The most recent call for proposals for the Starting Grants offered by the European Research Council (ERC) saw a successful submission by Junior Professor Manuel Krannich from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT): Funds amounting to EUR 1.5 million enable the mathematician to realize his project MaFC. The basic research project focusing on manifolds and functor calculus links multiple fields of pure mathematics. With his work, Krannich unveils surprising relationships between symmetries of high-dimensional manifolds and laws of algebra.

Researchers from Hebei University of Technology have developed an innovative approach to lithium-ion battery management that could significantly improve the safety and performance of electric vehicles. The new method, which estimates a battery's state of charge (SOC) based on its internal core temperature rather than surface temperature, addresses a critical flaw in current battery management systems while requiring less computational resources. SOC estimation—essentially determining how much "fuel" remains in an electric vehicle's battery—is crucial for safe and efficient battery operation. However, current methods typically rely on surface temperature measurements that can be misleading for the accuracy of SOC estimation.

Researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo created a new material platform for non-volatile memories using covalent organic frameworks (COFs), which are crystalline solids with high thermal stability. The researchers successfully installed electric-field-responsive dipolar rotors into COFs. Owing to the unique structure of the COFs, the dipolar rotors can flip in response to an electric field without being hampered by a steric hindrance from the surroundings, and their orientation can be held at ambient temperature for a long time, which are necessary conditions for non-volatile memories.

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells achieve remarkable efficiencies (> 26%) yet face stability challenges. Quasi-2D alternating-cation-interlayer perovskites offer enhanced stability through hydrophobic spacer cations but suffer from vertical phase segregation and buried interface defects. Herein, we introduce dicyanodiamide (DCD) to simultaneously address these dual limitations in GA(MA)_nPb_nI_3n+1 perovskites. The guanidine group in DCD passivates undercoordinated Pb²⁺ and MA⁺ vacancies at the perovskite/TiO₂ interface, while cyano groups eliminate oxygen vacancies in TiO₂ via Ti⁴⁺–CN coordination, reducing interfacial trap density by 73% with respect to the control sample. In addition, DCD regulates crystallization kinetics, suppressing low-n-phase aggregation and promoting vertical alignment of high-n phases, which benefit for carrier transport. This dual-functional modification enhances charge transport and stabilizes energy-level alignment. The optimized devices achieve a record power conversion efficiency of 21.54% (vs. 19.05% control) and retain 94% initial efficiency after 1200 h, outperforming unmodified counterparts (84% retention). Combining defect passivation with phase homogenization, this work establishes a molecular bridge strategy to decouple stability-efficiency trade-offs in low-dimensional perovskites, providing a universal framework for interface engineering in high-performance optoelectronics.