In a paper published in National Science Review, a research team led by Prof. Hao Sun at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has clarified how fluorinated electrolyte additives function in rechargeable sodium-chlorine (Na-Cl₂) batteries. The study found that these additives do not primarily protect the anode by forming a solid electrolyte interphase, as previously believed. Instead, they to spontaneously react with electrolyte components to generate aluminum fluoride (AlF₃) catalyst in situ at the cathode, accelerating the NaCl/Cl₂ redox reactions. Based on this mechanism, the team designed a polymerized ionic liquid cathode catalyst for the cathode, achieving an exceptional rate capability of 30,000 mA g⁻¹ and stable cycling performance over 300 cycles. This work establishes a new design principle to linking anode additives to cathode catalysis, advancing the development of next-generation high-energy, ultrafast-charging batteries.

Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) linguists have analysed murals in Lithuania’s second-largest city as elements of a “linguistic landscape” – a concept that views language as both visual and spatial. Their study reveals that street art in Kaunas acts as a form of cultural activism and collective memory, blending languages, images, and historical narratives.

Prof. Guoying Gu team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University unveiled millimeter-scale soft robots today, solving a minimally invasive surgery hurdle: navigating narrow body orifices. They modified silicone with accelerators/thickeners to fix traditional bubble casting’s interfacial instability, making 1–3mm robots in 30 minutes via mini bubble casting. These robots can retrieve clots and check lungs; next, they’ll add sensors and hydrogel drug coatings for "in-body pharmacies."

Physicists at Umeå University, in collaboration with researchers in China, have developed a laser made entirely from biomaterials – birch leaves and peanut kernels. The environmentally friendly laser could become an inexpensive and accessible tool for medical diagnostics and imaging.

Exploring topological singularities in non-Hermitian photonic systems has recently become a frontier in modern physics and engineering. Towards this goal, researchers in China have experimentally realized the transition from a bound state in the continuum (BIC) to an exceptional point (EP) in a terahertz metasurface by tuning the incident angle. Optical pumping modulates silicon’s carrier concentration, enabling dynamic EP switching and THz beam deflection for compact sensing and non-Hermitian photonic applications.