Researchers from The University of Osaka and Daikin Industries, Ltd. have discovered a key metric, "electrolyte lithium-ion chemical potential," that governs lithium-ion battery performance. This quantitative indicator shows that efficient charging occurs when lithium ions are sufficiently “unstable” in the electrolyte. This breakthrough replaces trial-and-error methods with a rational design approach, enabling faster development of safer, higher-performance batteries for applications like EVs and renewable energy storage.

Kyoto, Japan -- Magnetostriction and spin dynamics are fundamental properties of magnetic materials.  Despite having been studied for decades, finding a decisive link between the two in bulk single crystals had remained elusive. That is until a research team from several institutions, including Kyoto University, sought to examine these properties in the compound CoFe₂O₄, a spinel oxide (chemical formula AB₂O₄) widely used in numerous medical and industrial applications.

Spin dynamics describe how the tiny magnetic moments of atoms in a magnetic material interact and change orientation with time, while magnetostriction describes how a material changes shape or dimensions in response to a change in magnetization. These properties are central to the operation of sensors and actuators that employ magnetoelastic materials that change their magnetization under mechanical stress.

Rare-earth compounds often exhibit large magnetoelastic effects, explaining their desirability, but they also face constraints in resources, cost, and operating temperature. The spinel oxide CoFe₂O₄ combines non‑rare‑earth chemistry with strong room‑temperature magnetostriction, and has a high Curie temperature, at which materials start to lose their magnetism, which is essential to many devices that operate at or above ambient temperature.

Milestone results released by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) on November 16 have solved a decades-old mystery about the cosmic ray energy spectrum—which shows a sharp decrease in cosmic rays above 3 PeV, giving it an unusual knee-like shape.

Researchers have successfully simulated the 100 billions stars of the Milky Way. This feat was accomplished by combining artificial intelligence (AI) with numerical simulations. This is 100 times better than previous attempts and took 100 times less time to produce. The same process can be used to model other phenomenon such as climate change and weather patterns. the study was led by Keiya Hirashima at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) in Japan.

A new open-access tool created by University of Toronto Engineering researchers provides a systematic way to organize and synthesize knowledge about metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) — a class of materials with applications in drug delivery, catalysis, carbon capture and more. The new tool is named Unifying Chemical Data for MOFs, abbreviated to MOF-ChemUnity.

Tanshinones, bioactive compounds in Salvia miltiorrhiza (Chinese sage), hold significant therapeutic value, particularly in treating cardiovascular diseases.