Professor Qilong Shen's research group at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed an extremely mild and efficient new synthetic strategy. Under transition metal-free conditions, various α-heteroaryl amides and esters can be constructed in high yields simply by mixing zinc powder, α-bromoamides (or esters), and heteroaryl halides at room temperature. This not only greatly simplifies the reaction process but also provides a practical and green new method for the synthesis of related drug molecules and their skeletons. The article was published as an open access Research Article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction to formate is a promising route to convert greenhouse gases into value-added liquid chemicals, but persistent cell voltage rise during operation has long limited high-concentration product accumulation and long-term stability. A research team led by scientists from the University of Science and Technology Beijing has identified that unidirectional cation migration across the ion exchange membrane is the dominant cause of voltage growth, and proposed a simple yet effective "concentration-gradient" strategy. By pairing high-concentration anolyte (3.37 mol·L⁻¹) with low-concentration catholyte (0.5 mol·L⁻¹) to generate reverse diffusion potential, the strategy confines cell voltage fluctuations within ±0.5 V and enables over 30 hours of continuous stable operation — 3 to 4 times longer than conventional systems. Normalized formate productivity reaches 200% of the average level, and the strategy works universally across cation-based electrolyte systems.

Phosphine (PH₃) is a deadly industrial byproduct that poses a severe threat to human health and the environment. A research team from Yunnan Minzu University and Kunming University of Science and Technology has developed a sustainable "waste-to-wealth" strategy that captures toxic PH₃ tail gas and transforms it in situ into a robust Ni₂P/Ni₅P₄ heterostructure electrocatalyst. This innovative approach not only achieves high-efficiency gas purification but also provides a low-cost, high-performance solution for green hydrogen production, bridging the gap between pollution control and clean energy.

Professor Zhang Yuxin's team from Chongqing University, specializing in new silicon algae material innovation, used natural diatom (DE) as the base to in-situ grow layered hierarchical SZIF-8 carriers, loaded sodium molybdate corrosion inhibitor to construct Na₂MoO₄@SZIF-8-DE intelligent filler, and combined with E51 epoxy resin to prepare an adaptive anti-corrosion coating.

Flexible thermoelectric generators offer a promising route to harvest body heat for wearable electronics, but balancing high output, mechanical flexibility, and long-term stability remains challenging. A research team has developed Bi₂Te₃/HPMC@paper-based flexible thermoelectric generators with planar and multilayer-stacked architectures, achieving enhanced flexibility and thermoelectric performance. The Level-III stacked device delivered a device-level Seebeck coefficient of 11,330.25 μV·K^-1 and a maximum output power of 617.4 nW, demonstrating potential for wearable thermal energy harvesting.

The reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction converts CO₂ and H₂ into CO, an important feedstock for fuels and chemicals, but its broader use is limited by low-temperature conversion, competing methanation and high-temperature energy demand. The comprehensive review organizes recent progress in Pt-based catalysts around five structural design strategies and links them with in-situ and operando characterization and theoretical modeling, providing a unified framework for identifying working-state active sites and guiding catalyst design.

Fridges, A/C systems, and datacenters consume enormous amounts of electricity and the cooling demand is constantly on the rise. A team of research from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Tsukuba in Japan is now presenting a new approach substantiated by a prototype where heat assumes the role formerly taken by an electric motor. Two ultra-thin shape-memory films interact to convert thermal energy into mechanical work in a first step and finally into measurable cold. Their work opens up new possibilities for the future use of waste heat and solar energy for solid-state cooling. The results have been published in Nature Energy. (DOI: 10.1038/s41560-026-02122-6)

A review from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications organizes optical convolution computing into two approaches: definition-based and theorem-based methods. It highlights applications in signal processing, image analysis, and high-dimensional data processing, while identifying challenges such as energy efficiency, scalability, stability, and complete Convolutional Neural Network support. The review also emphasizes hybrid opto-electronic systems as a practical path toward deployable optical computing hardware. 

By combining two complementary clues—camera geometry and visual appearance—researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, developed a new approach for preserving identities across multiple cameras. The method uses epipolar geometry to identify spatially consistent candidate matches and appearance similarity to distinguish between possible identities. The approach can be integrated with existing single-camera tracking systems without requiring environment-specific retraining.