Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a unique phenomenon that occurs during crystallization. In a new study, a group of researchers from Doshisha University, Japan, have investigated the non-equilibrium phase behavior of localized LLPS driven by initial solute concentration and antisolvent addition rate in a ternary water/ethanol/butylparaben system. The present findings provide insights that may help regulate LLPS in turn potentially paving the way for improved product quality in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and food industries.

Researchers in James Tour’s lab at Rice University showed that Thomas Edison’s original carbon-filament light bulbs could have inadvertently produced graphene more than a century ago. By recreating Edison’s 1879 design and applying modern analysis, the team demonstrated that briefly heating carbon filaments can form turbostratic graphene, linking historic experiments to cutting-edge materials science.

Miho Yanagisawa, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo; Hiroki Sakuta, a project assistant professor; Arash Nikoubashman, a Heisenberg Professor at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden; and their colleagues have identified a new physicochemical principle governing liquid–liquid phase separation in polymer solutions. Their research demonstrates that during the separation of a polymer mixture into two fluid phases, coexisting ions are unequally distributed between the phases. Using an established aqueous two-phase system composed of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and dextran (Dex), the researchers discovered that positively charged ions preferentially accumulate in the Dex-rich phase due to its slightly more negative charge than PEG. This ion partitioning drives the selective localization of negatively charged biomolecules within the Dex-rich phase. The study provides the first direct quantitative evidence of ion accumulation in liquid–liquid phase-separated systems. It offers new insights into molecular selectivity relevant to intracellular phase separation and biomolecular separation technologies.

Associate Professor Yuichiro Matsushita of Materials and Structures Laboratory, Institute of Science Tokyo, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Associate Professor Takahide Umeda of Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba and Quemix Corporation  announced today that they have achieved the world’s first¹ elucidation of how hydrogen produces free electrons² through the interaction with certain defects³ in silicon. The achievement has the potential to improve how insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are designed and manufactured, making them more efficient and reducing their power loss. It is also expected to open up possibilities for future devices using ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials.⁴

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was recently granted to David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper, renowned for their pioneering works in protein design.

Researchers from University of Rostock and University of Hamburg have demonstrated for the first time that hidden symmetries can be used to transfer quantum states. Their experiments in a photonic system show that even in networks without any visible symmetry, reliable high-fidelity quantum state transfer is possible. Their findings pave the way towards new architectures for secure quantum communication and cryptography.