Zinc–air batteries offer attractive characteristics for electrochemical energy storage, but their practical performance is still constrained by the slow kinetics of oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution at the air electrode. A recent study published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts presents a strategy that uses carbon curvature and metal-support interactions to regulate Co-N₄ single-atom sites. Through a Zn volatilization-induced pyrolysis process, the researchers constructed cobalt nanoparticles and Co-N₄ sites on curved, nitrogen-doped biomass-derived carbon. The resulting structural distortion and electronic polarization strengthened metal-support interactions, altered the electronic structure of Co-N₄ sites and improved oxygen intermediate adsorption. The catalyst delivered a half-wave potential of 0.87 V for oxygen reduction and an overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 for oxygen evolution. A zinc-air battery using the catalyst reached a peak power density of 172 mW cm^-2 and operated for more than 400 h.

Soil acidification threatens agricultural productivity across large areas of the world, but predicting how well biochar can restore acidic soils remains difficult. A new review suggests that artificial intelligence could help scientists move from trial-and-error applications toward more precise, mechanism-guided biochar management, provided that researchers improve the quality and biological relevance of the data used to train AI models.

Silver ions are widely used in industrial and antimicrobial applications, but their high mobility and toxicity can create serious risks when they enter aquatic environments. A new study published in Biochar shows that nano-biochar can rapidly convert dissolved silver ions into silver nanoparticles under carefully controlled alkaline conditions, revealing a key role for superoxide radicals in the process.

CHICAGO, August 27, 2026. NEW HORIZON PRESS LIMITED participated as an exhibitor at ACS Fall 2026, held from August 23 to 27 in Chicago, connecting with researchers, scholars, and students from around the world and introducing its academic journals and publishing initiatives to the international scientific community.

Rice University and collaborators in Switzerland have developed a new platform to grow human-derived nerve cells with Schwann cells, or supporting cells that form a protective coating called myelin around nerve fibers. This platform enables functional myelin in a three-dimensional lab-grown environment. Researchers confirmed that it worked by measuring an increase in the speed of electrical signals traveling across networks of connected nerve cells.

The next generation of microelectronics relies on radical improvements in transistor switching performance to advance computing power. However, conventional semiconductor technology has hit a physical limit known as the "Boltzmann tyranny," which restricts the energy efficiency of traditional transistors and stalls progress in high-performance electronics. To address this key bottleneck, a research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has engineered a novel tunnelling field-effect transistor (TFET) utilising two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials. The breakthrough brings this long-awaited experimental technology closer to commercial reality, offering a fundamental building block for energy-efficient computing and next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips.

Volatile resistive switching in electron systems is crucial for developing next-generation electronics. However, its underlying mechanism remains underexplored. In a new study, researchers explore the effect of Joule heating on resistive switching in a bulk organic conductor with a sharp metal-insulator transition (MIT) and weak heat dissipation. The study offers crucial insights for understanding the intermediate resistance state in bulk crystals with MIT, offering a pathway toward developing durable and efficient resistive switching technologies.