Electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO₃RR) emerges as a sustainable approach for converting residual nitrate pollutants into valuable ammonia under ambient conditions, offering a promising alternative to the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process. Compared to single-metal-site electrocatalysts, dual-metal-site (DMS) electrocatalysts show synergistic effects between adjacent metal sites, effectively regulating the electronic state and enhancing the catalytic activity and selectivity for NO₃RR with multi-step proton and electron transfers. Further understanding on NO₃RR is of practical significance for design of efficient DMS electrocatalysts.

Understanding the structure–activity relationship of catalysts is crucial for addressing global energy and environmental challenges. A research team led by Professor Jiangwei Zhang from Inner Mongolia University presents a comprehensive review of advanced characterization techniques—including spectroscopy, microscopy, compositional analysis, and in-situ/operando methods—that enable atomic-level insights into catalytic systems. These techniques pave the way for intelligent catalyst design and real-time reaction monitoring.

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) ceramics possess high thermal conductivity, excellent electrical insulation, and good thermal and chemical stability, showing great potential for high-end electronics and thermal management. Current industrial production relies on hot pressing, which limits product size and yield with high costs. Pressureless sintering is simple, low-cost, and suitable for large or complex shapes. However, due to the extremely low self-diffusion coefficient of h-BN, densification via pressureless sintering is difficult, with relative densities typically below 90%. Therefore, achieving densification of h-BN by pressureless sintering has remained a key challenge for over half a century since its first synthesis.

Hydrogen purification is a critical challenge for clean energy. The Sun and Kang’s group have now developed a novel composite membrane using a "mortar-and-brick" strategy. This membrane combines a metal-organic framework (MOF) as the "bricks" with a hydrogen-bonded organic framework (HOF) as the "mortar," creating an all-nanoporous hierarchical structure. Hetero-MOF facilitates the hetero-nucleation, and the systematic rule of HOF’s crystal growth interfered by hetero-phase is established: suppressing the homo-nucleation, balancing nucleation driving force with molecular attachment rates, and optimizing the nutrients supplement and demand. The optimized membrane shows a 562% increase in hydrogen permeance and 241% improve in hydrogen/methane selectivity compared to a pure HOF membrane, offering a new blueprint for next-generation gas separation materials that combine easy processing with high performance.

Harnessing solar energy to produce usable power is not new, but the technology is constantly evolving and improving. A major development in recent times is the use of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), which are low-weight, highly efficient, flexible solar cells using perovskite (typically a metal-halide material with a specialized structure) crystal structures to absorb light. Though a promising concept, improvements are necessary for PSCs to be able to reach their full potential. Researchers approach these improvements by introducing an additive, 1H-indole-3-carbohydrazide (1H-CBH) to effectively alleviate the main obstacle of PSCs, which are defects leading to loss of energy and efficiency in the cell.