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It is challenging to decipher electrochemical processes, especially at the molecular scale, inside a working battery. Here Tarascon and colleagues develop a technique that pairs optical fibre sensors with operando infrared spectroscopy to reveal the dynamic mechanisms of key processes in commercial Li-ion and Na-ion batteries.

In Li-ion batteries, single crystalline cobalt-free lithium transition metal oxides are less understood than their polycrystalline counterparts. Here, authors show that the absence of cobalt in single crystalline oxides results in structural degradation that ultimately degrades battery performance.

The shuttling effect in Li–S batteries can be drastically suppressed by using a single-atom Co catalyst and polar ZnS nanoparticles embedded in a macroporous conductive matrix as a cathode. Using this strategy, Li–S pouch cells show stable cycling and high energy performances.

Li-In alloys are widely used as reference materials in the research field of solid-state lithium-based batteries. Here, the authors report and discuss the instability of Li-In electrodes towards sulfide solid electrolytes in all-solid-state batteries.

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.

Replacing animal feathers and wool with synthetic materials can ameliorate the ethical and environmental issues associated with the production of clothing designed to retain warmth. Here the authors present synthetic nanofibre textiles that combine wearability, comfort, lightness and thermal insulation.

Lithium-sulfur batteries promise high energy density, but polysulfide shuttling acts as a major stumbling block toward practical development. Here, a redox-active interlayer is proposed to confine polysulfides, increase the cell capacity and improve cell cycle life.

Zinc batteries are receiving growing attention due to their sustainability merits not shared by lithium-ion technologies. Here the aqueous electrolyte design features unique solvation structures that render Zn–air pouch cell excellent cycling stability in a wide temperature range from −60 to 80 °C.

Stable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) is heavily investigated due to its role in improving lithium metal batteries. Here, the authors present a new strategy by employing electrolyte additives to construct stable multifunctional SEI via in situ anionic polymerization.

Vanadium pentoxide is considered a promising lithium battery electrode, but suffers from poor rate capability and cyclability. Here, the authors synthesize graphene-modified nanostructured vanadium pentoxide and show significant improvement in rate performance and cycle life.

Mechanical degradation is an undesired behaviour for battery electrode materials such as lithiated silicon. Here, the authors performin situnanomechanical experiments and atomistic modelling to reveal the damage tolerance of electrochemically lithiated silicon.

Authors use a high-entropy engineering approach to produce fully amorphous BiTO films by exfoliation and annealing, creating crystalline regions, leading to flexible ceramics with dielectric properties.

High-entropy ceramics are solid solutions offering compositional flexibility and wide variety of applicability. High-entropy concepts are shown to lead to substantial performance improvement in cation-disordered rocksalt-type cathodes for Li-ion batteries.

Water scarcity is a global issue that demands urgent resolution, but current approaches are inadequate. Now a metre-scale atmospheric water harvester, featuring a hygroscopic origami hydrogel panel and a window-like glass chamber, demonstrates exceptional efficiency in extracting water from air, even in extremely arid conditions.

The death of massive stars has traditionally been discovered by explosive events in the gamma-ray band. Liu et al. show that the sensitive wide-field monitor on board Einstein Probe can reveal a weak soft-X-ray signal much earlier than gamma rays.

While Bell inequalities have been violated several times—mostly in photonic systems—their violations within particle physics experiments are less explored. Here, the BESIII Collaboration showcases Bell-violating nonlocal correlations between entangled hyperon pairs.

Water has a role to play in the future of cooling but is currently limited by the lack of meaningful control methods. Here, authors demonstrate the ability of electrostatic fields to act as a catalyst for water-based evaporative cooling, paving the way for widescale adoption of evaporative cooling.

Tissue-specific mRNA or gene editing machinery delivery is achieved with lipid nanoparticles containing peptides with specific sequences, which tune the protein corona of the particles by mechanical optimization of peptide–protein binding affinities.

The primary entry route of vanilloid ligands to the vanilloid-binding site in transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is found to be a distinct and targetable hydrophobic pathway at the TRPV1–cell membrane interface rather than through direct membrane penetration.

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.

Metal fluorides/oxides are promising electrodes for lithium-ion batteries, but the mechanism by which they exhibit additional reversible capacity is still not well understood. By using high-resolution solid-state NMR techniques it is shown that extra capacity in this RuO₂ system is due to the generation of LiOH and its subsequent reversible reaction with Li to form Li₂O and LiH.

Stabilizing lithium anodes has been a crucial yet challenging task in developing high-energy batteries. Here the authors design two simple steps of spontaneous reactions to achieve a porous lithium electrode with a composite protective layer, enabling high-loading Li-S batteries with excellent cyclability.

The decomposition of solid state electrolyte material has been well-known in the literature. Here the authors report that the same decomposition process can be leveraged to act as a source of redox mediator that is only activated at certain voltages for application in Li₂S based cathodes.

Lithium–oxygen batteries are expected to have high-energy density, assuming that anodic lithium is fully reversible upon cycling. Shui et al. disprove this assumption by monitoring the changes of anode composition and morphology, and reveal the loss mechanism and transport paths of lithium ions.

Parity-time symmetry breaking and related non-Hermitian phenomena, such as high-order exceptional points, have attracted significant interest across various experimental platforms. Here the authors demonstrate a third-order exceptional point induced by parity-time symmetry breaking in a dissipative trapped ion.

Self-assembled multidomain supramolecular peptide hydrogels that engage in dynamic covalent bonding with small-molecule drugs and biologics are shown to offer sustained release, extend the activity, and maintain safe and potent drug levels in vivo.

The dorsal peduncular area of the mouse brain functions as a network hub that integrates diverse cortical and thalamic inputs to regulate neuroendocrine and autonomic responses.

Layered oxide cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries often experience irreversible phase transitions and structural instability. Now researchers have developed a P2-type oxide containing earth-abundant elements, featuring an intergrowth phase structure that enables long-cycle, high-energy sodium-ion batteries.

The positive thermal expansion exhibited by most materials at increased temperatures is a severe issue for many high precision applications. Here, Xing and co-workers show that redox intercalation of Li ions into a ScF₃framework offers effective control of the thermal expansion for this simple material.

In ABA trilayer graphene, a temperature gradient generates a transverse voltage that scales quadratically with the gradient and reaches an effective Nernst coefficient of 300 µV K⁻¹ near the charge neutrality point.

Here, using a meta-analysis approach the authors compile a database of microbes hosted by insectivores, showing that a majority of them are viruses, that shrews and hedgehogs particularly contribute to the global virus sharing networks and that insectivores may spread of viruses of potential public health concern.

It is challenging to exploit anionic redox activity to boost performance of battery electrodes, especially for anti-fluorite structures. Here the authors report simultaneous anionic and cationic redox in Li₅FeO₄, which enables its high capacity and eliminates the undesired oxygen gas release.

Voltage fade is a major obstacle for the efficient use of lithium-rich layered oxide materials in batteries. Here, the authors reveal the link between voltage fade and nucleation of a mobile dislocation network in the oxide nanoparticles, offering design ideas to restore the voltage.

While solid-state batteries offer higher energy densities than liquid-based batteries, such devices require effective ion conduction pathways. Here, authors prepare porous organic cages as solution-processable catholytes that are enable excellent performances from various cathode active materials.

The LHCb experiment at CERN has observed significant asymmetries between the decay rates of the beauty baryon and its CP-conjugated antibaryon, thus demonstrating CP violation in baryon decays.

The realization of high-performance flexible perovskite/crystalline-silicon tandem solar cells requires efficient photocarrier transport and mitigation of residual stress. Here, authors reveal the critical role of perovskite phase homogeneity, achieving flexible devices with efficiency of 29.88%.

Micrometre-sized particles of two niobium tungsten oxides have high volumetric capacities and rate performances, enabled by very high lithium-ion diffusion coefficients.

It can be challenging for conventional electrochemical measurements to distinguish different types of charge storage mechanisms in electrochemical systems. Here the authors develop an in situ ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy approach as a powerful and affordable tool for this purpose.

The synthesis of atom-thin amorphous films remains challenging as their thermodynamically favourable grains are neither two dimensional nor layered. Here a droplet-driven nanoribbon-to-film growth strategy is reported to achieve amorphous metal chalcogenides at the single-layer limit.

Preparing two-dimensional heterolayers by vertically stacking chemically different layers with multiple anions remains challenging. Now, a general approach for the synthesis of heterolayered oxychalcogenides using molten hydroxides as unconventional solutions for the rapid stacking of oxide and chalcogenide layers with precise composition control is demonstrated.

To unlock the potential of Mn-based cathode materials, the fast capacity fading process has to be first understood. Here the authors utilize advanced characterization techniques to look at a spinel LiMn₂O₄ system, revealing that a combination of irreversible structural transformations and Mn dissolution takes responsibility.

Water is believed to undermine the performance of aprotic lithium–air batteries. However, the authors here disclose different battery chemistry, showing that both lithium ions and protons are involved in the battery reactions in the presence of water, leading to an unprecedented dynamic product.

Photoelectrochemical etching relies on light-driven carrier migration to catalyze reactions on semiconductor surfaces. Here, the authors show that lateral photon gradients induce anomalous etching of undoped semiconductor materials.

There is an intensive search for high-performance cathode materials for rechargeable batteries. Here the authors report that oxyfluorides with partial spinel-like cation order, made from earth-abundant elements, display both exceptionally high energy and power.

The study of isotopes away from the beta stability valley is crucial for the understanding of nuclear structure, especially for neutron-deficient heavy nuclei. Here, the authors report the observation of the alpha-decay isotope 210-protactinium (Pa), extending the alpha-decay systematics of underexplored regions of the nuclides chart.

Standard approaches for identifying pleiotropic genetic variants may lead to spurious results. Here the authors present a new statistical method and show that it uncovers five genes linked to metabolites in METSIM participants, which were previously undetected by existing methods.

Biotic-abiotic hybrid systems are promising for solar-to-chemical conversion, but it remains challenging to achieve atomically precise interface contact. Here, the authors report a general strategy of facilitating direct electron uptake via building single-atom bridges across biotic-abiotic interfaces to enhance solar-driven hydrogen production.

Oxygen redox instability at high voltages hinders the application of high-energy battery cathodes. Here the authors report that elimination of domain boundaries in single-crystal cathodes improves the redox stability and consequently the electrochemical performance in extended high-voltage cycling.

Here, the authors show that KDM2A regulates cell cycle progression, modulation of H3K36me2 and H3K27me3 chromatin states and gene repression which are critical for survival of differentiating spermatogonia. KDM2A regulates progression through meiosis as well.