Hygroscopic hydrogel is a promising evaporative-cooling material for high-power passive daytime cooling with water self-regeneration. However, undesired solar and environmental heating makes it a challenge to maintain sub-ambient daytime cooling. While different strategies have been developed to mitigate heat gains, they inevitably sacrifice the evaporation and water regeneration due to highly coupled thermal and vapor transport. Here, an anisotropic synergistically performed insulation-radiation-evaporation (ASPIRE) cooler is developed by leveraging a dual-alignment structure both internal and external to the hydrogel for coordinated thermal and water transport. The ASPIRE cooler achieves an impressive average sub-ambient cooling temperature of ~ 8.2 °C and a remarkable peak cooling power of 311 W m^-2 under direct sunlight. Further examining the cooling mechanism reveals that the ASPIRE cooler reduces the solar and environmental heat gains without comprising the evaporation. Moreover, self-sustained multi-day cooling is possible with water self-regeneration at night under both clear and cloudy days. The synergistic design provides new insights toward high-power, sustainable, and all-weather passive cooling applications.

The paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Chemistry systematically summarizes the research progress and innovative strategies for improving the performance of NaₓTMO₂ cathode materials through interface regulation engineering in recent years. This work reveals the enhancement mechanisms of interface engineering, such as inorganic/organic coatings, heterogeneous interface phase designing, and surface doping. The phase evolution behaviors, ion-transfer kinetics, and electrochemical properties of NaₓTMO₂ resulted from interfacial modulations are concluded in depth.

Urea is a fundamental industrial chemical and may have played a central role in the origin of life.

ETH researchers have discovered a new reaction: the spontaneous formation of urea on aqueous surfaces from carbon dioxide (CO₂) and ammonia (NH₃).

Its formation does not require catalysts, pressure or heat, illustrating how urea may have accumulated on Early Earth.

The reaction also has the potential for sustainable and low-energy urea synthesis.

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital unveiled a tool to capture protein-water networks and their contribution to drug-binding sites.