Electrochemical chloride ion removal is essential for clean water and environmental protection, yet its practical application is hindered by the sluggish kinetics, especially using high-mass-loading electrodes. Conventional extrinsic modifications, such as conductive additives or structural design, exhibit constrained effectiveness. Here, we report an intrinsic enhancement strategy through heteroatom doping-induced dual defects engineering, demonstrated by the successful synthesis of fluorine-doped copper(I) phosphide with phosphorus vacancies (F-Cu₃P_V) via molten salt treatment. Based on density functional theory calculations and experimental results, F doping caused lattice distortion, generating P vacancies to form dual defects. These defects effectively modulated intrinsic electron redistribution, resulting in improved electrical conductivity, enhanced adsorption capability, and reduced chloride ion diffusion energy barriers. Therefore, electron transfer and ion diffusion kinetics were significantly accelerated, leading to superior electrochemical performance. Resultantly, the F-Cu₃P_V electrode performed exceptional electrochemical chloride ion removal performance with superior areal deionization capacity (3.16 ± 0.02 mg cm⁻²) and a remarkably rapid areal deionization rate (0.106 ± 0.001 mg cm⁻² min⁻¹), as well as outstanding cycling stability (95.65% retention after 70 cycles). This work elucidates electron redistribution via heteroatom doping-induced dual defects as a viable pathway to overcome the intrinsic kinetic bottleneck for high-performance electrochemical chloride ion removal.

Dynamically tunable terahertz (THz) wavefront modulators are essential components for next-generation communications. Researchers from China and Russia have designed and fabricated two stretchable metasurfaces based on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) film: a focal-length-tunable metasurface lens and another for controllable beam deflection. By applying mechanical stretching, these devices achieve superior dynamic terahertz wavefront manipulation and continuous tuning at 0.35 THz. This work lays a foundation for smart, wearable THz components in 6G communication and intelligent sensing.

Researchers at the Technical University of Berlin have developed a semiconductor quantum photonic platform that generates high-quality quantum light with unprecedented scalability. By combining precisely positioned quantum emitters with advanced nanophotonic resonators, the work brings manufacturable quantum communication and photonic computing technologies significantly closer to reality.

A comparative machine learning study of older adults shows that objective mobility tests and contextual assessment variables outperform demographic information alone for distinguishing fallers from non-fallers. When combined with basic demographic information, mobility measures provide strong screening performance with lower assessment burden than more extensive questionnaire-based approaches.

Salidroside, the key active compound of Rhodiola plants with anti-hypoxia and anti-fatigue properties, is highly valued in medicine, health products, and cosmetics. A new study demonstrates an efficient dual-enzyme cascade system combining sucrose synthase and glycosyltransferase that achieves one-pot biosynthesis of salidroside with 90% conversion rate. Through solubility enhancement and thermostability engineering, the system produces 13.61 g/L salidroside within just 10 hours, establishing a practical platform for industrial-scale green production.

In a significant advance for carbon-negative biotechnology, researchers have engineered the chemolithoautotrophic bacterium Cupriavidus necator H16 to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) directly into p-coumaric acid (p-CA), a high-value phenolic compound. Published in Systems Microbiology and Biomanufacturing, this study marks the first demonstration of light-independent, de novo synthesis of p-CA from CO₂, presenting a sustainable alternative to traditional plant extraction and petrochemical synthesis methods.

This review systematically examines recent key advances in machine learning for carbon dots research, highlighting its current capabilities and limitations, and proposes a future-oriented pathway toward the interpretable and rational design of CDs.

A new defect-chemistry-informed phase-field model helps explain how charged defects at grain boundaries guide grain growth in oxide ceramics. Applied to Fe-doped SrTiO₃, the model shows that solute drag alone can produce skewed grain-size distributions and highly varied grain-boundary potentials, offering a route for microstructure design.

Silicon anodes have intrinsically low electronic conductivity and severe volume changes, leading to nonuniform reaction kinetics and progressive structural degradation in both lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and all-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs). To overcome these limitations, we develop a silicon nanocomposite anode via a scalable and facile synthesis route. The nanocomposite (Si/a-Sn/CoSi₂/G/C) consists of ultrafine Si nanocrystallites integrated with a well-deformable, electronically conductive amorphous Sn; a mechanically robust and elastic CoSi₂ framework; a highly Li-reversible, electronically conductive, stress-mitigating graphite scaffold; and a highly elastic, electronically conductive PVC-pyrolyzed amorphous carbon shell. This hierarchical and synergistic architecture integrates uniform nanocrystalline Si dispersion, continuous electronic conduction, and mechanically rigid and elastically buffering matrices that accommodate volume expansion, thereby establishing a robust Si nanocomposite anode platform compatible with both LIBs and ASSLBs. The anode has a high reversible capacity, stable long-term cycling performance, high Coulombic efficiency, and improved rate capability. In LIB systems, a Si/a-Sn/CoSi₂/G/C|NCM811 full-cell achieves an energy density of 434.4 Wh kg^–1 with durable cycling stability. In sulfide-based ASSLB systems employing Li₆PS₅Cl, the full-cell has an energy density exceeding 300 Wh kg^–1, with structural and electrochemical stability. Thus, Si/a-Sn/CoSi₂/G/C is a practical and scalable Si-based anode platform for next-generation LIBs and ASSLBs.

A research team has developed an ethanol-assisted method for preparing manganese oxide-modified activated-carbon (MnOₓ/AC) catalysts that remove nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) efficiently at low temperatures.