SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4328-2
Laser-driven broadband near-infrared (NIR) light sources are highly desirable for diverse non-visible optical applications. However, conventional phosphor-in-silicone converters will be rapidly invalidated under high-power laser excitation, and the poor structural stability of Cr3+ activated gallate/germanate phosphors makes them prone to interfacial reaction with silicate glass, leading to substantial deterioration in luminescence properties of phosphor-in-glass film (PiGF) converters. Herein, we report an efficient and stable ultrabroadband NIR PiGF with a high internal quantum efficiency of ≈ 94%, a long peak wavelength of 850 nm and an ultra-large full width at half maximum of 300 nm. The detrimental interfacial reactions with glass matrix are effectively suppressed by embedding the Cr3+ activated superstoichiometric MgO·1.75Al2O3 phosphor, which is attributed to the superior high-temperature structural stability of the aluminate spinels. Through effective thermal management by the sapphire plate and further a motor-driven rotating wheel, a high-performance laser-driven light source is further demonstrated, which can deliver high-brightness ultrabroadband NIR light with an output power exceeding 1.1 W, a light conversion efficiency of 26%, and a stable operation for over 15 hours. Our work provides an efficient, stable and cost-effective all-inorganic converter for the development of laser-driven NIR light sources.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3836-8
Flexible energy storage and harvesting devices, as core components of flexible electronic systems, have driven the transformation from external power supply to self-powering and from fixed forms to adaptive configurations, playing a pivotal role in wearable technology and the Internet of Things. MXenes, a class of two-dimensional transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, are promising candidates due to their excellent conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and tunable interfacial characteristics. Specifically, interfacial characteristics—surface energy, surface terminations, and interlayer spacing—decisively influence device performance. This review summarizes the influence of microcosmic interfacial characteristics on macroscopic properties, interfacial regulation strategies, and applications in flexible energy storage and harvesting. It concludes with challenges and perspectives for designing high-performance MXene-based energy devices. Key applications include flexible supercapacitors, batteries, and triboelectric nanogenerators. For instance, pillared Ti3C2 via CTAB pre-pillaring and Sn4+ pillaring regulates interlayer spacing, enhancing ion transport. The review integrates recent advances, such as MXene/nylon scaffolds for dendrite-free zinc anodes and MXene-bonded hard carbon films for sodium/potassium storage, demonstrating improved cycling stability and rate capability. The interfacial engineering strategies discussed provide a roadmap for overcoming stacking issues and achieving high energy density and mechanical robustness.
Chinese Journal of Environmental Engineering•2026•DOI: 10.12030/j.cjee.202507027
Ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) is a common water pollutant that can induce eutrophication and threaten aquatic ecosystems and human health. Accurate monitoring is essential for water safety. This study applied a self-developed gas-permeable membrane-based conductivity sensor (GPMCS) for real-time in-situ monitoring of NH3-N in two water bodies. In the Qunying River (surface river water), GPMCS captured concentration fluctuations linked to pump operations and sewage intrusion, with mean inlet and outlet concentrations of 4.67 and 3.42 mg/L, respectively. In Swan Lake (landscape aquaculture water), concentrations reached up to 11.16 mg/L, with site means of 6.42 and 7.04 mg/L, influenced by aquaculture activities, weather, and location. GPMCS results correlated strongly with national standard methods (r1=0.8132, r2=0.7483), confirming accuracy and reliability. Compared to existing techniques, GPMCS offers high selectivity, strong anti-interference, portability, no sample pretreatment, low cost, and environmental friendliness, making it suitable for long-term in-situ monitoring. This technology provides robust support for sustainable water environment management.
Journal of Environmental Engineering Technology•2026•DOI: 10.13205/j.hjgc.202604003
Emerging contaminants (ECs) in wastewater from urban transportation infrastructure remain poorly characterized. This study employed high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS)-based non-target screening to systematically identify the composition and spatial distribution of ECs in wastewater from three functional zones of a metro maintenance depot: storeroom (S1), office/residential area (S2), and final discharge outlet (S3). A total of 417 contaminants were detected, spanning eight categories including industrial materials, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and natural products. Among these, 48 substances were identified with Level 1 confidence via spectral matching. Pesticides exhibited the highest detection frequency and concentration levels, representing the primary contaminant load. Semi-quantitative concentration heatmaps of 24 pesticides revealed significant spatial variation: S2 showed the highest number and concentration of contaminants, reflecting inputs from landscaping and vector control; S1 and S3 showed lower levels, indicating dilution, migration, and attenuation. Representative pesticide bifenox displayed a clear concentration gradient (S2 > S1 > S3), suggesting transport mechanisms such as surface runoff, hydraulic transfer, and sorption. These findings underscore the complexity and diversity of EC sources in metro depot wastewater, highlight the need to prioritize pesticides in regulatory management, and provide fundamental data for understanding EC environmental behavior and informing water environment risk assessment.
Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology•2026•DOI: 10.3724/2097-213X.2025.JFCT.0029
Pingshuo coal ash, characterized by high silicon-aluminum content (Si+Al >85%) and low Si/Al ratio (<1.5), exhibits ash fusion temperatures (AFTs) exceeding 1550 °C, rendering it unsuitable for entrained-flow gasifiers. This study investigates the effect of calcium-sodium composite flux on ash fusibility and mineral transformation. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and FactSage thermodynamic simulations were employed to analyze mineral evolution, while molecular dynamics (MD) simulations revealed the underlying melting mechanism. Results show that adding 20% composite flux (CaO/Na2O) lowers AFTs more effectively than equivalent additions of CaO or Na2O alone, indicating a synergistic effect. At a CaO/Na2O ratio of 3:7, the flow temperatures (FT) of two Pingshuo coal ashes decreased to 1377 °C and 1279 °C, respectively. The composite flux promotes reactions between quartz and Na2O/CaO, forming low-melting-point minerals such as nepheline, albite, and gehlenite, while inhibiting mullite formation. Additionally, Na+ disrupts the silicate network, inducing Ca2+ to preferentially coordinate with [AlO4]5- tetrahedra, further breaking Si-O-Si bonds. MD simulations show that atomic diffusion, quantified by mean square displacement (MSD), is significantly enhanced below 1600 K with composite flux addition compared to single fluxes. These findings provide a mechanistic basis for optimizing flux formulations to enable efficient gasification of high-AFT coals.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3814-2
Micro-structured surfaces have attracted increasing attention due to their great potential applications. However, it is still a challenge to continuously fabricate micro-structured surfaces based on thermoplastics by a facile, low-cost, and environmentally-friendly method. Herein, with the help of the extrusion molding method and an elaborately designed mold, micro-grooved fiber (MGF) based on high-density polyethylene (HDPE) is continuously prepared. Theoretically, infinitely long MGFs with feature sizes down to a few microns can be efficiently fabricated because of the continuous fabrication characteristic of the melt extrusion method. Interestingly, left- and right-handed micro-grooves with different helix angles can be produced by applying twisting at the die exit, and the macroscopically MGF springs can be further fabricated via a self-designed three-dimensional helical enwind device. By regulating wettability, MGF can achieve liquid self-transport on predefined paths. In addition, MGF fabric exhibits rapid evaporation behavior, whose evaporation rate is about 4 times higher than that of the Smooth fiber (SMF) fabric and 2 times higher than that of the most popular commercial quick-drying fabric (i.e., Cool-max fabric). This work proposes a facile and environmentally-friendly method for continuously preparing low-cost and flexible MGF, opening a new pathway to develop fiber-based microfluidic systems following the concept of "functionalized processing for thermoplastics".
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3835-0
The development of high-performance CO2 separation membranes is critical for advancing carbon capture technologies. Two-dimensional (2D) material membranes, with tunable interlayer nanochannels functionalized by nanomaterials (e.g., metal ions), are promising for CO2 capture. However, achieving uniform nanomaterial distribution without compromising separation performance remains a challenge. Here, we propose a multifunctional molecular immobilization strategy to fabricate a metal ion intercalated graphene oxide (GO) membrane with enhanced CO2 capture performance. The multifunctional molecule sodium p-aminobenzenesulfonate (SPABS) enables in situ and uniform distribution of Na+ in the interlayer channels of the GO membrane. The amino groups of SPABS undergo nucleophilic addition reactions with epoxy groups on GO sheets, resulting in stable interlayer channels. Meanwhile, the hydrophilic sulfonic acid groups enhance water adsorption capacity in the GO interlayer channels, synergizing with Na+ to form active sites that facilitate fast and selective transport of CO2 over N2. The resulting membrane exhibits enhanced CO2 capture performance. A large-sized membrane (15 cm × 20 cm) fabricated by scalable blade-casting shows reproducible performance. This work provides insights and a tool for tailoring nanochannels of 2D material membranes for molecular separation.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3886-1
Organic-inorganic hybrid Mn(II) halides have attracted considerable attention for optoelectronic applications due to their environmental friendliness and high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) originating from the d-d transition (4T1(G) → 6A1) of Mn2+. However, complex synthesis processes restrict their potential for low-cost, large-scale production. In this study, the Mn(II) halide (C22H22O2P)2MnBr4 was synthesized via a simple and efficient mechanochemical ball-milling approach, achieving high photoluminescence efficiency and production yield. The halide exhibits intense green emission centered at 520 nm with a PLQY of up to 96.1%. Combined experimental and theoretical characterizations confirm that the strong light emission originates from the synergistic interaction between organic cations and inorganic framework components. A white light-emitting diode (WLED) device based on (C22H22O2P)2MnBr4 was fabricated, exhibiting bright white light emission and a wide color gamut of 113% NTSC. Furthermore, a scintillation screen based on (C22H22O2P)2MnBr4 was fabricated and utilized to investigate internal structures of various objects. The screen demonstrates a high relative light yield of 70546 photons MeV−1, a low detection limit of 33.8 nGy air s−1, and a spatial resolution of up to 12.36 lp mm−1. Finally, by integrating the scintillation screen with a thin-film transistor (TFT) backplane, the resulting X-ray detector successfully enables simulated medical imaging of dental caries. This work establishes a robust foundation for large-scale synthesis of highly efficient luminescent Mn(II) halides and highlights their potential in multifunctional light-emitting applications.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3866-y
Precise measurement of flight parameters—including angle of attack (AOA), angle of sideslip (AOS), and airspeed—is critical for stabilized control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in complex aerodynamic environments. Conventional rigid sensors fail to conform to curved leading edges, disrupting local flow and degrading aerodynamic performance, and are ill-suited for UAV miniaturization. Emerging flexible sensing technologies using hot-film, piezoresistive, or capacitive transduction offer potential solutions. This work presents a flexible pressure-velocity sensing patch developed by Professor Jiang's team at Beihang University. The patch integrates a capacitive differential pressure sensor array and a vector flow sensor, fabricated via a multi-layer polyimide bonding process. The capacitive differential pressure sensor features dual-layer chambers, achieving a resolution of 12 mPa within 0–1 Pa, superior to traditional single-layer designs. The vector flow sensor operates on the calorimetric principle, using a micro-heater and thermistor array to characterize flow velocity and direction. A novel pressure-velocity fusion (PVF) algorithm introduces spanwise velocity (Vz) to decouple AOA and AOS, reducing computational complexity compared to classic three-sensor algorithms. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations validated the algorithm's reliability under wind tunnel conditions. The sensing patch enables simultaneous measurement of multiple flight parameters with high precision and low computational cost, addressing the limitations of rigid sensors and advancing UAV aerodynamic sensing.
Chinese Journal of Environmental Engineering•2026•DOI: 10.12030/j.cjee.202510034
Phosphonate wastewater, characterized by stable C–P bonds, poses significant environmental risks due to its resistance to degradation and potential to contribute to eutrophication. This study developed a chloride-enhanced Fe(II)/PMS/H2O2 system for the oxidative degradation of 2-phosphonobutane-1,2,4-tricarboxylic acid (PBTC) and simultaneous recovery of phosphorus as iron phosphate (FePO4). Under optimal conditions (0.1 mmol/L PBTC, 1.0 mmol/L Fe(II), 0.5 mmol/L PMS, 0.5 mmol/L H2O2, 10 mmol/L NaCl, initial pH 3.0, 60 min), total phosphorus (TP) removal reached 100%, with phosphorus nearly completely recovered as FePO4 precipitate. Increasing NaCl concentration and temperature enhanced TP removal, while pH significantly influenced removal efficiency and product speciation; acidic conditions (pH < 4.3) favored FePO4 precipitation. Coexisting Ca2+ and Mg2+ had negligible effects, whereas HCO3− and humic acid (HA) inhibited TP removal in a concentration-dependent manner. Radical quenching and electron spin resonance (ESR) analyses identified hydroxyl radicals (•OH), ferryl ion (Fe(IV)=O), sulfate radicals (SO4•−), and chlorine radicals (Cl•) as primary reactive species, with •OH playing a dominant role. Chloride introduction promoted the generation of multiple reactive species, and Cl• and its derivative Cl2•− directly attacked the C–P bond and phosphonate group, facilitating phosphorus release as PO43− and subsequent FePO4 formation. The system's feasibility was validated using actual industrial circulating cooling water. This study provides a novel approach for phosphonate wastewater treatment and phosphorus recovery.
Chinese Journal of Environmental Engineering•2026•DOI: 10.12030/j.cjee.202512042
Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) such as dichloromethane (DCM), dichloroethane (DCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), and chlorobenzene (CB) are hazardous air pollutants requiring efficient removal. This study modified a commercial activated carbon (AC) via high-temperature treatment and phenol cracking carbon deposition to tailor its pore structure for enhanced adsorption of small-molecule CVOCs. The modified material (AC-M) exhibited a significant increase in ultramicropore volume (<0.8 nm), leading to a 24.2% increase in DCM adsorption capacity under dry conditions and superior water vapor resistance. Surface oxygen-containing functional groups decreased, enhancing hydrophobicity and mitigating water cluster formation. Adsorption kinetics analysis revealed that AC-M had a 39% higher total adsorption rate constant for DCM and a 22% reduction in mass transfer zone height, indicating faster adsorption. However, for larger CVOCs (DCE, TCE, CB), adsorption capacities slightly decreased due to reduced specific surface area, suggesting their adsorption relies more on micropores of matching size. This work provides a theoretical basis for designing efficient adsorbents for small-molecule CVOCs control.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3906-2
Achieving flexible polymer-based organic afterglow materials with color-tunable and stimulus-responsive capabilities is significant in diverse optoelectronic fields, especially in next-generation wearable full-color display applications, yet remains a great challenge. Here, we report polymer-based dual-mode afterglow systems that realize long-lived color-tunable afterglow with full-color gamut of blue, green, orange, red, and even white-light emissions with ultralong lifetimes up to 2.42 s. This unique performance is enabled by a universal strategy of dual-mode afterglow-assisted Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) that utilizes seconds-long dual-mode afterglow materials as energy donors and permits efficient synchronous transfer of singlet and triplet excitons from energy donors to the fluorescent dye acceptors. More impressively, the dual-mode afterglow-assisted FRET efficiency reaches up to 99%, with the lifetime of the energy acceptor reaching 1.55 s. Associated with the abundant hydrogen-bonding interactions within the polymer system, the doped afterglow films exhibit water/thermal stimulus responsiveness and recyclability. Furthermore, these full-color dual-mode afterglow materials are employed for multicolor screen-printing, optical anti-counterfeiting, and high-level information encryption, demonstrating considerable application potential in advanced anti-counterfeiting technologies.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3949-4
Sodium metal is considered an ideal anode material for high-performance sodium-based batteries. However, volume changes and dendrite growth during cycling seriously restrict its practical application. To address these challenges, this study utilizes harmful green tide algae Enteromorpha prolifera as a raw material to fabricate a self-supporting, sodiophilic, 3D Enteromorpha prolifera-derived carbon (EC) matrix via defect engineering. The results demonstrate that the 3D EC matrix can reduce nucleation overpotential, enhance binding ability with sodium atoms, and induce sodium to deposit horizontally inside EC, effectively addressing the issue of dendrite formation. Furthermore, the Na-EC symmetric cell demonstrates exceptional cycling stability with an ultralow polarization of 12 mV over 1000 h at 5 mA cm−2, 5 mA h cm−2. Notably, this stability persists even under ultrahigh current density and areal capacity conditions (30 mA cm−2, 30 mA h cm−2), maintaining stable operation for 500 h. When configured in full-cell systems with Na3V2(PO4)3 cathode, the assembled cell delivers an initial discharge capacity of 108.1 mA h g−1 at a 1 C rate, and maintains a capacity retention rate of 94.4% after 500 cycles. This study proposes an innovative strategy to advance high-performance dendrite-free sodium metal batteries through the recycling of marine environmental waste into functional energy materials.
Journal of Environmental Engineering Technology•2026•DOI: 10.13205/j.hjgc.202608009
To investigate the flow and heat transfer characteristics of natural draft direct air-cooling towers (NDC) for large coal-fired power generating units, a three-dimensional CFD numerical model covering major plant buildings, air-cooled radiators, and ambient wind fields was established based on the NDC systems of a 2×660 MW unit of a power plant. The influences of meteorological factors, including ambient wind speed, ambient temperature, and ambient wind direction, as well as regulation measures such as rolling shutters, louvers, and bypass windows on the heat dissipation performance of NDC towers were systematically analyzed. The results demonstrate that ambient wind speed acts as the dominant factor governing the performance of the NDC system. As wind speed rose, the uneven distribution of air intake volume and heat dissipation among each cooling delta increased remarkably, which elevated the unit back pressure, and the upstream tower suffered more severe impacts than the downstream one. Ambient temperature exerted a slight effect on circumferential flow distribution, yet substantially changed the overall back pressure of the system. In terms of regulation strategies, closing rolling shutters in the windward zone and reducing the opening of partial louvers can improve air flow redistribution to a certain extent, but will reduce the total air flow rate and total heat dissipation of the entire tower. By contrast, bottom bypass windows can effectively optimize the air intake on the leeward side and boost heat dissipation under high-wind operating conditions, whereas top bypass windows deliver only limited improvement effects. This research can provide fundamental data and technical references for the optimal design, operational regulation, and energy-saving retrofitting of large NDC units.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3997-9
Contactless human-machine interaction (HMI) is rapidly evolving, yet it remains constrained by the latency, redundancy, and power consumption inherent in conventional frame-based vision sensors. While bio-inspired event-driven sensors offer a low-power alternative, existing architectures are often complex or fail to accurately encode the magnitude of light intensity changes. Herein, we report a solution-processed, two-terminal event-driven sensory device based on CuIn(Se,S)2 colloidal quantum dots (QDs) integrated with an Sb-doped TiO2 layer. Unlike traditional dynamic vision sensors (DVS), this device exhibits a transient photoresponse that encodes both the polarity and the magnitude of light intensity variations into the output current amplitude. This preservation of magnitude information significantly enhances the feature extraction capability, leading to faster convergence and superior clustering performance in gesture recognition. Based on these unique optoelectronic properties, we constructed a hierarchical HMI system that synergizes the strengths of event-based and frame-based sensing. The system utilizes the event-driven sensor for low-latency gesture control of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a frame-based sensor for high-precision gaze control of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). The proposed system achieves a gesture recognition accuracy of more than 92.5% while substantially reducing data redundancy, offering a promising strategy for efficient, robust, and low-cost intelligent interaction systems.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3473-0
Ratchetting, also termed cyclic creep, denotes the progressive accumulation of plastic deformation in metals subjected to asymmetric stress-controlled cyclic loading. This phenomenon induces dimensional intolerance and premature fatigue failure in critical engineering structures such as steel rails, nuclear power pipelines, and aircraft engines. Existing strategies to enhance ratchetting resistance—including pre-strain treatment of coarse-grained metals and nanostructuring—often compromise plastic hardening capacity and promote strain localization, thereby degrading long-term cyclic performance. Recent work by Lu's group proposed three prerequisites for high ratchetting resistance: high plastic strain hardening capacity, low dynamic recovery, and suppression of microstructural coarsening during cycling. Based on this framework, a gradient dislocation structured (GDS) 304 austenitic stainless steel (Fe-18%Cr-8%Ni, wt.%) was fabricated via pre-torsion cyclic deformation. While grain size remains uniform at 37 μm, the initial dislocation structure exhibits a radial gradient. Transmission electron microscopy reveals dislocation cell structures with cell size and thickness of 290 nm and 50 nm, respectively, in the surface region, accompanied by abundant low-angle boundaries. This gradient architecture effectively balances strength and ratchetting resistance, offering a viable route for designing structural metals with ultra-high cyclic creep resistance.