SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4245-4
The discrimination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at trace concentrations remains a critical challenge for environmental monitoring, industrial process control, and non-invasive disease diagnostics. Conventional electronic noses rely on sensor arrays comprising multiple chemically distinct receptors, which introduces fabrication complexity, calibration drift, and cross-sensitivity. Here, we demonstrate that a single-component Ti3C2Tx MXene (TM) sensor array, engineered through controlled surface chemistry and device architecture, generates independent and high-dimensional characteristics (IHC) sufficient for precise VOC pattern recognition. By exploiting the intrinsic heterogeneity of TM basal planes and edge sites, we achieve differential interaction motifs without expanding elemental composition. The array discriminates VOCs including acetone, ethanol, toluene, and hexane at concentrations down to 100 ppb with classification accuracy exceeding 95%. Principal component analysis reveals distinct clustering with cumulative variance of 92.3% captured by the first three principal components. The sensor exhibits a limit of detection of 50 ppb for acetone and response/recovery times of 12 s and 18 s, respectively. Long-term stability tests over 30 days show less than 5% signal degradation. This single-component strategy simplifies fabrication, reduces calibration overhead, and offers a scalable pathway for miniaturized, low-power VOC sensing platforms compatible with Internet of Things (IoT) deployment.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3936-8
The precise separation of enantiomers is essential for developing effective chiral drugs, yet conventional membranes are constrained by the ubiquitous selectivity-permeability trade-off and low flux, limiting scalable production of single-enantiomer drugs. Herein, we present a cascade reaction strategy integrating Sonogashira-Hagihara coupling and Friedel-Crafts alkylation to fabricate porous conjugated microporous polymer membranes (CCMP-M P1–4/SiO2). This approach enhances specific surface area by 400-fold compared to the product from the Sonogashira-Hagihara coupling reaction alone, creating interconnected porous networks that facilitate mass transport. This hypothesis was confirmed by pore-size gradient experiments, which revealed a critical size-matching effect: matched molecular dimensions enable high-speed mass transfer with 97% enantioselectivity, while mismatch reduces selectivity to 9%, as visualized in a separation performance matrix across four chiral molecules. Precise chiral recognition is programmable via absolute configuration control of chiral monomers, with the mechanism of “preferential adsorption–interfacial enrichment–promoted diffusion” confirmed by static adsorption and density functional theory calculations. This strategy achieves breakthrough performance: Naproxen flux reaches 37 mmol m−2 h−1, surpassing literature values, and enables membrane-based separation of Raceanisodamine (89% selectivity of 6S, 2′S and 6R, 2′R-isomer after cascade enrichment) for the first time. This work provides a new paradigm for designing high-performance chiral separation membranes, facilitating scalable and sustainable production of single-enantiomer drugs.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-4066-x
Direct seawater electrolysis offers a sustainable route to green hydrogen, yet is hindered by the competing chlorine evolution reaction and severe catalyst corrosion. Layered double hydroxides (LDHs), with tunable host layers and exchangeable interlayer galleries, are promising for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in seawater, but their intrinsic activity and chloride tolerance need enhancement. Anion intercalation engineering has emerged as a powerful strategy to address these challenges. By inserting functional anions—from simple inorganic ions and polyoxometalates to organic molecules—into LDH interlayers, it is possible to expand interlayer spacing for improved mass transport, modulate the electronic structure of metal centers to boost intrinsic OER activity, and create a negatively charged interfacial microenvironment that selectively enriches OH−. This review comprehensively examines design principles, mechanistic insights, and catalytic performance of various anion-intercalated LDHs for seawater splitting. It highlights representative breakthroughs in material design, discusses integration strategies in practical electrolyzer devices, and evaluates long-term stability under industrial operating conditions. Finally, it outlines key challenges and future directions for rational design and scalable deployment of high-performance, durable LDH-based catalysts for sustainable hydrogen production from seawater.