A research team has uncovered how ethylene, a key plant hormone, enhances peanut seed germination by modulating hormonal pathways and promoting metabolic processes.

New research helps narrow down uncertainties in near-term precipitation projections for the Asian Water Tower

Inexpensive and easily available raw materials combined with practical and efficient preparation technology is an important direction for the future development of microwave absorption materials. In this study, coal tar pitch (CTP), an advantageous resource with low cost and wide source, be used as the carbon source. Hypercrosslinked porous polymers are prepared by crosslinking aromatic compounds in CTP based on the classical Friedel-Crafts reaction. Porous carbon (PC) microwave absorption materials will be prepared by high-temperature carbonization.

The study achieves efficient electrocatalysis for the electrooxidation reaction in multi-electrolyte systems by synergistically modulating structure and electronic coupling through rational design. The research team established novel principles for controlling the morphology and performance of MOFs: formation of nano-flower structure requires co-existence of Ni site and Fc ligand, doping of Fe sites promotes 3D crystal morphology development, which marks a pioneering advance in the field. Among them, the Bimetallic Dual-Ligand MOF: NFBF (6:2) exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic performance (210 mV at 10 mA·cm^-2). Operando Raman spectroscopy and XAFS reveal the electronic restructuring feature of NFBF (6:2) during the catalytic OER process. Combined with DFT calculations, which identify Ni as the catalytic active site, these investigations uncover significant electronic migration and redistribution, substantially reducing the reaction energy barrier and accelerating the catalytic process. Comprehensive exploration demonstrates that NFBF (6:2) not only performs well under various multi-electrolyte conditions but also maintains a nearly consistent catalytic mechanism. Furthermore, when applied to overall water splitting, (+) NFBF (6:2) | | NFBF (6:2) (-) achieves significant catalytic effects in both alkaline freshwater (1.40 V at 10 mA·cm^-2) and seawater (1.44 V at 10 mA· cm^-2) electrolyzers. This work highlights the crucial role of electronic coupling in optimizing electrocatalytic performance and offers new insights for addressing mitigating environmental pollution, embodying substantial practical and research potential.

Polyoxometalates (POMs) have broad applicability and significant potential in electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. However, the practical application of pure POMs is significantly constrained by their decomposition in polar media (such as neutral and alkaline solutions). The modification of POMs with metal-calixarene clusters is beneficial for fabricating functional hybrid materials with the combined merits of the two components. Four new thiacalixarene-functionalized polyoxometalate clusters were synthesized by researchers at School of Petrochemical Engineering, Liaoning Petrochemical University, China. These four clusters were characterized by Keggin-type PM₄Mo₈ motifs, which confer redox properties similar to those of PMo₁₂O₄₀³⁻ (PMo₁₂) while providing superior structural stability and electrocatalytic reduction of IO₃⁻. The substitution of four metal ions in PMo₁₂, along with the capping TC4A ligand and VO unit, significantly modulated visible-light absorption, enhancing photothermal conversion in the solid state and organic solutions.

South China Sea marine heatwaves split into two types, with ocean dynamics playing a surprising role

Obesity-related metabolic disorders are driven by insulin resistance and inflammation, yet therapeutic efficacy of endogenous lipid mediators is limited by poor bioavailability and enzymatic degradation. Self-assembled vesicles combining inorganic clusters and lipid mediators improve glucose control, reduce inflammation, and promote weight loss in preclinical study.

The relentless down-scaling of electronics grands the modern integrated circuits (ICs) with the high speed, low power dissipation and low cost, fulfilling diverse demands of modern life. Whereas, with the semiconductor industry entering into sub-10 nm technology nodes, degrading device performance and increasing power consumption give rise to insurmountable roadblocks confronted by modern ICs that need to be conquered to sustain the Moore law’s life. Bulk semiconductors like prevalent Si are plagued by seriously degraded carrier mobility as thickness thinning down to sub-5 nm, which is imperative to maintain sufficient gate electrostatic controllability to combat the increasingly degraded short channel effects. Nowadays, the emergence of two-dimensional (2D) materials opens up new gateway to eschew the hurdles laid in front of the scaling trend of modern IC, mainly ascribed to their ultimately atomic thickness, capability to maintain carrier mobility with thickness thinning down, dangling-bonds free surface, wide bandgaps tunability and feasibility to constitute diverse heterostructures. Blossoming breakthroughs in discrete electronic device, such as contact engineering, dielectric integration and vigorous channel-length scaling, or large circuits arrays, as boosted yields, improved variations and full-functioned processor fabrication, based on 2D materials have been achieved nowadays, facilitating 2D materials to step under the spotlight of IC industry to be treated as the most potential future successor or complementary counterpart of incumbent Si to further sustain the down-scaling of modern IC.