Recently, researchers from Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences/Spallation Neutron Source Science Center and collaborators investigated the phonon dynamics in a low-thermal-conductivity crystal, which is stable in wide temperature of 8-700 K, and observed liquid-like phonon transport behavior in this ordered crystal CsAg₅Te₃, through first-principles calculations and neutron scattering experiments.

A novel machine learning framework accelerates the discovery of ionic thermoelectric materials, achieving precise Seebeck coefficient predictions. This groundbreaking method identified a waterborne polyurethane-potassium iodide ionogel with a Seebeck coefficient of 41.39 mV/K. Insights into key molecular features promise rapid advancements in waste-heat recovery and thermal sensing technologies.

In a paper published in Science Bulletin, Researchers discovered a unique signature of the planar Hall effect (PHE) in magnetic Weyl semimetals, where PHE conductivity is determined by a global quantity: the Chern number of Weyl point. Due to the robustness of the Chern number, the PHE conductivity here is independent of many material details, leading to a planar Hall plateau, which is rare and has great potential applications. By revealing completely new physical signatures, their work significantly advances the field of Hall transport.

In a paper published in National Science Review, an advanced catalytic team of scientists present a novel heterogeneous catalytic process that efficiently converts polyurethane waste into important chemicals like aromatic amines and lactones by combining methanolysis and hydrogenation with a CO₂/H₂ reaction medium. The intermediate chemicals were then transformed into functional polymers—polyimide and polylactone.