Environment
Source: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.78520 At a glance An Adelaide University-led team placed isolated Ni–S₄ sites on CdS nanorods to photoreform poly(lactic acid), or PLA, into lactate and hydrogen. The single nickel atoms are coordinated by four sulfur atoms at the
Environment
Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-026-00687-w At a glance A chlorine-functionalized covalent organic framework helped a Peking University-led team capture light across a wavelength range of about 200–1,500 nm for solar-driven water evaporation. The material, named TTB-pPA, combines a conjugated
Energy
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c13687 At a glance A team at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics reports that trace CO₂ or H₂O in a propane feed can help assemble paired Rh–In sites during propane dehydrogenation. The oxidizing cofeeds are introduced into an otherwise reducing
Chemistry
Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77080-4 At a glance How large must a reaction network be to describe CO₂ hydrogenation on copper? A team led by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science calculated 152 elementary reactions using density functional theory, then combined machine learning with
Chemistry
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c14417 At a glance A Westlake University team compared a series of ruthenium complexes bearing NMe₂, H and CF₃ substituents to examine how ligand electronics and a reversibly coordinating carboxylate shape ammonia oxidation. The complexes share the same broader coordination framework, allowing the
Chemistry
Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-026-02256-w At a glance Not all oxygen vacancies behave alike. In tetragonal zirconia, a team led by researchers at Nanjing University of Science and Technology compared two vacancy charge states known as F² and F¹ centres. Although both are created by
Chemistry
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c10078 At a glance How do oxygen vacancies change the fate of photogenerated charge carriers in blue TiO₂? Tae Gyun Woo and colleagues combine femtosecond Ti K-edge X-ray transient absorption, optical transient absorption and electronic-structure calculations. Early carrier cooling and
Chemistry
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c13561 At a glance CO2 electroreduction depends not only on the electrode but also on how CO2 reaches it. Aaron Z. Hoagland and colleagues coupled a nanobubble generator to a tin-cathode H-cell and compared it with conventional macrobubbling. With an air-
Materials Science
Source: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.77319 At a glance Why do some wide-bandgap perovskite films emit more strongly than others? Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich prepared and characterized 569 samples using combinatorial vapor deposition, independently varying the cesium-to-lead and bromide-to-
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-026-01600-0 At a glance A direct way to extend a carbon skeleton is to add an alkyl fragment and a hydrogen atom across an alkene. This hydroalkylation builds a C(sp3)–C(sp3) bond from abundant starting materials. For unactivated alkenes,
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-026-01934-4 At a glance Solar-driven interfacial evaporation concentrates heat close to the water-air interface, allowing sunlight to produce water vapour without heating an entire body of water. Research in this area has focused on light absorption, photothermal conversion and
Chemistry
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c09942 At a glance Methane is abundant, but its strong carbon-hydrogen bonds make selective conversion under mild conditions a demanding chemical task. A team led by East China Normal University reports an electrocatalytic route that converts methane into formic acid by coordinating