SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3754-1
Chiral polyester materials that integrate chemical recyclability with high performance have become a focal point in sustainable polymer research. Their thermal and mechanical properties are intrinsically linked to polymer microstructure, with stereoregular chiral polyesters typically exhibiting superior crystallinity and performance relative to atactic counterparts. Asymmetric kinetic resolution polymerization (AKRP) has emerged as a powerful method for synthesizing stereoregular chiral polyesters from racemic monomers, utilizing chiral catalysts to selectively recognize and polymerize one enantiomer while leaving the other unreacted. Recent advances have expanded AKRP scope to include targeted recognition of specific substrate sites based on chiral discrimination. This review summarizes recent progress in AKRP across representative monomer systems, categorized by ring size, highlighting breakthroughs in catalyst design, mechanistic understanding, and material properties. Key metrics such as kinetic resolution coefficient (k_rel) and selectivity factor (s-factor) are discussed as quantitative measures of stereoselective control. The review underscores the potential of AKRP to circumvent costly enantiomer separation, offering a promising route to advanced chiral polyesters with tailored properties for applications ranging from biodegradable plastics to biomedical materials.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3718-3
Chiral polymers, characterized by unique stereochemical features, are of significant importance in biomedical and related fields. Understanding their structure-property relationships is crucial for the rational design of functional materials with tailored performances. In this work, we employed a catalyst enantiomer purity regulation strategy to achieve regioselective ring-opening polymerization of chiral monomers. By systematically varying the enantiomer purity of chiral (BisSalen)Al catalysts, we successfully synthesized a series of chiral poly(2-hydroxybutyric-co-glycolic acid) (PHBGA) copolymers with varying regioselectivities and G–G linkage contents. Performance evaluations revealed that these polymers exhibited thermo-mechanical properties closely correlated with their microstructures. Specifically, the glass transition temperature (Tg) and mechanical moduli could be tuned over a wide range by adjusting the catalyst enantiomer purity, which directly influenced the polymer's chain regularity and crystallinity. This study not only provides an effective approach for the controlled synthesis of chiral polymers with tunable regioselectivities but also deepens the understanding of their structure-property relationships, laying a foundation for the development of chiral polymeric materials with on-demand functionalities for diverse applications.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3809-y
The development of hydrogels that simultaneously achieve high strength and good toughness remains a critical challenge in soft material science, particularly for applications in flexible electronics, soft robotics, and biomedical devices. Conventional approaches often suffer from a trade-off between mechanical robustness and functional performance. In this work, we present a novel solvent-driven dual-network entanglement strategy to fabricate a strong and tough poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-based organo-hydrogel by synergistically combining isopropanol (IPA) solvent substitution to induce dense polymer chain entanglement and a sodium alginate (SA) ionic crosslinked network as a dynamic energy-dissipation phase. The resulting organo-hydrogel exhibits excellent mechanical performance with a tensile strength of 3.18 MPa and a toughness of 16.65 MJ/m3, representing increases of approximately 17 and 49 times that of conventional PVA hydrogels, respectively. Furthermore, the organo-hydrogel displays superior swelling resistance and long-term stability in aqueous environments, enabling reliable operation in challenging conditions such as underwater motion sensing and wearable strain detection. Morphological analyses reveal the critical role of solvent-mediated chain reorganization and dual-network interactions in achieving these properties. This work not only provides a versatile platform for designing robust gel materials but also offers fundamental insights into solvent-network interactions for advanced soft material engineering.
Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology•2026•DOI: 10.1016/S1872-5813(26)60655-X
Defect-induced nonradiative recombination critically restricts the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Lewis base additives show great promise in defect passivation, but current screening methods rely heavily on empirical trial and error and lack clear design principles, making it difficult to efficiently discover high-performance candidate materials. Here, we present a machine learning (ML) framework to intelligently screen Lewis base molecules for defect passivation. We trained six ensemble models on a dataset of 146 experimental data points, with Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) yielding the best classification performance (87% accuracy). Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) interpretability analysis subsequently identifies the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy (−7.5 to −6.3 eV), additive concentration (2.5 to 6.5 mg/mL), and simplified molecular backbones (O atom ≤ 2, C atom < 5) as critical design criteria. The ML prediction was experimentally validated: (S)-pyrrolidine-3-carboxylic acid ((S)-PCA) and 2-methyl-1,3-cyclopentanedione (MCPD) (Class Ⅱ) improved PCE by 2.22% and 2.01%, respectively, while 3-hydroxymethyl-3-methylbutanenitrile (3-HMBN) (Class Ⅰ) showed minimal gain. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further confirmed the stronger binding affinities and elevated defect formation energies of Class Ⅱ additives. Notably, the champion (S)-PCA device achieved a PCE of 24.05%. This work established an ML-accelerated paradigm for the rational design of defect passivators, bridging data science and photovoltaics.
Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology•2026•DOI: 10.3724/2097-213X.2026.JFCT.0003
Phosphorus and transition metal-modified ZSM-5 zeolites were prepared via incipient wetness impregnation and characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, and pyridine-IR spectroscopy. The effects of modified zeolites on catalytic pyrolysis of n-heptane, 3-methylhexane, and methylcyclohexane were systematically investigated, revealing the structure-activity relationship between acid properties and catalytic performance. Results indicate that phosphorus and transition metal modification can regulate the L/B acid ratio of ZSM-5, which significantly influences product distribution. An excessively high L/B acid ratio promotes hydrogen and coke formation, leading to pore blockage and reduced conversion, whereas an appropriate L/B acid ratio facilitates mild dehydrogenation, enhancing ethylene and propylene yields. Reactant conversion followed the order: n-heptane > 3-methylhexane > methylcyclohexane. Efficient conversion of 3-methylhexane and methylcyclohexane requires catalysts with high L acid amount, strong Brønsted acid amount, optimized L/B acid ratio, as well as high specific surface area and micropore specific surface area. This study provides critical insights for designing high-efficiency alkane pyrolysis catalysts.