Research teams from The University of Hong Kong, led by Professor Chunyi Zhi, have provided a focused review of aqueous Zn-based flow batteries for long-duration energy storage. The review identifies Zn anode reversibility loss and active-species crossover/shuttle as two coupled bottlenecks, and summarizes design strategies that integrate electrolyte regulation, interfacial engineering, electrode architecture, species chemistry, and membrane design.

Some of the world’s brightest colors don’t just reflect light, they create it. Scientists and museum conservators are now uncovering why these luminous pigments fade and how to preserve them for future generations. The findings could help museums protect artwork while informing the development of longer-lasting phosphorescent materials for a variety of applications, from fashion runways to airport runways. The researchers will present their results at ACS Fall 2026.

Researchers from the University of Osaka have developed a fast computational framework that predicts the optical performance of quantum color centers without being restricted to a specific host material. By replacing computationally intensive calculations with simple theoretical formulas and procedures, the method enables rapid screening of promising quantum materials spanning ultraviolet to telecommunication wavelengths.

Tide levels can vary by almost a metre across a single bay, according to a new study that uses decades of satellite images to measure tides at the scale of individual beaches.

Researchers at Technische Universität München and the University of Oxford have led the development of a new technique that can estimate tides along the coast at intervals of just 100 metres. This provides a level of local detail that is difficult to capture using existing tide gauges and satellite measurements.

The study has been published today (25 August) in Nature Communications: Earth and Environment.

A unified scaling analysis gives quantum geometry and disorder their own measurable weight patterns, allowing researchers to separate competing sources of the second-order nonlinear Hall effect in existing experiments.

Cable tray systems are essential for supporting electrical and communication cables in buildings, but their failure during earthquakes can disrupt critical services and pose serious safety risks. Researchers have now validated Japan's seismic design guidelines through full-scale shaking table tests. While seismic supports proved sufficiently strong, the cable trays themselves were more vulnerable. The team also developed a simple steel-wire reinforcement method that significantly improves seismic performance in both new and existing buildings.

Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are fundamental building blocks for flexible electronics, including flexible displays, wearable sensors and electronic skin. However, at the heterointerface between the organic semiconductor (OSC) and the dielectric layer where charge transport takes place, structural and energetic disorders inevitably introduce defects, which adversely affect device stability. To address these challenges, researchers from Tianjin University and collaborating institutions have developed a novel interfacial engineering strategy, in which ultrathin alkyl chains of alkylated OSC molecules are covalently attached to the OSC backbone. This approach effectively reduces the trap density at the OSC/dielectric interface, thereby enabling stable OFET operation. In addition, this strategy substantially decreases the dielectric layer thickness, which facilitates low‑voltage operation. As a result, OFETs constructed on the basis of this strategy operate stably at a low voltage of −1 V for over 10,000 s, while integrated logic circuits achieve high gain, fast switching and robust stability. This work provides a new pathway toward high-reliability flexible electronics.