Professor Wenkun Zhu and Professor Tao Chen’s research group at Southwest University of Science and Technology has published a research article in Science Bulletin demonstrating the development of an atomically dispersed U−O−Ti bimetallic photoanode material (U/TiO₂ NRA). Utilizing a facile photodeposition method, the team successfully anchored uranium single atoms directly from uranium-containing wastewater onto TiO₂ nanorod arrays rich in oxygen vacancies. The as-fabricated catalyst exhibits exceptional photoelectrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, offering a novel strategy for both the high-value utilization of depleted uranium resources and the design of efficient photoelectrocatalytic materials.

A novel defect-engineered Pt/Nb₂O₅ photocatalyst achieves record-breaking efficiency for the co-production of 2-methylbenzimidazole and hydrogen through a hydroxyethyl radical-mediated pathway. By engineering oxygen vacancies and decorating with Pt nanoparticles, researchers demonstrate selective activation of the α-C–H bond in ethanol, bypassing conventional aldehyde intermediates to enhance both catalytic activity and selectivity under mild reaction conditions.

A systematic approach to physically synthesized data generation and its application is proposed for automatic visual inspection of aerospace alloys with complex geometries. Furthermore, the underlying reason why this approach significantly improves defect segmentation accuracy is revealed.