SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4346-y
Spinal cord injury (SCI) remains a formidable clinical challenge due to the complex, dynamic lesion microenvironment that impedes axonal regeneration and functional recovery. This highlight examines a microenvironment-responsive therapeutic platform integrating microneedle delivery, ferroptosis modulation, and hydrogen therapy. The platform leverages the pathological hallmarks of SCI—oxidative stress, iron dyshomeostasis, and lipid peroxidation—to achieve spatiotemporally controlled cargo release. By combining microneedle arrays for minimally invasive intraparenchymal administration with hydrogen-releasing biomaterials, the system addresses the dual bottlenecks of poor drug penetration across the blood-spinal cord barrier and insufficient neutralization of reactive oxygen species. Ferroptosis inhibition is achieved through iron chelation and glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) stabilization, while hydrogen gas scavenges hydroxyl radicals and peroxynitrite. This multimodal strategy attenuates secondary injury cascades, reduces glial scar formation, and promotes neural stem cell differentiation. The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82574518) and the Talent Cultivation Project of Paring Academicians with Young Talents in higher education institutions in Zhejiang. The authors declare no conflict of interest. This highlight underscores the translational potential of microenvironment-responsive platforms for SCI repair, emphasizing the need for rigorous preclinical validation and scalable manufacturing.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4432-9
Sodium vanadium phosphate (Na3V2(PO4)3, NVP) with NASICON structure is a promising cathode for sodium-ion batteries but suffers from low electronic conductivity and a high energy barrier for the V4+/V5+ redox couple, limiting practical energy density. A medium-entropy tuning strategy yields the multi-element substituted Na3.2V1.5Cr0.1Fe0.1Mn0.1Ni0.1Ti0.1(PO4)3 (ME-NVP). Entropy modulation tailors the microscopic electronic structure, enabling reversible V4+/V5+ redox at 4.0 V. Analyses reveal a synergistic diffusion mechanism that accelerates Na+ transport and enhances multiple-electron redox kinetics. Ex-situ X-ray diffraction confirms highly reversible structural evolution during cycling. The ME-NVP cathode delivers 116.8 mAh g-1 at 0.1C and retains 83.9% of initial capacity after 1000 cycles at 20C, with excellent performance from -12 to 50 °C. This work demonstrates that configurational entropy regulation unlocks high-energy polyanion cathodes for advanced sodium-ion batteries.
Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology•2026•DOI: 10.3724/2097-213X.2025.JFCT.0032
This study elucidates the nonlinear relationship between the softening point of coating asphalt and its oxidative cross-linking behavior, as well as the sodium storage performance of the derived hard carbon. Comparative analysis of asphalts with low (80 °C), medium (160 °C), and high (260 °C) softening points revealed that both the 80 and 260 °C asphalts incorporated a higher oxygen content (20%–25%) during oxidation, leading to the formation of a deeply cross-linked structure dominated by anhydride and ester groups. This effectively suppressed graphitization during carbonization, yielding hard carbon with large interlayer spacing, high disorder, and abundant closed pores. The derived hard carbon exhibited superior sodium storage performance: the initial charge capacities of EPOC-80 and EPOC-260 reached 314.7 and 306.6 mA·h/g, with first-cycle coulombic efficiencies of 81.3% and 79.3%, respectively, along with excellent cycling stability and rate capability. In contrast, the medium softening point asphalt (160 °C) showed limited oxygen incorporation (~5%) and insufficient cross-linking after oxidation, resulting in a densely packed hard carbon with smaller interlayer spacing (3.46 Å) and restricted sodium storage sites, which led to a significantly reduced capacity of 173.2 mA·h/g. This work provides new design principles and theoretical support for optimizing hard carbon anode structures through precise control of the precursor softening point.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3822-y
Precise control over supramolecular chirality and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is achieved through fluorene-content engineering of alkylated fluorene-quinoxaline copolymers. By systematically varying the fluorene ratio, three polymers (F8QX, F8QX-II, F8QX-III) are synthesized and co-assembled with a chiral inducer (R/S-5011). Thermal annealing induces highly ordered, crosslinked superstructures with strong chiroptical activity, where the dissymmetry factor (g_lum) decreases with increasing fluorene content. The optimal system, (F8QX)0.7-(R/S-5011)0.3, achieves a high |g_lum| of 0.52. Structural analyses and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations reveal that lower fluorene ratios facilitate tighter π–π stacking and more efficient chirality amplification. This system further serves as an excellent host for a narrowband multi-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitter (DBN-ICZ) via Förster resonance energy transfer, yielding ternary co-assemblies with narrowband green emission (FWHM = 25 nm) and strong CPL with g_lum of 0.43. Circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes (CP-OLEDs) based on (F8QX)0.7-(R/S-5011)0.3-(DBN-ICZ)0.005 exhibit yellow circularly polarized electroluminescence with |g_EL| value of 0.12. This work provides a comprehensive strategy integrating molecular design, hierarchical assembly, and energy transfer toward high-performance chiral optoelectronic materials.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3923-x
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have achieved certified efficiencies exceeding 27%, rivaling silicon-based technologies, yet their operational stability under real-world conditions remains a critical barrier to commercialization. Exposure to full-spectrum sunlight, particularly ultraviolet (UV) radiation, coupled with diurnal temperature fluctuations and ingress of moisture and oxygen, induces multi-mode degradation pathways, including lattice distortion, defect accumulation, and interfacial strain. Conventional stabilization strategies typically address single degradation routes and rely on static passivation or fixed strain compensation, failing to adapt to the dynamic stress fields arising from thermal expansion-contraction cycles at buried interfaces. Here, we highlight a recent breakthrough by Zhou et al. that introduces a stepwise conformational engineering strategy to design multifunctional molecules capable of simultaneous UV shielding, dynamic strain regulation, and defect passivation. Starting from 1,1-diphenylethylene (DPE), which exhibits intrinsic UV absorption, a flexible octyl alkyl chain is incorporated to yield 1-octyl-2-(1-phenylvinyl)benzene (OPVB). The conformational freedom of the alkyl chain enables reversible thermal expansion and contraction, allowing in situ modulation of interfacial stress. Further functionalization with hydroxyl and carbonyl groups produces diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate (DHHB), which integrates all three targeted properties. This molecular design addresses the bottleneck of multi-mode degradation by providing dynamic stress management, UV protection, and defect healing, thereby enhancing device stability and performance. The work establishes a new paradigm for fabricating stable PSCs under realistic operating conditions, with implications for accelerating industrial deployment.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-4032-x
This study introduces a dual-compatibility third component as an interfacial modifier to precisely regulate the active layer morphology of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (BHJ-OSCs). This approach successfully suppresses excessive phase separation, significantly enhancing the performance of thick-film devices. The interface-styling strategy enhances donor–acceptor interactions, optimizes vertical phase separation morphology, extends exciton diffusion length, improves exciton dissociation efficiency, facilitates efficient charge transport, and effectively suppresses trap-assisted recombination. The ternary device based on PM6:PCN3:PY-IT achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.41%, which was much higher than that of the PM6:PY-IT binary system (18.67%). The device maintains excellent performance at an active layer thickness of 200 nm, achieving a high PCE of 18.25%. This study demonstrates the significance of using dually compatible molecules for interface modification in all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs), providing theoretical guidance for the fabrication of high-performance thick-film devices.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3386-1
Constructing ideal P-i-N-like network morphology and extending exciton diffusion length (LD) are considered bottleneck factors to further improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaics (OPVs). However, simultaneous optimizations of the vertical phase separation morphology and LD have rarely been reported. In this work, we apply a gradient thermal-annealing strategy to efficiently regulate the molecular stacking orientation and crystallinity of the polymer donor. The ordered molecular stacking significantly improves the exciton diffusion paths and enlarges the LD from 19.47 nm (PM6-control) to 24.96 nm (PM6-target), enabling efficient exciton dissociation and charge transport. Moreover, the optimized crystallinity behavior inhibited PM6 film erosion from the upper acceptor solution. It ensured controlled donor-acceptor interpenetration, forming the desired pseudo planar heterojunction (PPHJ) structure. Eventually, benefiting from the ideal vertical morphology and the prolonged LD, the printing PPHJ (target) device achieves an outstanding PCE of 18.20% with suppressed non-radiative recombination losses (0.212 eV) and enhanced fill factor (78.2%), which is one of the top values for the reported eco-friendly printing binary OPVs. This study demonstrates a simple but feasible method to further improve the performance of polymer solar cells.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3445-x
MXene exhibits notable piezoelectric properties, making it a promising material for high-performance piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) in next-generation smart wearable devices and bioelectronics. However, current MXene-based PENGs face challenges such as insufficient mechanical robustness, low piezoelectric response, and limited long-term functionality. These limitations primarily stem from the small effective area and low strain levels of MXene nanosheets. Here, we constructed a high-entropy TiVCrMoC3Tx MXene composite film by leveraging strong hydrogen bonding interactions between MXene and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), which was further developed into a self-powered flexible nanogenerator. The resulting device exhibited a significant piezoresponse with output signals of 500 mV and 790 pA under a compressive force of 3.47 N, along with considerable long-term functionality over 1500 cycles. Moreover, a hydrofluoric-free etching approach was employed to synthesize the high-entropy MXene nanosheets, which ensures the safety and biocompatibility for bioelectronics applications. This work highlights the potential of high-entropy MXene for sustainable applications in wearable electronics and energy harvesting.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3592-5
Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) possesses a unique combination of high thermal conductivity, superior hardness, outstanding chemical stability, and a wide bandgap (~5.5–6 eV), rendering it indispensable for high-temperature lubrication, thermal management, electronic devices, and superhard tools. The performance of h-BN/metal systems is fundamentally governed by interfacial characteristics, including atomic structure, chemical bonding, electronic band alignment, and defect states. This review systematically analyzes interface engineering in h-BN/metal systems via two primary routes: in situ growth and ex situ compositing. During in situ growth of h-BN thin films on metal substrates (e.g., Cu, Ni), the metal substrate and growth conditions exert multifaceted influences on film quality through interfacial coupling, directly impacting contact resistance, operational stability, and noise characteristics in devices such as field-effect transistors and photodetectors. For ex situ preparation of h-BN/metal composites, interface construction is synergistically determined by h-BN dimension, matrix properties, and fabrication process. Empirical studies on Mg/BN and Cu/BN composites demonstrate that interface engineering, including surface modification and transition layers (e.g., TiN), significantly enhances mechanical and tribological properties. This review elucidates fundamental principles and unique mechanisms of h-BN/metal interface control, providing strategic insights for designing advanced h-BN-based functional devices and composites.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3397-0
Carbon-supported single-atom catalysts (C-SACs) have been demonstrated as a strategy to promote the reversible conversion reaction of metal sulfide anodes in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). However, the design principle of promising C-SACs remains lacking for obtaining highly reversible metal sulfide anodes. We designed a phosphorus-doped carbon-supported single-atom Mn catalyst (PC-SAMn) with an asymmetrical dual active center. The sulfiphilic Mn and sodiophilic P active centers adsorb discharged Na2S through Mn–S d-p and P–Na s-p orbital hybridizations. The asymmetrical dual active center induced the asymmetrical adsorption configuration of Na2S, which efficiently weakened Na–S bond strength and facilitated the decomposition of Na2S during charging. As a result, the designed catalyst enables typical MoS2 with a record-high compositional reversible degree of 89.61% and a low capacity decay ratio of only 0.18% per 100 cycles during 2000 cycles. The research establishes the “orbital hybridization–molecular structure–catalytic activity” relationship for guiding the design of highly reversible conversion-type materials.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3561-3
Nanoscale segregation of alien solute atoms at grain boundaries (GBs) can enhance the stability and mechanical properties of the GB. Systematic molecular dynamics simulations were conducted to clarify the strengthening effect of Cu segregation on Al Σ9 (221)[11̄0] GB. The predicted negative segregation energy indicates a strong driving force for Cu segregation at Al GBs, which is expected to improve GB stability and strength. Detailed structural analysis during uniaxial tensile testing reveals that Cu segregation reduces the free volume of GB atoms and restricts GB atomic displacement, thereby retarding dislocation nucleation and increasing the tensile strength of the GB. The suppressed atomic migrations by Cu doping also give rise to exceptional stability of E structures at the GB, which retain their kite shape against structural transition during straining. With Cu segregation, the pattern of dislocation nucleation from the GB shifts from a shuffling-assisted regime to a collective-migration regime, the latter necessitating higher critical stress. Furthermore, Cu doping elevates the GB shear strength by blocking shear-coupled GB migration under shear deformation. The enhanced GB resistance against shear straining is attributed to the stabilized E structures with Cu segregation featuring reduced atomic free volume. This study provides atomic-scale insights into the stabilizing and strengthening effect of Cu segregation on Al GBs.