Some solid materials can cool down or heat up when pressure is applied or released. This behaviour enables cooling and heating technologies that do not rely on climate-damaging refrigerant gases. In practice, however, a major obstacle remains: many materials behave differently during heating and cooling, which makes their response difficult to use reliably in real devices.

 In this work, the authors investigate a solid material known for its exceptionally large cooling/heating response (thermal response) under pressure and ask a simple question: can this response be made more reliable? They show that a very small change in composition leads to a clear improvement and use neutron experiments at the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) to explain why this improvement occurs.

The transient Pauli blocking effect is a promising way to achieve ultrafast optical switching in semiconductors. Recently, a research team from Japan successfully demonstrated broadband ultrafast optical switching in InN thin films by leveraging pump-probe transient transmittance measurements with multicolor probe lasers. They also developed a theoretical model to explain the underlying mechanism. These findings might pave the way for next-generation ultrafast optical modulators, shutters, and photonic devices in optical computing or optical communication.

A research team led by Xiangke Wang and Hui Yang at North China Electric Power University and Shenqian Ma at the University of North Texas, USA, recently developed a novel design strategy for constructing hydrazone-connected flexible COF photocatalysts. By introducing flexible connectors with varying bending capabilities, the researchers achieved precise control over the local pore curvature and photoelectric properties of COFs, promoting the separation and transport of photogenerated carriers. The constructed flexible COF photocatalyst, COF-3, exhibited excellent photocatalytic uranium removal performance in both contaminated groundwater and tap water. Mechanistic studies revealed that COF-3 can generate H₂O₂ in situ under visible light irradiation and convert dissolved uranyl ions into insoluble (UO₂)O₂ · 2H₂O, achieving efficient capture. This research provides a new design approach for the application of flexible COFs in the photocatalytic remediation of radioactive pollutants. The article was published as an open access Research Article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

Short-term changes in sea level can greatly affect coastal communities and maritime industries, making accurate predictions essential. A team of researchers recently optimized the training of an AI model to improve the accuracy of North Pacific Ocean sea level anomaly (SLA) forecasts compared to current state-of-the-art numerical and AI models.