SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4350-4
Flexible wearable sensors have transformed motion tracking, soft robotics, and human-machine interfaces by enabling precise movement detection and adaptability to curved surfaces. However, conventional composite sensors often face challenges such as limited sensitivity, detection range, linearity, and durability. In this study, we propose a stretchable auxetic sensing textile with a negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) structure, incorporating reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) by micro-crack engineering to enhance its mechanical durability and sensing performance. Integrating macro-scale NPR with micro-scale wrinkles, this innovative design achieves a high sensitivity of 11.2 within a wide detection range (0-100%), a more linear sensing range with an R2 value of 0.998, an ultra-low detection limit of 0.5%, and exceptional durability, outperforming conventional wearable sensors. Additionally, the textile sensor boasts excellent moisture permeability (32.7 g m⁻² h⁻¹) and a remarkable NPR value of -0.25, ensuring comfort and adaptability for various wearable applications. Integrated with deep learning algorithms, the auxetic sensing textile demonstrates 98% accuracy in recognizing soft robotic movements at various bending angles. It is capable of capturing both small-scale physiological signals, such as electrocardiograms, and large-scale movements, offering significant freedom of movement and adaptability to complex surfaces.
Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology•2026•DOI: 10.3724/2097-213X.2025.JFCT.0026
The catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide (CO2) to light olefins (C2–C4) represents a pivotal route for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions while producing high-value chemical feedstocks. This review systematically examines the two principal technological pathways: CO2-Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (CO2-FTO) and CO2-methanol-to-olefins (CO2-MTO). The CO2-FTO route couples reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) with Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, whereas CO2-MTO proceeds via methanol intermediate. Key challenges arise from the thermodynamic stability of CO2 (C=O bond dissociation energy ~750 kJ/mol) and kinetic limitations. The review critically evaluates the influence of catalyst promoters (e.g., Na, Mn, Cu), support structures, and surface defect site concentrations on CO2 activation and olefin selectivity. For zeolite-based catalysts, pore architecture and acidity are shown to govern methanol conversion to olefins. Representative data from the literature indicate that Fe-based catalysts with Na promotion achieve CO2 conversion up to 40% with olefin selectivity exceeding 50% under optimized conditions. The review underscores the necessity of integrating catalyst design with reactor engineering to overcome thermodynamic constraints and achieve industrially viable performance.
Environmental Chemistry•2026•DOI: 10.7524/j.issn.0254-6108.2025073004
Micro/nano-plastics (MNPs) are emerging contaminants widely detected in human circulatory systems, including blood, heart, and vascular endothelium, raising concerns about cardiovascular health risks. This systematic review analyzed 61 peer-reviewed studies (2008–2024) to elucidate the cardiotoxic effects and molecular mechanisms of MNPs. Evidence indicates that MNPs exposure elevates risks of atherosclerosis, thrombosis, and arrhythmias through oxidative stress, inflammatory cascades, endothelial dysfunction, and metabolic dysregulation. Notably, co-exposure with persistent organic pollutants (POPs) or heavy metals may produce synergistic or antagonistic effects. Current research relies predominantly on animal and cell models, with critical gaps in low-dose, long-term exposure data and epidemiological evidence. Future studies should optimize experimental designs, integrate metabolomics and epigenetics, and explore transgenerational effects and combined toxicity mechanisms to inform pollution control policies and mitigate cardiovascular risks.
Environmental Chemistry•2026•DOI: 10.7524/j.issn.0254-6108.2024112104
Carboxyl-modified polystyrene microplastics (PS-COOH) are negatively charged particles formed by surface oxidation and functional group modification of polystyrene microplastics (PS), widely used in biomedical and analytical chemistry. However, studies on their neurotoxic effects on aquatic organisms are scarce. This study employed zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism, exposing embryos to environmentally relevant concentrations (0.1, 1, 10, 100 μg·L−1) of PS and PS-COOH. Neurotoxic effects were assessed by measuring tail coiling frequency at 24 hpf and swimming velocity under alternating light/dark cycles at 120 hpf. Results demonstrated that both PS and PS-COOH induced neurotoxicity, with PS-COOH significantly reducing tail coiling frequency and average swimming speed compared to PS (P<0.05). Exposure to 10 μg·L−1 PS-COOH disrupted neurotransmitter homeostasis, altering levels of acetylcholine (ACh), serotonin (5-HT), and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Transgenic zebrafish Tg(huc:EGFP) fluorescence assays revealed that PS-COOH (0.1–100 μg·L−1) caused damage to central neurons. These findings indicate that PS-COOH exposure impairs cholinergic, serotonergic, and GABAergic neurotransmission, induces neuronal damage, and exerts neurotoxic effects on zebrafish larvae. This study provides a theoretical basis for assessing the ecological and health risks of modified microplastics.
Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology•2026•DOI: 10.3724/2097-213X.2025.JFCT.0036
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a clean fuel and essential chemical feedstock. This review summarizes recent advances in the hydrogenation of CO and CO2 (COx) to LPG, focusing on the design and optimization of bifunctional catalysts. The adsorption and activation of COx on various metal oxide surfaces, as well as the influence of zeolite pore structure and acidity on LPG selectivity, are critically evaluated. The synergistic effects between metal oxide and zeolite components in promoting LPG production and enhancing catalyst stability are elucidated. Key catalyst systems, including GaZrOx/H-SSZ-13 and InZrOx-Beta composites, demonstrate high selectivity to propane and isobutane-enriched C4 alkanes, respectively. The review highlights the importance of balancing methanol synthesis and hydrocarbon conversion functionalities to achieve high LPG yields while suppressing undesired methane and CO formation. Challenges such as catalyst deactivation and the need for precise control of acid site density are discussed. This work provides theoretical guidance for the rational design of highly efficient catalytic systems for COx hydrogenation to LPG, contributing to carbon resource utilization and emission reduction.
Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology•2026•DOI: 10.1016/S1872-5813(26)60701-3
Hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) is an effective method for removing nitrogen-containing heteroatom compounds from inferior feedstocks, with the core challenge being the development of catalysts that combine low cost and high performance. In this study, a FeZn-supported catalyst was modified by introducing six different metal promoters (La, Ti, Ce, Mn, Mg, and Cr). It was found that Cr exhibited a pronounced promotional effect on HDN performance. The promoting effect of Cr on the FeZn catalyst's activity originates from its electronic interaction with sulfided Fe species, rather than functioning as an independent active site. Specifically, Cr and Zn species act synergistically as electron donors, transferring electron density to the sulfided Fe species, thereby modulating the electronic structure of Fe to render it in an electron-rich state. This increased electronic density weakens the Fe–S bonds in the active phase, promoting their cleavage and facilitating the formation of hydrogenation active sites known as coordinated unsaturated sulfur vacancies (CUS). After introducing 3% Cr, under conditions of 340–380 °C, 4 MPa pressure, and a high weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 8.7 h−1, the catalyst's HDN conversion rate for the basic nitrogen compound quinoline increased by 14.5%–19.7% compared to the unmodified catalyst, reaching 81.9% at 380 °C. Furthermore, Cr introduction increased the number of medium-strength Lewis acid sites, which work synergistically with the increased CUS sites to enhance overall hydrogenation activity. Cr addition effectively governs the selectivity of the HDN pathway, with the reaction rate constant for the deep hydrogenation pathway over the FeZn3Cr@GA catalyst reaching 3.2 times that of the unmodified FeZn@GA catalyst. In summary, using Fe as the primary active metal component and regulating its electronic structure through promoters represents an effective approach for designing low-cost, high-performance HDN catalysts.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3870-9
High-purity (HP) alloys are critical for next-generation technologies requiring extreme reliability, yet trace impurities at parts-per-million levels can severely degrade mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and long-term stability. This review comprehensively examines recent advances in HP alloy development, covering purification approaches, processing strategies, and performance optimization. It details how trace impurities influence microstructural evolution and material properties, and discusses techniques for achieving ultralow impurity levels, including vacuum melting, zone refining, and chemical vapor deposition. The review highlights impurity sensitivity across major alloy systems—such as aluminum, titanium, zirconium, copper, and steels—and summarizes strategies to mitigate impurity-induced degradation, including advanced alloy design, grain refinement, and surface treatments. Advanced characterization techniques for detecting and quantifying impurities are also outlined. The review emphasizes the essential role of HP alloys in advanced structural and functional materials, and identifies key challenges and future directions, including the need for standardized purity definitions and cost-effective purification methods. This synthesis provides a roadmap for researchers and engineers aiming to harness the full potential of high-purity alloys in demanding applications.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3997-9
Contactless human-machine interaction (HMI) is rapidly evolving, yet it remains constrained by the latency, redundancy, and power consumption inherent in conventional frame-based vision sensors. While bio-inspired event-driven sensors offer a low-power alternative, existing architectures are often complex or fail to accurately encode the magnitude of light intensity changes. Herein, we report a solution-processed, two-terminal event-driven sensory device based on CuIn(Se,S)2 colloidal quantum dots (QDs) integrated with an Sb-doped TiO2 layer. Unlike traditional dynamic vision sensors (DVS), this device exhibits a transient photoresponse that encodes both the polarity and the magnitude of light intensity variations into the output current amplitude. This preservation of magnitude information significantly enhances the feature extraction capability, leading to faster convergence and superior clustering performance in gesture recognition. Based on these unique optoelectronic properties, we constructed a hierarchical HMI system that synergizes the strengths of event-based and frame-based sensing. The system utilizes the event-driven sensor for low-latency gesture control of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a frame-based sensor for high-precision gaze control of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). The proposed system achieves a gesture recognition accuracy of more than 92.5% while substantially reducing data redundancy, offering a promising strategy for efficient, robust, and low-cost intelligent interaction systems.