production.

Ni-rich layered cathode remains thermodynamically reversible but undergoes dramatic kinetic degradation at high voltage, leading to the commonly observed capacity loss that in fact can be recovered under kinetic-free conditions. Such kinetic dormant behavior highly synchronizes with the lattice strain evolution stemming from layered/rock-salt structural heterogeneity during charge.

The degradation of Ni-rich cathodes during long-term operation at high voltage has garnered significant attention from both academia and industry. Despite many post-mortem qualitative structural analyses, precise quantification of their individual and coupling contributions to the overall capacity degradation remains challenging. Here, by leveraging multiscale synchrotron X-ray probes, electron microscopy, and post-galvanostatic intermittent titration technique, the thermodynamically irreversible and kinetically reversible capacity loss is successfully deconvoluted in a polycrystalline LiNi0.83Mn0.1Co0.07O2 cathode during long-term charge/discharge cycling in full cell configuration. Contradicting the dramatic capacity loss, the layered structure remains highly alive even after 1000 cycles at 4.6 V while undergoing a three-order of magnitude reduction in the mass transfer kinetics, leading to almost fully recoverable capacity under kinetic-free conditions. Such kinetic dormant behavior after cycling is not simply ascribed to poor chemical diffusion by reconstructed cathode surface but highly synchronizes with the lattice strain evolution stemming from the structural heterogeneity between deeply delithiated layered and degraded rock-salt phases at high voltage. These findings deepen the degradation mechanism of high-voltage cathodes to achieve long-cycling and fast-charging performance.

Debondable adhesives hold promise for advancing sustainable bonding solutions, yet their adoption is often constrained by synthetic challenges that limit practicality and scalability. This study demonstrates how encapsulated plasticizers can impart mechanically triggered debonding-on-demand functionality to commercial adhesives. By offering a straightforward, adaptable approach, it advances the development of more sustainable, versatile adhesives with enhanced debonding capabilities.

Temporary adhesives capable of forming strong yet easily reversible bonds are garnering significant interest as sustainable materials that facilitate the recycling and recovery of high-value components. Herein is presented a comprehensive design and parameterization framework for developing effective temporary adhesives with mechanically induced debonding-on-demand capabilities. This framework is achieved by incorporating hexyl acetate-filled microcapsules into commercial polyvinyl acetate adhesives, creating a responsive adhesive composite. Under controlled compression, these microcapsules rupture precisely, releasing their contents to induce sufficient adhesive plasticization to enable effortless debonding. Our results indicate that while the inclusion of microcapsules affects adhesion strength and toughness, the overall mechanical performance remains stable across different concentrations. Thermal tests highlight a 50 wt.% microcapsule concentration as optimal for enhanced plasticization, while compression tests show that an applied force of 5 kN achieves maximum capsule rupture without compromising substrate integrity. Ultimately, specimens bonded with the responsive composite under compression exhibit a striking 1200% increase in creep rates compared to those bonded with the neat adhesive, allowing for effective debonding-on-demand—an outcome unattainable with the neat adhesive. This simple and highly versatile approach lays the groundwork for advancing the development of more sustainable and functional adhesive materials.

Alumina pillared vermiculite membrane is fabricated with a laminar structure. Enhanced water stability is observed due to the strengthened interlamellar binding. Through cation doping, the surface charge and pore size of the pillared laminar membrane are tuned, demonstrating highly selective and tunable ion sieving performance promising for water treatment and resource recovery applications.

Effective membrane separation of Li+ from Na+ and Mg2+ is crucial for lithium extraction from water yet challenging for conventional polymeric membranes. Two dimensional (2D) membranes with ordered laminar structures and tunable physicochemical properties offer distinctive ion-sieving capabilities promising for lithium extraction. Recently, phyllosilicates are introduced as abundant and cost-effective source materials for such membranes. However, their water instability and low inherent ion transport selectivity hinder practical applications. Herein, a new class of laminar membranes with excellent stability and tunable ion sieving is reported by incorporating inorganic alumina pillars into vermiculite interlayers. Crosslinking vermiculite flakes with alumina pillars significantly strengthens interlamellar interactions, resulting in robust water stability. Doping of Na+ before the pillaring process reverses the membrane's surface charge, substantially boosting Li+ separation from multivalent cations via electrostatic interactions. Lithium extraction is often complicated by the presence of co-existing monovalent cations (e.g., Na+) at higher concentrations. Here, by introducing excess Na+ into the membrane after the pillaring process, the separation of Li+ from monovalent cations is enhanced through steric effects. This work realizes both monovalent/multivalent and monovalent/monovalent selective ion sieving with the same membrane platform. A separation mechanism is proposed based on Donnan exclusion and size exclusion, providing new insights for membrane design for resource recovery applications.

3D disordered ramie precursors (DRPs) with high mechanical strength and high density are achieved via the molecular reconstruction method. As a demonstration, this highly stable porous ramie carbon-based supercapacitor delivers a prominent energy density of 28.11 Wh kg−1 and a high-power density of 47.94 kW kg−1 simultaneously, evidently higher than commercial YP-50F (12.67 Wh kg−1 and 40.86 kW kg−1).

Biomass porous carbon possesses broad application prospects in the field of energy storage. However, soft biomass materials with high cellulose content and orders structure usually represent low mechanical strength, which leads to unstable pore structure of prepared porous carbon and even prone to collapse, thus reducing the quality and stability of carbon. Herein, a simple molecular reconstruction method is proposed to effectively re-construct 3D disordered ramie precursors (DRPs) by regulating the chemical interaction of hydrogen bonds. Benefiting from high mechanical strength and high density of DRPs, the highly stable porous ramie carbon (PRC) can display a higher specific surface area of 2404.36 m2 g−1 than that of ordinary ramie carbon (2142.25 m2 g−1). Moreover, this PRC-based supercapacitor delivers a high specific capacitance of 39.35 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and an excellent capacity retention rate of 89.5% at 40 A g−1 in 1 M Et4NBF4/AN. Attractively, the evolution process of ion adsorption during the charge–discharge process has been uncovered by using in situ electrochemical infrared spectroscopy, confirming the excellent structural stability of PRC. This work provides new insights into preparing biomass precursors with high strength derived from soft biomass materials, greatly promoting the application of soft biomass materials in commercial activated carbon.

An opto-iontronic cholesteric liquid crystalline (i-CLC) film is developed that is both electrically and photonically active, serving as the dielectric in phototransistors. The well-defined cholesteric structure and broadly tunable pitches of the i-CLC film enable it to detect CPL across a broad spectrum, with an unprecedentedly high dissymmetry factor (g ph = 1.33) at low operating voltages (< 5 V).

Circularly polarized light (CPL) is fundamental to phase-controlled imaging, quantum optics, and optical computing. Conventional CPL detection, relying on polarizers and quarter-wave plates, complicates device design and reduces sensitivity. Among emerging CPL detectors, organic field-effect transistors (OFET) with helical organic semiconductors are highly promising due to their compact structures but suffer tedious synthesis, low dissymmetric factors (g ph < 0.1), and high operating voltages (> 50 V). To address these issues, an opto-iontronic cholesteric liquid crystalline (i-CLC) film is developed that is both electrically and photonically active, serving as the dielectric in phototransistors. The well-defined cholesteric structure and broadly tunable pitches of the i-CLC film enable it to detect CPL with an excellent “handedness” selectivity across a broad spectrum. Moreover, its ionic nature provides a high capacitance (up to 580 nF cm− 2 @20 Hz). The resulting flexible CPL detectors achieve an unprecedentedly high dissymmetry factor (g ph = 1.33) at low operating voltages (< 5 V), showcasing significant potential in optical communication and data encryption. Furthermore, leveraging high g ph, they can perform in-sensor computing for highly accurate semantic segmentation using fused multimodal visual inputs (e.g., circularly polarized and ordinary light), achieving an accuracy of 75.73% and a mean intersection over the union of 0.3982, surpassing the performance of non-CPL photodetectors. Additionally, it optimizes power consumption by a factor of 102 compared to most conventional visual processing systems, offering a groundbreaking hardware solution for high-performance neuromorphic CPL vision.

The chelating molecule (CB-PA) serves as both a top-interface molecular bridge and a void-filler to improve the buried interface quality and promote carrier extraction, leading to a high efficiency of 25.27% and superior stability for inverted MA-free perovskite solar cells.

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) as hole-collecting materials have made remarkable progress in inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the incomplete coverage of SAMs and the non-intimate interface contact between perovskite/SAMs usually cause inferior interface characteristics and significant energy losses at the heterojunction interface. Herein, a post-assembled chelating molecular bridge strategy using 5-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)isophthalicacid (CB-PA) is developed to modify the perovskite/SAMs buried interface. It is found that CB-PA can be chemically coupled with MeO-2PACz through π–π stacking between carbazole groups, and chelate with perovskite by forming double C═O···Pb bonds, thus constructing a bridge-connected interface to promote carrier extraction. Simultaneously, the post-assembled CB-PA can fill the voids of MeO-2PACz to form dense hybrid SAMs, resulting in uniform surface potential and improved interface contact. Moreover, CB-PA treatment also tends to induce the oriented crystallization of perovskite films, passivate interface defects, and release lattice stress at the buried interface. Consequently, the CB-PA-based inverted PSCs achieve a champion efficiency of 25.27% with superior operational stability, retaining ≈94% of their initial efficiency after maximum power point (MPP) tracking (65 °C) for 1000 h with ISOS-L-2I protocol. This work provides an innovative strategy to address the buried interface challenges for high-performance inverted PSCs.