Photocatalytic seawater splitting is an attractive way for producing green hydrogen. Significant progresses have been made recently in catalytic efficiencies, but the activity of catalysts can only maintain stable for about 10 h. Here, we develop a vacancy-engineered Ag₃PO₄/CdS porous microreactor chip photocatalyst, operating in seawater with a performance stability exceeding 300 h. This is achieved by the establishment of both catalytic selectivity for impurity ions and tailored interactions between vacancies and sulfur species. Efficient transport of carriers with strong redox ability is ensured by forming a heterojunction within a space charge region, where the visualization of potential distribution confirms the key design concept of our chip. Moreover, the separation of oxidation and reduction reactions in space inhibits the reverse recombination, making the chip capable of working at atmospheric pressure. Consequently, in the presence of Pt co-catalysts, a high solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 0.81% can be achieved in the whole durability test. When using a fully solar-driven 256 cm² hydrogen production prototype, a H₂ evolution rate of 68.01 mmol h⁻¹ m⁻² can be achieved under outdoor insolation. Our findings provide a novel approach to achieve high selectivity, and demonstrate an efficient and scalable prototype suitable for practical solar H₂ production.

The state-of-the-art anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) require highly stable electrodes for prolonged operation. The stability of the electrode is closely linked to the effective evacuation of H₂ or O₂ gas generated from electrode surface during the electrolysis. In this study, we prepared a super-hydrophilic electrode by depositing porous nickel–iron nanoparticles on annealed TiO₂ nanotubes (NiFe/ATNT) for rapid outgassing of such nonpolar gases. The super-hydrophilic NiFe/ATNT electrode exhibited an overpotential of 235 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² for oxygen evolution reaction in 1.0 M KOH solution, and was utilized as the anode in the AEMWE to achieve a current density of 1.67 A cm⁻² at 1.80 V. In addition, the AEMWE with NiFe/ATNT electrode, which enables effective outgassing, showed record stability for 1500 h at 0.50 A cm⁻² under harsh temperature conditions of 80 ± 3 °C.

Researchers in China have discovered that a combination of bone biochar and humic acid can dramatically improve coastal saline soils and help olive trees thrive in these challenging environments. The study, published in Biochar, uncovers how these soil amendments work together to enhance soil structure, rebalance essential nutrients, and support healthy plant growth.

A new scientific review has uncovered how complex microbial communities, including those in the human gut and the natural environment, act as powerful engines that drive the evolution and spread of antimicrobial resistance. The findings highlight urgent risks to global health and call for coordinated action across human, animal, and environmental sectors.

A new scientific review has found that perfluorooctane sulfonate, a persistent chemical pollutant known as PFOS, is accumulating in soils and agricultural plants across Africa at levels that may pose ecological and public health risks. The study highlights contamination hotspots in Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda, and calls for urgent investment in monitoring, regulation, and research capacity across the continent.

scLT-kit automates barcode-quality check, fate metrics & clone-transcriptome mapping, revealing normal vs. drugged cell dynamics across hematopoiesis, C. elegans, and cancer

Survey dissects 5 LLM text-privacy threats in train/inference plus 3 app-centric gaps, urging native safeguards before real-world rollout

Researchers lift FSS from unary to multivariate: two-layer OT-linked binary trees shrink distributed comparison function key size from O(λn²) to O(λn)

As financial technology matures and cryptocurrencies become increasingly popular, the security of blockchains used to process these transactions has emerged as a significant concern. Prof. Allen Men Ho AU, Associate Head (Research and Development) and Professor of the Department of Computing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has introduced the Regulatable Privacy-Preserving Smart Contracts (RPSC), a smart contract system that effectively balances privacy with public transparency. RPSC’s compatibility has been demonstrated on Ethereum smart contract. As financial technology matures and cryptocurrencies become increasingly popular, the security of blockchains used to process these transactions has emerged as a significant concern. Prof. Allen Men Ho AU, Associate Head (Research and Development) and Professor of the Department of Computing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has introduced the Regulatable Privacy-Preserving Smart Contracts (RPSC), a smart contract system that effectively balances privacy with public transparency. RPSC’s compatibility has been demonstrated on Ethereum smart contract.