SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4383-8
Conventional cancer therapies remain constrained by undruggable oncogenic proteins and acquired resistance. Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) have emerged as a transformative modality that harnesses the ubiquitin-proteasome system to selectively degrade target proteins, offering advantages over traditional small-molecule inhibitors. However, clinical translation of PROTACs is impeded by intrinsic physicochemical limitations: high molecular weight, poor bioavailability, and lack of tumor-specific delivery. Integrating PROTACs with nanotechnology has yielded advanced nano-PROTACs platforms. Nanocarriers enhance solubility and stability, optimize pharmacokinetics, and enable spatiotemporally controlled drug release through passive or active targeting. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in engineering multifunctional nano-PROTACs for cancer therapy, with particular emphasis on design strategies by which nanoengineering enhances PROTAC performance. We evaluate how these platforms improve anticancer efficacy and minimize systemic toxicity while exploring their therapeutic potential in monotherapy and synergistic treatment settings. Finally, we discuss current challenges and future perspectives, providing a theoretical and technical foundation for next-generation nano-PROTACs as a precise and potent strategy in precision oncology.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4359-0
Organic solar cells (OSCs) require cathode interlayers (CILs) that combine high charge transport, defect passivation, and thickness insensitivity for scalable manufacturing. Here, we report the synthesis of a novel A-D-A-A'-type polymer, PDPP2F-NDI-N, via the green and efficient direct arylation polymerization (DArP) method. The multiple electron-deficient units in the backbone confer strong electron-withdrawing character, effective work function modulation, enhanced built-in potential, high crystallinity, and ordered molecular packing. PDPP2F-NDI-N exhibits a high electron mobility of 1.01 × 10⁻³ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and electrical conductivity of 3.13 × 10⁻³ S m⁻¹, facilitating efficient charge extraction and transport. Its interfacial modification capability suppresses interfacial defects and reduces non-radiative recombination losses. In ternary OSCs, PDPP2F-NDI-N achieves a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.44%, with outstanding thickness insensitivity retaining 92.8% of peak PCE at a 30 nm CIL thickness, and a T80 lifetime exceeding 1700 hours under photo-thermal aging. This work demonstrates that poly(A-D-A-alt-A') backbone design combined with DArP synthesis provides an effective strategy for developing high-performance, thickness-insensitive, and stable polymeric CILs, advancing efficient, stable, and scalable OSC applications.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4200-0
Self-powered broadband photodetectors are pivotal for next-generation intelligent healthcare. Solution-processed mercury sulfide (HgS) is an attractive near-infrared absorber but is limited by interfacial instability, high defects, and sluggish response. Inspired by sulfur-mediated adhesion in Alhagi sparsifolia, a bioinspired interfacial engineering strategy employs an antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) interlayer to construct a bidirectional chemical bonding network. The Sb2S3 interlayer simultaneously forms Sb–O bonds with fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates and Sb–S/Hg–S bonds with the HgS layer, thereby reinforcing interfacial adhesion, passivating coordination-unsaturated defect states, and establishing a type-II heterojunction with a strong built-in electric field. The resulting Sb2S3/HgS photodetector exhibits self-powered operation, broadband sensitivity spanning the visible to near-infrared region (642–1550 nm), an ultrafast response time of 2.47 ms, a detectivity up to 1.7 × 10^11 Jones, and retaining nearly constant photocurrent over 5000 continuous on-off switching cycles as well as prolonged air exposure. Beyond device-level performance, we demonstrate its utility in intelligent healthcare scenarios, including machine-learning-assisted liquid drug identification, binary-coded optical wireless communication, and high-fidelity photoplethysmography monitoring. This work establishes biomimetic bidirectional bonding as a generalizable paradigm for stabilizing solution-processed chalcogenide optoelectronics and accelerates the integration of self-powered broadband photodetectors into intelligent healthcare systems.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4217-y
Rational design and construction of effective photocatalysts is a promising way for green and sustainable chemistry, but still a great challenge. Herein, taking triphenylamine-containing aldehydes as reactants, two covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs), tris(4-formylphenyl)amine (TPA)-CTF and tris(4-formylbiphenyl)amine (TBPA)-CTF, were rationally constructed. The strong electron donor property of the triphenylamine moieties derived from the initial reactants and the strong electron acceptor nature of the in-situ formed built-in triazine rings in CTFs endowed these robust triphenylamine-based CTFs with donor-acceptor (D-A) or donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) structure features. Photocatalytic experiments revealed that, compared with the controlled phenyl analogue CTF, 1,3,5-tri(p-formylphenyl)benzene (TFPB)-CTF, both of the triphenylamine-based CTFs exhibited superior photocatalytic activity not only in photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide generation, but also in photocatalytic aerobic oxidations of diverse organic substrates. Theoretical studies further confirmed that their enhanced photocatalytic performance should be attributed to their unique D-A or D-π-A features in the constructed triphenylamine-based CTFs. This work successfully demonstrated that rational selection of reactants containing electron donor moieties to construct CTFs should be a reliable way for the construction of effective photocatalysts for photocatalytic oxidation reactions.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3712-2
Electrochemical potential and ion diffusion of electrode materials restrain the energy and power densities of lithium-ion batteries, and these challenges also remain in the intercalation-type Li3VO4 (LVO). In this work, the local [VO4] coordination symmetry in LVO is broken by a higher concentration of oxygen vacancies (Vö), resulting in an increased average V–O bond length and a larger ligand field splitting. These alterations reduce the energy level of the lowest unoccupied orbitals (e*) and lift the electrochemical potential, resulting in a higher voltage output. Additionally, the broken local symmetry in Vö-LVO is found to reduce the band gap and expand the ion transport channels, which favors enhancing electronic conductivity and facilitates ion diffusion, thereby improving the electrochemical kinetics in the energy storage process. The local symmetry broken sample (Vö-LVO) achieves a significantly improved capacity of 532 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g in comparison with 394 mAh/g of pristine LVO, and long cycling stability with retained capacity of 398 mAh/g at 1 A/g over 500 cycles compared with 236 mAh/g of the pristine LVO. The fundamental understanding paves the way to exploit high-performance electrodes via ligand field engineering for next-generation rechargeable batteries.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3748-9
Direct regeneration is a sustainable solution for recycling spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), yet the irregular strains induced by the irreversible FePO4 phase after cycling hinder Li+ replenishment in spent LiFePO4 cathodes. This study proposes a lattice stress modulation strategy that reduces FePO4 to Fe2P2O7, reducing unit cell volume from 271.7 to 122.6 Å3, releasing residual stress and reconstructing continuous Li+ transport channels. The phase transformation reconstructs FeO6 octahedra, lowering the migration energy barrier for ions. This synergistically weakens steric effects, facilitating Li+ replenishment and eliminating Li-Fe anti-site defects. Regenerated LiFePO4 cathodes achieve 80.2% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 2C, outperforming commercial cathodes. The work establishes fundamental principles for the pre-treatment stage of direct regeneration and provides a paradigm-shifting solution for sustainable LIB recycling.
Chinese Journal of Environmental Engineering•2026•DOI: 10.12030/j.cjee.202506020
The rotary kiln roasting of lepidolite for lithium extraction faces challenges of unstable lithium conversion rates and high energy consumption. To address this, a multi-objective optimization method coupling improved neural network simulation with a multi-objective genetic algorithm was proposed, targeting the synergistic optimization of lithium conversion rate (TRLi) and natural gas consumption intensity (EIng). Using long-term industrial time-series data of batching parameters and kiln operating variables, back-propagation (BP) neural network and its particle swarm optimization (PSO) improved variant were developed to model TRLi and EIng. The PSO-BP model demonstrated superior accuracy in capturing the complex nonlinear relationships, reducing mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE) to 0.278 and 0.284 for TRLi and EIng, respectively. Subsequently, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) was employed to construct a multi-objective optimization model, yielding a Pareto-optimal set of process parameters that maximize TRLi and minimize EIng. The results revealed that under NSGA-II optimized conditions, TRLi could be stabilized between 82.45% and 87.96%, an average increase of 3.61 percentage points over baseline operations, while EIng could be reduced to 53.7 m3 per ton of clinker. For an annual processing capacity of 3.2×105 tons of lepidolite concentrate and sulfate mixture, this corresponds to an additional 127.1 tons of lithium metal recovery, a reduction of 1,964,912 m3 in natural gas consumption, and a decrease of 3,763.84 tons in CO2 emissions annually. This study provides theoretical and technical support for the green, high-quality, and low-carbon supply of critical raw materials for the lithium battery new energy industry.
New Carbon Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1016/S1872-5805(26)61093-1
Advanced catalyst structures with good active site accessibility and strong metal-support interactions are crucial for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysis. A hierarchically porous Pt catalyst supported on honeycomb-like nitrogen-doped carbon (Pt/HNC-400, where 400 denotes the optimal dosage (mg) of the sacrificial SiO2 hard template used during synthesis) was fabricated by combining template-assisted pyrolysis and alcohol reduction. The fabrication involves the template-assisted pyrolysis of ZIF-67 (which provides the N-dopant through its 2-methylimidazole ligand) followed by HF etching to completely remove the SiO2, yielding a 3D interconnected porous carbon support. Compared to a commercial Pt/C, it had an exceptional ORR performance with a half-wave potential of 0.901 V (41 mV higher), a mass activity at 0.9 V that was 15.3 times higher, and significantly improved durability (a half-wave potential decay of 25 mV vs. 80 mV after 10,000 accelerated durability tests (ADTs)). Mechanistic investigations showed that this superior performance is due to the combined effects of the 3D porous structure, ultrafine Pt nanoparticles with strong metal-support interactions, and in-situ formed Co-Nx moieties from the pyrolysis of precursor ZIF-67. After 10,000 ADTs it was shown to have excellent structural integrity, retaining 87.4% of its initial electrochemically active surface area (102.7 m2 g−1). This study may assist the development of new high-performance ORR catalysts.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3933-9
The global cold chain consumes vast amounts of energy and emits greenhouse gases, while many regions lack proper refrigeration. To address this, we developed a dual-layer electrospun membrane (PZ-PML) for energy-free fruit preservation. The top PVDF-HFP/ZIF-8 layer offers 97.64% solar reflectance and 92.5% mid-infrared emissivity, providing 70 W/m2 radiative cooling. The bottom PAN/MIL-101/LiCl layer, with 2.18 g/g water uptake at 80% RH, delivers ~156 W/m2 evaporative cooling, lowering surface temperature by 6.1 °C under ~400 W/m2 irradiation. The membrane also shows ≥99% antibacterial efficiency against E. coli and S. aureus. Applied to strawberries, it reduced dehydration to 20.2% after 9 days, compared to 68.2% and 74.4% in controls. Additionally, it demonstrates durability, superhydrophobicity, and UV stability. This scalable solution offers energy-free fruit cooling, reducing postharvest losses while maintaining quality and safety.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-4107-x
Aqueous fiber zinc-iodine batteries (FZIBs) with four-electron redox exhibit inherent safety and high energy density for wearable electronics. Nevertheless, their practical implementations are hindered by unsatisfactory cycling stability and low realistic energy density, mainly caused by severe H2O-induced nucleophilic attack toward iodine species and poor zinc anode reversibility. Here, we report a quaternary ammonium-mediated coordination strategy to simultaneously address the irreversible cathode/anode redox behavior and thus promote the electrochemical performance of four-electron FZIBs. The cationic choline ion (Ch+) induces complexation with ICl2− via electrostatic interaction, homogenizing the electron cloud density and suppressing irreversible hydrolysis of I+ species, enabling a reversible near-theoretical high capacity of 418.3 mAh g−1. Meanwhile, preferentially adsorbed Ch+ on the zinc anode surface creates positively charged shielding layers, mitigating the tip effect caused by localized electric field and achieving robust zinc stripping/plating. The enhanced cathode/anode reversibility and improved interfacial stability enable stable FZIBs operation for over 20,000 cycles at 20.0 A g−1. Moreover, successful integration of FZIBs into electronic textiles with glucose and cardiac rhythm sensors demonstrates great potential for next-generation wearable electronics.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4125-8
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) require advanced interfacial modification materials to mitigate defects and ion migration that limit efficiency and stability. This study presents a low-cost, highly efficient screening methodology based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations to identify superior interface modifiers. The effectiveness of this method is experimentally validated. Methyl 1H-1,2,4-triazole-3-carboxylate (TZMC) is screened as a superior molecule that simultaneously passivates perovskite defects and suppresses ion migration through a synergistic effect: coordination with Pb2+ via carbonyl oxygen and imidazole nitrogen, and stabilization of I− via N–H···I hydrogen bonding. This mechanism reduces non-radiative recombination, enhancing both open-circuit voltage (VOC) and fill factor (FF). TZMC-modified PSCs achieve a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 25.44% and significantly improved operational stability under continuous illumination and resistance to water/oxygen. Comprehensive characterization confirms reduced defect density and increased ion migration barriers. This work demonstrates the success of DFT-guided design in advancing interfacial modification materials for high-performance PSCs, transforming interface engineering from trial-and-error to rational design and providing a framework for high-throughput screening.