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Organic solar cells need acceptor molecules with long exciton diffusion lengths, but most available materials fail in thick films. The authors design new fluorinated quinoxaline acceptors that significantly improve carrier mobilities resulting in superior efficiency in both binary and ternary devices.

Design strategies for non-fullerene acceptors are important for achieving high-efficiency organic solar cells. Here the authors design asymmetrically branched alkyl chains on the thiophene unit of the L8-BO acceptor to achieve high crystallinity and photoluminescence quantum yield, yielding over 20% efficiency in single-junction organic solar cells.

Researchers develop a swellable polymer platform that immobilizes photocatalysts into flexible films and enables three-dimensional stacking architectures, boosting solar-driven hydrogen production and increasing energy output per unit area.

Engineering natural microbiomes for biotechnological applications remains challenging. Here, the authors present a combinatory top-down and bottom-up framework to engineer natural microbiomes for the construction of function-enhanced synthetic microbiomes.

Multilayer graphene can host complex Landau level spectra with tunable degeneracies. Here, the authors report a cascade of even-denominator fractional quantum Hall states at filling factors ν = −5/2, −7/2, −9/2, −11/2 and −13/2 in mixed-stacked pentalayer graphene.

Self-propelled jumping of droplets becomes more challenging as droplet size increases. In this study, the authors report passive jumping of a water puddle at an unprecedented centimeter scale from a superhydrophobic surface, triggered by the burst of an entrained bubble.

Self-healing materials typically suffer from poor mechanical properties due to the inherent trade-off between mechanical robustness and self-healing capability. Here the authors report a composite featuring an aligned array of hydroxyapatite nanowires interwoven with dynamic borate bond networks by a bidirectional freeze-drying method.

Using an electrolyte micro-emulsion strategy, a lithium anode and high-voltage cathode can be simultaneously stabilized by liquid–liquid interfacial tension to achieve high-energy-density lithium-metal batteries.

The correlation between asymmetric molecular geometry of non-fullerene acceptors and their optoelectronic properties was unclear. Here, the authors found asymmetric ones exhibit increased open-circuit voltage compared to their symmetric counterparts due to reduced non-radiative charge recombination.

Global analysis of obesity trends from 1980 to 2024 in 200 countries and territories using data from 4,050 population-based studies reveals that framing obesity as a single global epidemic masks the highly varied dynamics across countries and age groups.

Room-temperature multiferroic materials are highly demanded for designing next-generation of spintronic devices. Here, the authors demonstrate an emergent room-temperature ferrimagnetism and polar phase in highly strained La₂CoRuO₆ epitaxial films through engineered 3d−4d cation ordering.

Liver transplant recipients are at risk of graft injury, yet diagnosis currently relies on invasive biopsies with associated risks. Here the authors developed and validated a non-invasive AI model, GraftIQ, which integrates clinician expertise with machine learning to accurately predict graft pathology and support clinical decision-making.

Global Burden of Disease analysis found that in 2023, suboptimal diet was estimated to be responsible for 4 million deaths and 97 million morbidity burdens from ischemic heart disease.

A predictive descriptor to guide spinel catalyst design for Li–S batteries is still lacking. Here, authors use a series of metal chromites to investigate the effect of t2 orbital occupancy on the polysulfide conversion activity of spinel oxides, and reveal a volcano-shaped relationship between them.

The DAMPE satellite observed a universal charge-dependent spectral softening in primary cosmic rays, and ruled out mass-dependent softening with >99.999% confidence.

Researchers uncovered a boron oxidation pathway, the W–J model, where B₆O forms at the B/B₂O₃ interface. Acting as a stable barrier, B₆O slows further oxidation, offering insight into boron combustion and efficiency optimization.

When 100 social and behavioural science claims were examined, 34% of reanalyses closely matched the original results, with 74% reaching the same conclusion, revealing limited robustness of single-path analyses and the need to address analytical uncertainty.

A variety of artificial cells springs from the functionalization of liposomes with proteins but these models suffer from low durability without repair and replenishment mechanisms. Here, the authors show that synthetic amphiphile membranes undergo SNARE-mediated fusion, and determine bending rigidity and pore edge tension as key parameters for fusion.

ANNEVO advances accurate and scalable ab initio gene annotation of evolutionarily diverse genomes using deep learning approach modeling sequence evolution and long-range dependencies and mixture of experts (MoE) architecture.

Endothelial cells (ECs) and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) support hematopoiesis and hematopoietic regeneration. Whether ECs are a source of BMSCs remains unclear. Here, using lineage tracing models the authors show that ECs are not a source of BMSCs during homeostasis and regeneration.

The Internet of Things (IoT) leads to a surge in cybersecurity vulnerabilities and attack incidents. This Review highlights the uniqueness of IoT device vulnerabilities and how identification, assessment, remediation and mitigation techniques can be used to achieve resilient IoT security.

Dysregulation in proteolysis contributes to brain tumorigenesis. Here the authors report that USP10 deubiquitinase is enriched in glioma stem cells (GSCs), which antagonizes DTX3L-mediated ubiquitination of SATB2, a major driver of GSC proliferation and self-renewal.

Measurement-based quantum computing implements quantum algorithms by performing sequences of measurements on special classes of entangled states, such as cluster states. This approach has now been demonstrated on a superconducting quantum processor.

Conductive films with a coherent gradient nanolayered architecture that consists of alternating stacked silver and aluminium layers can suppress crack nucleation and propagation, leading to increased resistance to mechanical cyclic fatigue.

Polar molecule-based magnetic materials capable of multistate switching have garnered significant interest for their potential applications in next-generation memory devices, sensors, and energy conversion. Here the authors report a trinuclear cyanide-bridged FeCo compound that exhibits photo- and thermo-induced ferroelectric phase transition and solvent-switched on-off ferroelectricity.

The authors examine the spin polaron pair dissociation at interfacial charge transfer states for various organic solar cells at working conditions through a joint of magneto-photocurrent experiments and coherent spin-mixing analyses. In this work, they unveil the relationship between photophysical quantities and photovoltaic performance.

One limiting factor to the high-performing reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells is the poor stability and electrocatalytic activity of air electrodes. Here the authors report a water-promoted surface restructuring process to enhance the performance of Ba_0.9Co_0.7Fe_0.2Nb_0.1O_3-δ air electrode.

Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene)’s (PVDF-TrFE) piezoelectricity can be enhanced by annealing, however current annealing methods are slow. Here, the authors perform ultra-fast flash annealing of PVDF-TrFE to achieve a high piezoelectricity.

Surface plasmon-mediated steady-state and on-demand electronic spin modulation effectively activates light-driven plasmonic catalysis, facilitating polarization reactant activation and preferential reaction pathway modulation.

This study demonstrates that the reduced serum serine in patients with chemotherapy or women with poor sleep, is linked to the decline of ovarian function. Serine supplementation prevented ovarian damage in mice by inhibiting ferroptosis in ovarian granulosa cells, without affecting chemotherapy efficacy.

Stroke often leads to walking impairment. Here, the authors show that assistance from a lightweight, portable, bilateral hip exoskeleton reduces the metabolic cost of walking by 18% for individuals with post-stroke hemiparesis.

Colorectal cancer has high recurrence and metastasis rates making treatment difficult. Here, the authors report on peptide modified cell membrane coated cobalt based metal-organic frameworks which degrades and forms, in situ, photothermal materials with H₂S, allowing for immune-photothermal therapy.

Controlling the enchainment of ether and carbonate segments during copolymerization of CO₂ and epoxides is rarely possible. Now, precise control of enchainment is realized by tuning the structure of an organoboron catalyst and the reaction conditions. Mechanistic and computational studies probe the origin of the unique ABB microstructure of the polymer.

The instability of conventional lithium salts poses a challenge for next-generation batteries. Here, the authors introduce LiDFTFB, a new salt that exhibits improved stability and enables high-energy batteries to retain 81.7% capacity after 650 cycles at 50°C.

Here, the authors show that Lactobacillus acidophilus supplementation enhances oncolytic virus VSVΔ51 effect through restoring gut barrier integrity and microbiota homeostasis in mice.

This work demonstrates superadiabatic topological pumping on photonic chips, achieving a 20-fold device miniaturization and high-efficiency operation across a 650–920 nm bandwidth, paving the way for ultracompact integrated photonic transports.

Nanoparticle strengthening provides a crucial basis for developing high-performance materials, which often fails to work due to poor thermal stability. Here, the authors achieve thermally stable nanoparticles at 800~1000 °C in chemically complex alloys via controllable sluggish lattice diffusion.