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.

A research team from Tiangong University has published a systematic practice-oriented review in Science Bulletin, establishing a unified semi-quantitative industrial evaluation framework covering eight core dimensions for lithium-ion battery prelithiation technologies. The framework enables objective head-to-head comparison of eight representative prelithiation strategies, provides a scenario-specific decision matrix for five typical application scenarios, and distills five universal design rules for next-generation solutions, closing the long-standing gap between laboratory innovation and large-scale battery manufacturing.

ζ-Carotene, a key intermediate in lycopene biosynthesis, is widely found in plants and photosynthetic microorganisms, but its isomer-specific properties remain poorly understood due to isolation and purification challenges. Researchers have now developed a purification strategy to obtain high-purity geometric isomers and systematically characterized, for the first time, their isomer-specific spectral properties, photoisomerization behavior, UV-shielding capacity, antioxidant activity, and skin-related biological activities—highlighting ζ-carotene's promise as a natural ingredient for skin health and photoprotection.

Hydrogen may be a clean fuel, but not all hydrogen is green. Most H₂ is still produced from fossil fuels, while storing and transporting it remain costly and technically challenging. For hydrogen to truly live up to its green promise, we need cleaner and less costly ways to produce and store it. Looking for a more sustainable way forward, researchers at Tohoku University have developed a potential solution. Their new recyclable system uses baker’s yeast to store hydrogen directly in organic molecules and abundant, inexpensive iron ions to release it when needed.

Extended reality (XR) aims for "immersion," requiring displays to simultaneously deliver a wide field of view (FOV) and true 3D imagery free of vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC). Researchers in China have reported a near-eye light-field display architecture based on a heterogeneous metalens array. By integrating lens and spatially heterogeneous prism phase designs with nanoimprint technology, the array overcomes the aberration-induced FOV limit of conventional microlens arrays, providing a hardware path for next-generation immersive XR displays.

Researchers have performed a full calculation within Glauber theory, a cornerstone framework for high-energy nuclear collisions. By accounting for all order multiple-scattering processes, their method accurately reproduces experimental data and provides a benchmark for simpler approximations, strengthening the theoretical foundation for studying ordinary and exotic nuclei.

A five-university Japan-Taiwan research consortium - led by Principal Researchers Yoshitane Imai (Professor, Kindai University) and Ming-Chia Li (Associate Professor, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University) - has been selected for the 2026 Japan–Taiwan Exchange Association Joint Research Grant Program in Natural and Applied Sciences. The participating institutions include Kindai University, Ibaraki University, Osaka Metropolitan University, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, and National Central University.

Through this international collaboration, Japanese and Taiwanese researchers are developing core technologies for circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes (CP-OLEDs), a type of next-generation semiconductor optical device that natively emits circularly polarized light.

To launch the project, the "2026 Taiwan–Japan Joint Symposium on Next-Generation Circularly Polarized Luminescence Technology" will be held on September 1–2, 2026, at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and National Central University in Taiwan. A delegation of researchers and students from Kindai University, Ibaraki University, and Osaka Metropolitan University will travel to Taiwan to present their latest scientific findings. The two-day program features dedicated sessions for early-career researchers, laboratory tours, and strategic planning meetings to align research objectives for the upcoming three-year initiative.

For decades, scientists have understood proteins primarily through two defining features: their amino acid sequence and their three-dimensional structure. This framework has driven major advances in biology, biotechnology, and medicine, culminating in recent artificial intelligence tools capable of predicting protein structures with remarkable accuracy. Yet a fundamental challenge remains: even when a protein's sequence and structure are known, predicting its function, interactions, and behavior often remains difficult. An international team of researchers from Japan, Finland, Italy, and the United States now reports evidence that part of this missing information may lie in an often-overlooked component of proteins: the highly organized water surrounding them. In a study accepted for publication in Nature Communications, the team provides the first direct three-dimensional visualization of sequence-dependent hydration architectures surrounding peptide assemblies at sub-nanometer resolution using advanced three-dimensional atomic force microscopy (3D-AFM). The findings reveal that water near peptide and protein surfaces is not simply a passive solvent. Instead, it forms highly organized, multilayered structures whose organization is dictated by the underlying amino acid sequence and surface chemistry. These hydration architectures extend multiple layers from the peptide surface and contain distinct structural signatures associated with hydrophobic, polar, aromatic, and charged amino acid residues. 

A dual-functional BSB-Me single-crystalline layer simultaneously serves as a stable hole-transporting layer and an efficient moisture/oxygen permeation barrier layer for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The approach yields record-high efficiencies among single-crystal OLEDs and extends the operational lifetime of blue OLEDs by more than 30 times relative to conventional amorphous counterparts.