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.