SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4404-7
Electrochemical propylene epoxidation offers a sustainable route to propylene oxide (PO), but achieving high selectivity and stability under industrial current densities remains challenging. Herein, we report a high entropy amorphous CoFeNiCrMnBOx borate loaded with high valence Pt single atoms catalyst (a-Pt-HEBO) for stable bromine radical-mediated propylene epoxidation reaction (BrPOR). The high-entropy amorphous structure reshapes the interfacial hydrogen-bonding network and enriches free water, substantially lowering the energy barrier for water dissociation. Meanwhile, the strong electronic interactions between the coordinatively unsaturated, high-valence single Pt atoms and the substrate effectively prevent transition metal dissolution at high anodic potentials. The catalyst achieved 82.1% Faraday efficiency of PO at an industrial grade current density of 100 mA cm-2, and demonstrated excellent industrial application stability in up to 500 h of continuous test and within a scaled-up electrolyzer (4 × 4 cm2). This work provides a design for high-entropy catalysts in halogen-mediated electrosynthesis and a viable pathway toward carbon-neutral PO production.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4159-y
The electrocatalytic oxidation of ethylene glycol (EG) derived from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste to valuable glycolic acid (GA) represents an attractive route for waste resource upcycling. However, achieving high selectivity remains challenging due to the difficulty in steering the complex reaction pathway. In this study, PdPtCuInBi high-entropy intermetallic metallene (HEI-PdPtCuInBiene) is reported to precisely control EG oxidation reaction (EGOR) pathway for GA production by constructing multiple active sites at the atomic scale. In PET hydrolysate, it achieves a Faradaic efficiency of 99.87% and a production rate of 1.47 mmol h−1 cm−2, along with excellent stability. Mechanistic studies reveal that the high-entropy structure induces strong p-d orbital hybridization, which optimizes the electronic structure of active sites, thus weakening the adsorption of key carbonyl intermediates and suppressing C–C bond cleavage. The synergistic electronic effect among Pd, Pt, and Cu further enables differential adsorption of distinct intermediates on diverse active sites, enhancing the selective formation of GA. Techno-economic analysis exhibits high profitability (~$784.9 t−1 PET) of this route, demonstrating the great potential of high-entropy intermetallic metallene in regulating electrocatalytic upcycling of PET waste and beyond.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3847-5
The convergence of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and soft electronics has advanced tactile perception in flexible electronic skins, enabling applications in robotics, healthcare, and human-machine interfaces. However, conventional tactile sensing architectures separate sensing and processing, requiring analog-to-digital converters and data transfer to microcontrollers, which is energy-intensive and introduces latency. In-sensor computing integrates sensing and processing, reducing power consumption and enabling in-situ analog operations such as multiplication-accumulation (MAC) for artificial neural networks. Wang et al. developed a capacitive in-sensor tactile computing system combining a flexible pressure sensor array with electrical switching networks and a fixed capacitor to perform MAC operations in the charge domain. The sensor unit uses an ionic dielectric layer of PVA/H3PO4 prepared via sandpaper-templated molding, sandwiched between Au electrodes on waterborne polyurethane substrates, achieving high sensitivity of 0.36 nF/kPa and excellent stability. A 3×3 kernel of sensors with programmable bias voltages implements averaging and Laplacian filters for noise reduction and edge detection, validated experimentally. The system processes binary and analog tactile stimuli, with output voltage scaling proportionally with pressure. This in-sensor computing approach addresses energy and latency bottlenecks, offering a pathway for real-time, power-constrained e-skin applications in autonomous robotics, prosthetics, and intelligent interfaces.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3484-6
The immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) of gliomas renders conventional therapies suboptimal, and aberrant energy metabolism orchestrates tumorigenesis and immune evasion. This work constructs a biodegradable nano-modulator (ZIF-90@MnO2@GPNA, ZMG) based on ZIF-90 decorated with MnO2 and loaded with the glutamine transport antagonist L-γ-glutamyl-p-nitroanilide (GPNA) for glioma therapy via multi-pathway inhibition of energy metabolism and TME reshaping. Hyaluronic acid (HA) and lactoferrin (Lf) are functionalized on the surface (ZMGH-Lf) to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and target gliomas. ZMGH-Lf biodegrades in response to TME stimulation, releasing Mn2+ that catalyzes H2O2 to ·OH, inducing mitochondrial dysfunction. It inhibits glycolysis by alleviating hypoxia and reducing NAD+ expression, while GPNA blocks compensatory glutamine uptake. This strategy achieves multi-pathway disruption of glioma metabolism, relieves immune resistance, and improves the immune TME. Findings demonstrate that ZMGH-Lf effectively inhibits gliomas through multi-way manipulation of energy metabolism and immunotherapy, providing a new strategy for glioma treatment.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3341-7
The hierarchical spatial distribution of Merkel cells in the epidermis and Ruffini endings in the dermis provides a design paradigm for decoupling normal stress, shear stress, and strain in synthetic electronic skin. Existing biomimetic systems, however, struggle to replicate this three-dimensional mechanoreceptor topology while maintaining independent multimodal sensing. Zhang and co-workers report a 3D electronic skin (3DAE-Skin) that employs an eight-arm cage-like mesoscopic structure (height 600 μm) and an arched mesoscopic structure (height 250 μm) to spatially arrange force and strain sensing elements. A gradient modulus encapsulation strategy embeds force transducers in high-modulus polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and strain sensors in low-modulus Ecoflex, mimicking collagen fiber networks and dermal matrix mechanics, respectively. The resulting five-polyimide-dielectric-layer, two-force-sensing-layer, and two-strain-sensing-layer heterostack enables a 5×5 sensing unit array to achieve mechanical decoupling of normal force, shear force, and strain through piezoresistive transduction. The platform integrates machine learning algorithms to enhance multi-point tactile perception and maintain robustness under partial sensor failure. This work establishes a viable route toward high-fidelity tactile tracking for robotics, healthcare, and human-computer interaction, though challenges in temperature-humidity integration, self-healing, and algorithmic resilience remain. The reported architecture offers a concrete pathway for next-generation intelligent devices requiring spatially resolved, multimodal tactile feedback.