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Intensive efforts are underway to develop recycling methods for spent lithium-ion batteries. Here the authors develop a mechano-catalytic approach based on contact electrification for efficient and potentially cost-effective recycling of cathode materials.

Understanding nanoparticle catalysis is limited by complex structure–activity links. This study reveals that Pt corner sites on 1–1.5 nm particles drive activity via electronic effects, offering a rare quantitative insight into water gas shift catalytic performance.

C–C bond cleavage and recombination provide an efficient strategy for the modification and reconstruction of molecular structures. Herein, the authors report a method to achieve amidation of aryl C(sp2)–H bonds by cleavage and recombination of C–C triple bonds with the participation of nitrous acid esters.

Stiffness, toughness, and fatigue resistance are seemingly incompatible in materials design. Here the authors demonstrate a hierarchical crosslinking strategy using lithium ion oxygen interactions and PMMA nanoaggregates to enable energy dissipation in the network, leading to stiff yet tough polymer materials.

Depolymerization and transformation of lignin into aryl halides, which are indispensable chemicals in both the academic and industrial communities, remain challenging. Here, the authors report a simple and mild method for the depolymerization and halogenation of lignin, leading to the production of useful aryl halides.

Metallic dendrite growth of metal anodes is a major concern in developing next-generation metal-ion batteries. Here the authors develop a cross-linked polyethylenimine as a metal host that enables electrokinetic effects for uniform metal deposition.

Lithium–sulfur batteries have a high specific capacity, but lithium polysulfide diffusion (LPS) and dendrite growth reduce their cycle life. Here, the authors show a biomimetic aramid nanofiber membrane for effectively suppressing LPS diffusion as well as lithium dendrites while allowing lithium ions to be transported. The membranes resists performance degradation at high temperatures and can be produced at scale by Kevlar recycling.

Here the authors show that the growth plate (GP)-epiphysis interface possesses a strong modulus transition and acts as a mineralization inhibition zone, while the GP-metaphysis interface has a gradual transition and stimulates bone formation. They also identify proteins at these boundaries which inhibit or promote bone mineralization.

Luminescent cerium(III) compounds with 5d-4f transition have received extensive interest in phosphor, photocatalysis, and electroluminescence, but pushing emission beyond 700 nm is challenging. Here, the authors report a series of molecular Ce(III) complexes with S-coordinating dithiobiuret ligands that emit at 725 nm with 31% quantum efficiency.

The oxygen evolution reaction is central to electrochemistry, yet how its intermediates contribute to overpotential is unclear. Here, the authors use a multi-component forced-convection mass-spectrometry system to label adsorbed oxygen and reveal its conversion through product fractionation.

Bacterial attachment on implanted medical devices depends on surface topography. Here, the authors screen combinatorially generated shapes embossed into polymers to investigate topographical control of bacterial responses to surfaces.

Upconversion nanoparticles can be used to both image and treat tumors. Here, the authors describe an upconversion nanoparticle that can switch from imaging to phototherapy by altering the NIR emission.

The Fermi-LAT Collaboration reports a significant γ-ray detection (5.2σ) from the coronae of radio-quiet active galactic nuclei, revealing compact (~10 gravitational radii) and extended (~2.7 × 10⁶ gravitational radii) corona regions, challenging existing models.

Optimizing mechanical performance for polymer materials is frequently challenging, often require complex methods. Here the authors design an poly(ethylene glycol) material with enhanced mechanical properties by laser printing a micropillar and honeycomb micro-lattice.

Understanding and controlling the quantum friction remain challenging. Here, the authors reveal pseudo-Landau levels splitting induced quantum friction at solid-solid interfaces via engineering the nanocurvature geometry of folded graphene edges.

Although transition metal-catalyzed C–H bond functionalization is a widely used method in organic synthesis, many methods rely on metals of low abundance. Here, the authors report a copper-catalyzed, asymmetric C–H arylation using diaryliodonium salts.

Using well-calibrated statistical methods the authors jointly analyze Undiagnosed Diseases Network genomes, identifying known and novel disease genes. Software is publicly available to support future cross-cohort rare disease discovery efforts.

Optically active defects in wide band gap materials are promising building block for room temperature quantum information processing. Here, the authors connect the experimental variance in the optical spectra, optical lifetimes and spectral stability of quantum emitters to the distance-dependent donor-acceptor pairs in the two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride.

Limited high quality multi-omics resources are available for plants with complex genomes. Here, authors generate transcriptome, proteome, phosphoproteome, and acetylproteome data sets across wheat developmental stages and reveal de-acetylation of TaP5CS1 by TaHDA9 regulates Fusarium crown rot resistance.

Catalytic syngas conversion is an essential part of sustainable chemical production but is hindered by the trade-off between conversion activity and product selectivity. Here the authors address this challenge by developing a catalytic shunt strategy.

Monomethylation of histone H4 lysine 20 (H4K20me1) contributes to DNA replication but the mechanism is not well understood. Here, the authors identify a conserved tandem Tudor domain of BAHCC1 as a H4K20me1-specific reader, which promotes the recruitment of MCM complex to chromatin for efficient DNA replication.

Common photovoltaic effect is across the interface of heterojunctions. Here, the authors find that scanning a light beam can induce a persistent in-plane photoelectric voltage along silicon-water interfaces, due to the following movement of a charge packet in the vicinity of the silicon surface.

Zheng et al. generated a mouse model of phospho-ablation in all canonical ryanodine receptor 2 (RyR2) phosphorylation sites. They show that RyR2 phosphorylation at these sites is dispensable for chronotropy and inotropy but is required to maintain electrical stability during adrenergic stimulation.

CryoEM sample preparation for low abundance or preferentially oriented particles remains challenging. Jianbing Ma et al. develop the mspSA affinity-grid method that enriches particles on EM grids and reduces air-water interface exposure, demonstrating usefulness for several difficult samples.

Addressing the stability challenges from metal electrodes/perovskite components chemical interactions is essential for high-performance perovskite solar cells. Here, authors design a bilayer polymer buffer to mitigate metal/ion interdiffusion, realizing a certified efficiency of 26.46%.

Yang et al. demonstrate that the rice lectin OsChtBL1 accumulates in the food canal of insect vectors, creating a barrier that hinders feeding and reduces rice stripe virus (RSV) transmission. RSV counters this by using its P2 protein to recruit the host E3 ubiquitin ligase OsRING18, leading to OsChtBL1 degradation.

A new platinum(ii)-based emitter features suppressed intermolecular interactions, enhanced molecular rigidity and locally excited character, enabling narrowband blue phosphorescent OLEDs emitting at 464 nm with a full-width at half-maximum of 17.1 nm and an external quantum efficiency of 30.8% at a luminance of 1,000 cd m⁻².

A sampling-based manifold learning method is proposed to study the cluster structure of high-dimensional data. Its applicability and scalability have been verified in single-cell data analysis and anomaly detection in electrocardiogram signals.

This study presents BOOST, a rapid and robust expansion microscopy workflow using microwave-accelerated chemistry to achieve a single-step 10-fold expansion of cells, tissue sections, and FFPE sections. The workflow enables high-resolution visualisation of biological structures and is adaptable for broad applications.

Using the well-established foundry-based lithium niobate nanophotonics platform, a general electro-optic digital-to-analogue link with ultrahigh bandwidth (>150 Gb s⁻¹) and ultralow power consumption (0.058 pJ b⁻¹) is demonstrated, providing a direct, energy-efficient, high-speed and scalable solution for interfacing digital electronics and photonics.

Single-atom catalysts commonly present a random distribution of the active metal centres. Now a series of Mg-rich intermetallic compounds is introduced to enable ordered dispersed active metals. Furthermore, a cascade process is demonstrated on Mg₂₉Pd_1.3Rh_2.7, where Pd sites catalyse the semihydrogenation of phenylacetylene with subsequent hydroformylation on Rh sites.

The separator plays a crucial role in mitigating dendrites and side reactions in aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Here, authors design an anisotropic separator with high modulus and large ionic conductivity to break the trade-off between low separator thickness and good dendrite-inhibition ability.

Hi-C and single-molecule sequencing analysis provide an improved assembly of the Xenopus tropicalis genome and insights into three-dimensional genome dynamics throughout embryogenesis.

Eddy covariance CO₂ flux measurements across 212 globally distributed sites reveal a threshold above which ecosystem respiration is temperature limited and below which it is water limited.

The unconventional hexagonal phase CuCo PBA with open structure, large pore size, and high specific surface area is synthesized, and it delivers much better small molecular gas adsorption performance than the traditional cubic counterpart.

Despite the importance of polycyclic carboxylic acids and derivatives in various fields, general methods for the arylcarboxylation of alkenes with CO₂ remain elusive. Here, the authors transform unactivated alkenes into high value-added polycyclic carboxylic acids and derivatives via visible-light photoredox-catalysis, using CO₂ as the one-carbon feedstock.

Using structural and functional analysis, Li et al. reveal the architecture of the Rpd3S histone deacetylase complex and mechanism of its chromatin targeting and deacetylation.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports a measurement of the ratio of the decay rates of W bosons to τ leptons and muons, in agreement with universal lepton couplings as postulated in the standard model of particle physics.

Wannier excitons exhibit a relatively large Bohr radius, and this limits the strength of coupling to magnetic ions, in exciton hosting material. Here, Huang et al. overcome this limitation by using self-trapped excitons in Cs₃Cu₂I₅, with a resulting large exciton Zeeman splitting.

Some small mRNA isoforms regulate cellular responses to stress. Here, Li et al. identify UFD1s, a stress responsive micro-RNA that encodes a conserved microprotein that regulates ubiquitination of full length UFD1, promotes autophagy and fatty acid oxidation, and acts to alleviate NASH progression in mice.

In the final analysis of a phase 1/phase 2 trial of autologous GD2-targeting CAR T cells in pediatric patients with high-risk metastatic, relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma, treatment was overall well tolerated, with an objective response rate of 66%. These findings were further supported by a case series involving the same therapy in a similar patient population.

A relative potency-adjusted inventory of fine-particulate matter (PM_2.5) established in China reveals sectoral and regional disparities in PM_2.5 emissions, exposures and associated toxic potencies.

Printable mesoscopic perovskite solar cells are a promising device design, yet their efficiency is limited by charge collection. Ma et al. use hexamethylene diisocyanate to eliminate unreacted organic cations at grain boundaries, enhancing hole collection.

Cationic polymers conventionally kill bacteria via physical membrane disruptions. Here, the authors report the development of carbon acid cationic polymers that show potent activity against multidrug-resistant strains in murine infection models and prevent bovine mastitis, and present evidence that these polymers translocate across bacterial membrane aided by N-heterocyclic carbene.

Enhancing rejection of small, neutral organic contaminants by reverse osmosis (RO) membrane is crucial for safe water supply. Here, authors report an amphiphilic nanowire-assisted monomer shuttling strategy that markedly improves the contaminant removal while simultaneously enhanced water permeance.

The effects of non-reacting components on polyatomic reactions are still largely unclear. Here, the authors show through a combined experimental and theoretical study of the D + CH₄ reaction that the CH₃ umbrella bending mode serves as a reporter mode, revealing how the D atom dynamically approaches CH₄.

Spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains are fabricated through on-surface synthesis and reduction. As the chain length increases, the spin excitation gaps decrease, suggesting a gapless state in the thermodynamic limit. Spinon dispersion observed in the spin chains highlights the potential of this approach for realizing custom quantum spin systems.

The synthesis and isolation of compounds featuring lanthanide–carbon triple bonds remain challenging. Now a cluster featuring a cerium–carbon triple bond has been stabilized inside a C₈₀ fullerene cage. The solid-state structure of the compound reveals a cerium–carbon bond distance of 1.969(7) Å.