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Understanding interfaces at sub-nanometer scales is vital for complex chemical reactions. Here, the authors advance Pattern-enhanced Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering, enabling efficient operando probing of chemical and structural dynamics at solid-liquid interfaces.

Short-circuiting during fast charging through lithium dendrite intrusion into electrolytes is a major challenge in solid-state batteries. Here, using thermally annealed 3-nm-thick Ag coatings, lithium penetration into brittle electrolyte Li_6.6La₃Zr_1.6Ta_0.4O₁₂ is inhibited at local current densities of 250 mA cm⁻² due to an increase in surface fracture toughness.

This study elucidates nanoscopic strain evolution in single-crystal Ni-rich positive electrodes, demonstrating that mechanical failure results from lattice distortions, and redefines the roles of cobalt and manganese in battery cycling stability.

Current lithium-ion batteries still rely heavily on nickel (Ni), whose growing demand raises serious economic and environmental concerns. This work now presents a cathode that delivers longer cycle life than high-Ni chemistry while substantially reducing Ni use.

Ferromagnetic systems produced by the transition metal doping of semiconductors may be used as components of spintronic devices. Here, a new ferromagnet, Li_1+y(Zn_1-xMn_x)As, is prepared in bulk quantities and shown to have a critical temperature approaching 50 K.

Nav1.7 is a threshold current generator. Here, authors show that Thr1398 underlies the low voltage dependence of hNav1.7, determines its function as a threshold channel. This low-voltage dependence may be exploited to develop Nav1.7 selective inhibitors for pain therapy.

Lithium-ion battery cathode lifetime is limited by large expansion and contraction during cycling. This study uses electrochemical activation to suppress collapse in LiNi_0.9Mn_0.1O₂ cathodes, achieving improved capacity and cycle life.

Native crystallographic defects are often introduced during synthesis of battery materials, but has been overlooked. Here, using in situ synchrotron X-ray probes and electron microscopy, the authors have revealed their adverse effect during battery operation.

Coupling two ionic thermoelectric effects in n-type materials is scarce, restricting the development of high-performance systems. Here, the authors present an ionic-thermoelectric material with interactive thermo-diffusion/galvanic coupling effect based on coordination chemistry.

Safe lithium-ion batteries require stable electrolytes with high chemical resistance and high thermal tolerance. Chen et al. find a solid lithium-salt electrolyte that is able to give rise to a prolonged battery life and a delayed decomposition of battery cathodes.

Identifying jets originating from heavy quarks plays a fundamental role in hadronic collider experiments. In this work, the ATLAS Collaboration describes and tests a transformer-based neural network architecture for jet flavour tagging based on low-level input and physics-inspired constraints.

Melting ice and associated sea-level change will expose new land in Antarctica. Here the authors quantify this change and combine it with our understanding of known Antarctic mineral occurrences, showing that substantial mineral deposits may become accessible over the next few centuries in Antarctica.

This study reveals that adhesion G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) promote extracellular vesicle (EV) formation and EVs spread GPCRs into neighboring cells to activate G-protein signaling, providing a novel mechanism for cell–cell communication.

This study introduces P3T-Net, a pseudo-3D deep learning model that enables accurate and efficient cross-domain transfer of large 3D material images, improving image quality and ensuring image consistency across diverse imaging conditions.

The STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory demonstrates evidence of spin correlations in \(\Lambda \bar{\Lambda }\) hyperon pairs inherited from virtual spin-correlated strange quark–antiquark pairs during QCD confinement.

Jacquemyn et al. identify key lipid determinants controlling ectosome shedding from neurons. They find that ectosomes are a major route for the intercellular transport of misfolded α-synuclein, with relevance to Parkinson’s disease pathology.

Optical spin orientation of itinerant ferromagnets in twisted MoTe₂ homobilayers is demonstrated, enabling control of topological Chern numbers with circularly polarized light.

Ion exchange is a powerful method to access metastable materials for energy storage, but identifying lithium and sodium interchange in layered oxides remains challenging. Using such model materials, vacancy level and corresponding lithium preference are shown to be crucial for ion exchange pathway accessibility.

Li et al. reveal projection neuron-type-specific dynamics that coordinate corticothalamic communication during reach-to-consume behavior in mice.

The development of fast-charging and high-capacity negative electrodes is critical for advanced lithium-ion batteries. Here, authors use a vacancy engineering strategy to develop a layered Prussian blue analogue with competitive rate capability, delivering a specific capacity of 510 mAh g⁻¹ at a specific current of 8 A g⁻¹.

Dhamo et al. report metal-organic framework based X-ray scintillating films with hafnium oxide clusters as linking nodes and conjugated ligands as emitting centres. It reveals that the diffusion-mediated bimolecular processes lead to fast scintillation kinetics down to 150 ps and light yield over 10⁴ ph MeV^-1.

This work employs nano- to microscale characterization to identify different structural change pathways associated with non-homogeneous reactions within the particles, and explores differences in the failure mechanisms of lithium-rich transition metal oxide materials at different current densities.

The CMS Collaboration reports the measurement of the spin, parity, and charge conjugation properties of all-charm tetraquarks, exotic fleeting particles formed in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

Language models can write human-readable code that captures general design rules, generating whole families of quantum experiments at once. A design strategy described here makes results interpretable and scalable, as well as accelerates discovery.

MnBi₂Te₄ has an appealing combination of topological bands and magnetic ordering. While chemical doping with Sb can be used to tune these properties, it typically comes with an increase in defect density. Here, Chen, Wang, Li, Duan, and coauthors demonstrate a defect engineering approach that preserves the topological and magnetic properties of Mn(Bi_1-xSb_x)₂Te₄.

A miniaturized and low-power-consumption system is designed to allow the accurate sensing and wireless transmission of internal temperature and strain signals inside lithium-ion batteries with negligible influence on their performance, improving their safety.

Fracto-mechanoluminescence is the emission of light from fracturing solids. Here, the authors show that this emission in Mn halides arises from elastic stiffness, electromechanical coupling, and trap states that activate Mn²⁺ d−d transitions.

Metal-fluoride-based lithium-ion battery cathodes are typically classified as conversion materials because reconstructive phase transitions are presumed to occur upon lithiation. Metal fluoride lithiation is now shown to be dominated instead by diffusion-controlled displacement mechanisms.

Mitochondrial superoxide production is shown to preserve nuclear envelope integrity by controlling lipid peroxidation, with impact on nuclear and organismal ageing in C. elegans.

The mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity in the iron-based materials remains not fully understood. Here, the authors report on ARPES measurements on an FeSe-based bulk superconductor, whose electronic properties are found to be similar to those of single-layer FeSe/STO films.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

The understanding of the reemergence of pressure induced superconductivity in alkali-metal intercalated FeSe is hampered by sample complexities. Here, Sun et al. report the electronic properties of (Li_1–xFe _x )OHFe_1–ySe single crystal not only in the reemerged superconducting state but also in the normal state.

The high energy densities of Li-rich cathodes are promising for Li-ion batteries, but voltage hysteresis limits their practical implementation. Voltage hysteresis is shown to be related to collective migration of metal ions, and isolating migration leads to high-capacity reversible cathodes.

The authors study a topological insulator (TI) sandwiched between two magnetic TIs. By keeping one of the magnetic TIs insulating, while tuning the other one into a metallic regime, they find half quantized anomalous Hall conductance, a boundary signature consistent with a quantized axion field.

Diffractive imaging of an important class of battery electrodes during cycling shows that lattice strain is a crucial yet overlooked factor that contributes to voltage fade over time.

The interfaces in perovskite solar cells are critical to the device performance. Li et al. tune the bond strength of the interfacial molecule with the perovskite and the electron transport layer, increasing the power conversion efficiency of the cells.

A vanadium-based lithium-rich disordered rock salt oxide is shown to work as a low-potential anode with rapid intercalation kinetics for lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-rich layered oxides are promising cathode materials for next-generation batteries, but they suffer from long-standing problems such as voltage decay during cycling. Here the authors analyse the root cause of voltage decay and present a structure engineering strategy to mitigate the issue for a cobalt-free, lithium-rich layered oxide.

Designing electrode architectures for Li-ion batteries that can be reversibly accessible for ion storage can be challenging. Using operando techniques the mechanistic origin of lithiation-induced phase transformations in a V₂O₅ model cathode is now clarified.

Li-dendrite growth is an inherent problem for the application of Li-metal anodes in batteries. Here the authors coat the separator with functionalized nanocarbon with immobilized Li ions, regulating the dendrite growth direction and thereby improving the battery performance.

Intercalation-type metal oxides are promising anodes for Li-ion batteries but suffer from low energy and power density together with cycling instability. A nanostructured rock-salt Nb₂O₅ formed via amorphous-to-crystalline transformation during cycling with Li⁺ is shown to exhibit enhanced performance.

Layered positive electrode materials inevitably face air exposure during manufacturing. Here, authors show that single-crystalline Ni-rich layered oxides suffer greater performance degradation upon air exposure due to the defects and strain caused by surface lattice distortion and phase transition.

There has been a recent interest in control of magnetism via ionic transport. The appeal of such magneto-ionic control lies in its extent, non-volatility and potential energy-efficiency, however, the number of systems showing such behaviour is limited. Here, Tan, Ma, and coauthors demonstrate magneto-ionic control through Carbon transport.

Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

Enhancing the superconducting temperature is often the main driver of synthetic studies of novel superconducting materials. Now, an approach yielding an air-stable iron selenide system that superconducts up to 40 K is reported.

It is generally believed that fast Li-ion transport in batteries can only be achieved when the host material does not change much with the Li movement. Here the authors show that controlled and reversible changes in host structures upon cycling can actually be used to improve the battery kinetics.

In situ liquid-cell electrochemical transmission electron microscopy allows the direct visualization of the transformation of lithium polysulfides over electrode surfaces at the atomic scale, leading to a new energy-storage mechanism in lithium–sulfur batteries.

Lithium-rich cathode materials in which manganese undergoes double redox could point the way for lithium-ion batteries to meet the capacity and energy density needs of portable electronics and electric vehicles.

Electrochemical hydrogenation drives a reversible conductor–insulator transition in graphene. Authors show that it is 10⁶× faster than other methods and tunable by isotope effects and lattice corrugations, enabling ionic control of 2D electronics.

Rechargeable Na/Cl₂ and Li/Cl₂ batteries are produced with a microporous carbon positive electrode, aluminium chloride in thionyl chloride as the electrolyte, and either sodium or lithium as the negative electrode.