SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4248-2
Marine biofouling imposes substantial operational penalties on maritime assets, yet commercial silicone foul-release coatings rely on static, non-adaptive networks that cannot be reprocessed or repaired. This work introduces selenonium-salt-catalyzed dynamic siloxane exchange as a route to polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) vitrimer coatings. The authors incorporate A16Se+ organoselenium catalysts into PDMS networks at loadings designated A16Se+xPDMS, enabling thermally activated siloxane bond exchange that confers vitrimeric stress relaxation, reprocessability, and high-temperature self-healing. Antibiofouling performance is benchmarked against pristine PDMS using colony morphology assays for Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, SEM imaging of bacterial adhesion after 3 h, Chlorella fluorescence adhesion quantification, zeta potential measurements, and 3-month seawater immersion panels. Reviewer 1 questioned the direct relevance of recyclability and high-temperature self-healing to marine antifouling and requested that surface elastic modulus and Pseudomonas antibacterial data be elevated to the main text. In response, the authors relocated scratch and self-healing results from Figure 5 to Supporting Information Figures S12 and S13, condensed the main-text discussion, and integrated surface elastic modulus data into Figure 4G and Pseudomonas antibacterial results into Figure 6A. The revised manuscript positions dynamic exchange as supporting evidence of network dynamics rather than as a primary antifouling metric, while foregrounding modulus and antibacterial performance as the application-relevant properties.
Chinese Journal of Environmental Engineering•2026•DOI: 10.12030/j.cjee.202507064
This study investigates pollutant removal characteristics and kinetic behaviors in sewage networks, and analyzes their impact on the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N, as COD/TN) of influent to wastewater treatment plants. Source water quality sampling at drainage outlets revealed spatial and temporal variations in C/N, with domestic sewage exhibiting higher C/N than industrial sewage, and diurnal peaks reaching 6.92 versus 4.71 during off-peak hours. Using a pilot-scale adjustable sewage network system in Kunshan, experiments were conducted under high (0.491 m·s−1) and low (0.089 m·s−1) flow velocities, monitoring pollutant removal over 144 hours. Pseudo-first-order kinetics were applied to model COD and TN removal. Results showed that COD (including SCOD and PCOD), BOD5, and SS achieved approximately 80% removal within 144 h, with higher removal at low flow velocity. TN, NH3-N, and TP exhibited lower overall removal rates. Kinetic fitting revealed that COD removal rate constants (kCOD) were significantly higher than those for TN (kTN), and both decreased with increasing flow velocity: at low velocity, kCOD=0.0167 h−1 and kTN=0.0029 h−1; at high velocity, kCOD=0.0127 h−1 and kTN=0.0020 h−1. Simulations based on actual source pollutant concentrations indicated that the time for C/N to drop to the denitrification critical value of 4.50 was 12.24 h at high velocity, but shortened to 9.49 h at low velocity. These findings demonstrate that increasing flow velocity effectively retards the decline of C/N. Therefore, regulating network flow velocity to reduce hydraulic retention time is a key strategy for maintaining adequate C/N at the terminal and ensuring denitrification efficiency in wastewater treatment plants.
New Carbon Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1016/S1872-5805(26)61094-3
Aqueous zinc-iodine (Zn-I2) batteries are promising for large-scale energy storage due to their intrinsic safety, low cost, and high theoretical capacity (211 mAh g−1 for iodine). However, their practical application is hindered by the poor electronic conductivity of iodine, sluggish redox kinetics, and the shuttle effect of polyiodides. This review systematically analyzes the reaction mechanisms of iodine cathodes, including two-electron (I−/I2) and multi-electron (I−/I2/I+ and I−/I2/I+/IO3−) pathways, and identifies key bottlenecks. It then comprehensively summarizes recent advances in iodine host materials, categorized into three strategies: physical confinement, chemical adsorption, and electrocatalysis. Representative host materials such as porous carbons, covalent organic frameworks (COFs), porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs), polymers, MXenes, and Prussian blue analogs (PBAs) are discussed, with emphasis on the structure–performance relationships. The review highlights that heteroatom doping (e.g., nitrogen) enhances chemical adsorption of iodine species, while single-atom catalysts (e.g., Co, Zn) provide electrocatalytic sites that accelerate conversion kinetics. Finally, future research directions are proposed, including exploration of multi-electron systems, mechanistic elucidation of iodine conversion, development of advanced host materials, and optimization of zinc anodes, to accelerate the commercialization of Zn-I2 batteries.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-024-2798-5
Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction (NO3−RR) offers a dual solution for wastewater remediation and ambient ammonia synthesis, yet the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and sluggish eight-electron transfer limit Faradaic efficiency (FE) and yield. This study reports lanthanum-doped Co3O4 nanowire arrays on carbon cloth (La-Co3O4/CC) that achieve an NH3 FE of 96.36% and a yield of 537.44 μmol h−1 cm−2, markedly surpassing undoped Co3O4 (87.78%, 279.4 μmol h−1 cm−2). Density functional theory calculations reveal that La doping induces electron deficiency at Co sites, enhancing NO3− adsorption and optimizing hydrogenation energetics. A Zn–NO3− battery incorporating La-Co3O4/CC delivers a peak power density of 9.86 mW cm−2, demonstrating viable energy recovery. The catalyst maintains structural integrity over 24 h of continuous operation with negligible performance decay. This work establishes rare-earth doping as a rational strategy to overcome the intrinsic limitations of Co3O4 in nitrate electroreduction, providing a scalable pathway for decentralized ammonia production and nitrate removal.