ResearchPOP - Research POP (Page 3)

Chemistry

Tsinghua-led team couples ethane and CO to make propionic acid at room temperature

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-026-01168-4 At a glance Ethane is abundant and inexpensive, but its stable C–H bonds make direct carbon-chain extension difficult under mild conditions. A collaboration involving Tsinghua University, National Cheng Kung University, Peking University and Ordos Laboratory reports a copper-

Environment

Georgia Tech researchers put machine-learning membrane choices through an experimental gate

Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c15241 At a glance Designing a nanofiltration membrane means navigating many interacting choices: monomer chemistry, concentrations, additives, polymerization time and curing conditions. Those variables must be coordinated while balancing water permeability against salt rejection, two properties that often move in opposite directions.

Shandong University, UCL, Hunan University and Nankai University teams stabilize ammonia-decomposition catalysts with amorphous BaO–Al₂O₃

Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78117-4 At a glance A team from Shandong University, University College London, Hunan University and Nankai University has developed a template-free route to confine cobalt or nickel nanoparticles within an amorphous BaO–Al₂O₃ environment. Instead of allowing the solid-

Environment

University of Birmingham and Newcastle University researchers use calcium mechanochemistry to bind PFAS fluorine as CaF₂

Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c11635 At a glance Breaking carbon–fluorine bonds is only one part of PFAS treatment. The chemical form in which fluorine leaves the organic material matters as well. If a process destroys the original PFAS but produces soluble fluoride, it has changed the

Chemistry

North China Electric Power University team builds paired charge traps for selective glycerol oxidation

Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.6c05031 At a glance Selective glycerol oxidation requires a catalyst to activate one alcohol group while preserving the molecule’s three-carbon backbone. Yuan Liang and colleagues at North China Electric Power University address this challenge by introducing atomically dispersed Bi into sulfur-

Environment

Hainan University and collaborators couple seawater energy storage with solar desalination through one ε-MnO₂ electrode

Source: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.75173 At a glance Seawater can serve as the working medium for electrochemical energy storage and as the feedwater for solar-driven desalination. Combining the two functions in one device, however, does not automatically make them cooperate. In Advanced Materials,

Sustainbility

Fuzhou University and USTC teams pair PtO₂ with adjacent Pt₁ for light-driven propane dehydrogenation

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.1300481 At a glance Direct propane dehydrogenation supplies propylene for major chemical value chains, but conventional thermal routes operate at high temperature and must manage equilibrium limitations, cracking and coke formation. Researchers from Fuzhou University and the University of Science and

Sustainbility

NTU Singapore and collaborators break Co single-atom symmetry for photocatalytic plastic upcycling

Source: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.75166 At a glance A team led by Can Xue and Lydia Helena Wong tuned the local coordination of atomically dispersed cobalt in polymeric carbon nitride. The lower-coordinated A-CoPCN catalyst converted polystyrene completely under white light and O₂, producing benzoic acid

Energy

Taiwan team uses CO-tolerant PtTe₂ for a bias-free seawater artificial leaf

Source: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aenm.71637 At a glance A collaboration across National Taiwan University, National Taiwan Normal University and Academia Sinica reports a pH-gradient artificial-leaf system that couples photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution with electrochemical ethylene-glycol oxidation. CO-tolerant 1T-PtTe₂ serves as

Chemistry

IMDEA Energy-led team links local coordination to charge dynamics in BiVO₄ photoanodes

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.3499350 At a glance An IMDEA Energy Institute-led collaboration compared Fe-, Co- and Ni-modified BiVO₄ photoanodes to examine how the local coordination of each transition metal and its electronic coupling to the host relate to charge behaviour. Among the

Energy

Taiyuan team uses regional isomerisation to orient COF polarisation for O₂ photoactivation

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.2540246 At a glance Researchers at Taiyuan University of Technology created three regioisomeric thiophene covalent organic frameworks to examine how connection position changes dipole alignment, charge dynamics and oxygen reduction. Among BTDA-, DTDA- and TTDA-TAPT-COF, TTDA had the largest

Career

When motivation fades during a PhD, the problem might be a loss of agency

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02563-9 A third-year PhD student wrote to Nature after finding it increasingly difficult to do more than the minimum required for their degree. Earlier in the programme, they had moved from wet-laboratory research to bioinformatics. The change followed an