Research articles

Decarbonizing oil refining is essential to meeting climate targets. Here the authors develop a plant-level low-carbon pathway model to reveal heterogeneous decarbonization pathways across oil refineries and to quantify the associated emissions reduction potential and mitigation costs.

This study reports a knowledge graph framework for constructing evolvable predictive physical models to support the development of digital twins for chemical processes, enabling the seamless incorporation of chemical databases, AI models and large language models. This work represents a step toward the knowledge-driven paradigm for future chemical process development and manufacturing.

This study reports on engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum capable of converting glycerol, a major biodiesel byproduct, into 1,3-propanediol at industrially relevant titers. Through integrated strain design, optimization of fed-batch conditions, implementation of antibiotic-free systems and validation in pilot-scale fermentation, this study establishes a scalable blueprint for sustainable 1,3-propanediol biomanufacturing.

This study reports an alkaline polymer layer-coated proton-exchange-membrane electrolyzer that enables the co-electrolysis of CO₂ and pure water, mitigating salt precipitation and carbon loss. By using an ionomer with a high ion-exchange capacity to optimize the interfacial environment, the system achieves high CO Faradaic efficiency and operational stability, including in scaled-up demonstrations.

This study harnesses reductive catalytic fractionation to produce lignin oligomers within a design space that enables efficient epoxidation. The developed epoxidation process activates aliphatic hydroxyl groups, yielding low-viscosity lignin epoxy resins with high functionality that form thermosets with near-benchmark properties while offering improved biomass-to-resin yield and sustainability.

This study presents a micro-space transformation process for scalable, high-performance ZIF-8 membranes. This method overcomes scalability barriers, enabling more sustainable and efficient membrane synthesis for propylene/propane separation, offering a cost-effective alternative to energy-intensive olefin separation processes.

This study presents a framework for the automated generation of reaction networks in heterogeneous catalysis. Powered by state-of-the-art machine learning models, the framework enables the investigation of thermal and electrochemical processes not amenable to density functional theory. The capabilities of its kinetic module are demonstrated by simulating Fischer–Tropsch networks with 37,000 reactions.

This study reports a self-driven nanoemulsification mechanism via surfactant-flux-induced interfacial instability, enabling the rapid, scalable production of highly uniform nanocarriers, such as nanodroplets, micelles, vesicles and polymeric nanoparticles, under mild conditions.

This study reports on a hydrogen-molecule-mediated proton-exchange membrane. The design leverages hydrogen evolution and oxidation reactions on gas diffusion electrodes to overcome the typical trade-off between selectivity and conductivity, with demonstrations in a pH-decoupled rechargeable battery and an electrochemical stack for efficient acid and base generation.

This study reports a post-assembly, reversible crosslinking strategy that enhances lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-mediated mRNA delivery while preserving efficient intracellular release. The resulting crosslinked LNPs enable improved endosomal escape, sustained in vivo expression and robust immune and antitumor responses across multiple clinically relevant LNP platforms.

Conventional hemodialysis devices are limited by their need for large dialysate volumes, which restricts portability. This study introduces a dialysate-free wearable artificial kidney prototype that uses gas-permeable, blood-repellent membranes for vapor-gradient-driven water removal and integrated adsorption for toxin clearance, offering a promising technology for portable blood purification.

Rapid pH changes can trigger hollow vacuoles in associative condensates of pH-responsive biomolecules. Using a model enzyme–polymer system, how larger droplets and faster pH changes promote vacuole formation by creating unstable non-equilibrium compositions is shown. A physics-based model reproduces these observations, showing when and how vacuoles arise through spinodal decomposition.

This study reports on flow-synchronized ring-shaped electrochemical ion pumping, which eliminates the need for terminal electrodes and enables redox-free, energy-efficient and continuous desalination across scales.

Cost-effective, environmentally sustainable and energy-efficient ways to address rising atmospheric CO₂ levels are urgently needed. Here the authors combine electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to formate with biosynthetic conversion of formate to the universal building block acetyl-CoA using a synthetic metabolic pathway called ReForm.

This study reports on an AI-powered autonomous experimentation platform that overcomes data scarcity in electronic materials discovery by using an AI advisor for real-time progress monitoring, data analysis and interactive human–AI collaboration. Applied to mixed ion–electron conducting polymers, it rapidly optimized performance in 64 experimental trials, revealing morphology–property relationships and an unreported polymer polymorph.

This study presents an approach to reducing the regeneration energy of aqueous carbonate carbon capture sorbents that utilizes tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane as a thermally responsive pH regulator. A continuous-flow system shows the efficient concentration of diluted CO₂ streams to high-purity products under sunlight with high stability and promising economic viability.

This study reports highly selective Li⁺Mg²⁺ separation via concentration gradient-driven transport using negatively charged membranes with high charge content. The separation mechanism involves selective partitioning of Li⁺ ions into the membrane and uphill transport of Mg²⁺ ions. Bench-scale diffusion dialysis experiments with model brine solutions demonstrate effective monovalent/divalent ion separation.

This work introduces a passive method for capturing CO₂ directly in the solid form using a carbonate crystallizer. This system harnesses wind-driven evaporation to enable rapid CO₂ capture and carbonate crystallization. This method provides a simplified and scalable alternative to conventional air contactors, which require substantial capital investments.

This study reports on an industrial-grade, large-scale, all-in-one integrated and automated laboratory (iAutoEvoLab), combined with a genetic circuit-controlled, growth-coupled continuous evolution system based on OrthoRep, which can evolve proteins with diverse and complex functionalities. These include protein–protein interactions, protein–DNA interactions, proteins requiring both protein–DNA and protein–ligand interactions, and fusion proteins with low to near-zero activities.

Reverse-biased bipolar membranes can enable CO₂ electrolysis with iridium-free anodes for extended durations, but only if 100% of the ionic charge is carried by water dissociation. Here, the authors show that practical systems fall far below unity water dissociation efficiencies, highlighting a performance gap for sustained alkaline operation using nickel-based anodes.