Understanding how molecules interact with metal surfaces is fundamental to catalysis and surface chemistry. However, traditional computational methods face a trade-off: achieving high accuracy often involves prohibitively expensive calculations, limiting large-scale or complex studies. A research team from Peking University have used a machine learning framework to create advanced exchange-correlation functionals within density functional theory (DFT). This approach enables accurate predictions of CO adsorption energies and site preferences on Cu(111) and Rh(111) surfaces with computational costs comparable to standard methods. The innovative DeePKS framework not only reproduces hybrid functional accuracy but also exhibits transferability across different adsorbate coverages, opening promising avenues for catalyst discovery and surface reaction modelling.

Researchers in the Department of Theoretical Physics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, have discovered that instead of manipulating every component or modifying interactions in a many-body system, occasionally resetting just a small fraction can reshape how the entire system behaves macroscopically, including how it transitions from one phase to another. This counterintuitive approach, called subsystem resetting, offers a powerful, universal control strategy to tune collective behavior in complex systems ranging from magnets to neural networks.

Solar-driven interfacial desalination (SID) offers a sustainable route for freshwater production, yet its long-term performance is compromised by salt crystallization and microbial fouling under complex marine conditions. Zwitterionic polymers offer promising nonfouling capabilities, but current zwitterionic hydrogel-based solar evaporators (HSEs) suffer from inadequate hydration and salt vulnerability. Inspired by the natural marine environmental adaptive characteristics of saltwater fish, we report a superhydrated zwitterionic poly(trimethylamine N-oxide, PTMAO)/polyacrylamide (PAAm)/polypyrrole (PPy) hydrogel (PTAP) with dedicated water channels for efficient, durable, and nonfouling SID. The directly linked N⁺ and O⁻ groups in PTMAO establish a robust hydration shell that facilitates rapid water transport while resisting salt and microbial adhesion. Integrated PAAm and PPy networks enhance mechanical strength and photothermal conversion. PTAP achieves a high evaporation rate of 2.35 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ under 1 kW m^–2 in 10 wt% NaCl solution, maintaining stable operation over 100 h without salt accumulation. Furthermore, PTAP effectively resists various foulants including proteins, bacterial, and algal adhesion. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the exceptional hydration capacity supports its nonfouling properties. This work advances the development of nonfouling HSEs for sustainable solar desalination in real-world marine environments.

Radiative cooling fabric creates a thermally comfortable environment without energy input, providing a sustainable approach to personal thermal management. However, most currently reported fabrics mainly focus on outdoor cooling, ignoring to achieve simultaneous cooling both indoors and outdoors, thereby weakening the overall cooling performance. Herein, a full-scale structure fabric with selective emission properties is constructed for simultaneous indoor and outdoor cooling. The fabric achieves 94% reflectance performance in the sunlight band (0.3–2.5 µm) and 6% in the mid-infrared band (2.5–25 µm), effectively minimizing heat absorption and radiation release obstruction. It also demonstrates 81% radiative emission performance in the atmospheric window band (8–13 µm) and 25% radiative transmission performance in the mid-infrared band (2.5–25 μm), providing 60 and 26 W m⁻² net cooling power outdoors and indoors. In practical applications, the fabric achieves excellent indoor and outdoor human cooling, with temperatures 1.4–5.5 °C lower than typical polydimethylsiloxane film. This work proposes a novel design for the advanced radiative cooling fabric, offering significant potential to realize sustainable personal thermal management.