MIT researchers discovered that dendrites, cracks that harm the performance of solid-state batteries, can grow at far lower stresses than previously understood. The findings reveal why developing stronger solid electrolytes alone hasn’t solved the dendrite problem; more chemically stable materials will be needed to finally fulfill the promise of these batteries.

Their mass is extremely low, but how light are neutrinos really? A collaboration comprising German and international research groups has optimized its experiments to determine the mass of these “ghost particles”. In doing so, they succeeded in further adjusting downward the upper limit on the neutrino mass scale that had previously been determined in similar experiments. As part of the “Electron Capture in Ho-163 Experiment” (ECHo), the researchers are using the isotope Holmium-163 (Ho-163), whose decay processes allow for conclusions on the neutrino mass. According to ECHo spokesperson Prof. Dr Loredana Gastaldo, a scientist at Heidelberg University’s Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, the current results verify that even larger-scale investigations will be feasible in future to get even closer to the mass of neutrinos and ultimately precisely determine it.

Solar energy is a promising source of green energy, yet conventional solar cells cannot fully utilize it due to efficiency limits in semiconductors. Researchers have now found a strategy to overcome this barrier with a new design strategy for exciton amplification. Using a molybdenum-based “spin-flip” emitter, they harvest multiplied excitons generated by singlet fission. The system achieves quantum yields of around 130%, surpassing the conventional 100% limit and opening possibilities for solar cells and LEDs.

Researchers at The University of Osaka have developed a polymer material that combines high mechanical durability with controllable enzymatic degradation. The material contains movable cross-links formed by cyclodextrin rings that slide along polymer chains. By using light to control the position of these rings, enzymatic degradation can be switched on or off and even spatially patterned.

Catalytic CO₂ utilization (CCU) offers a pathway to turn power plant emissions into valuable fuels and chemicals, but deploying these complex technologies has been hindered by safety and economic hurdles. A new review led by Xiansheng Li from China Datang Technology Innovation Co., Ltd. provides a pragmatic, three-tiered engineering framework to help utilities, investors, and policymakers navigate this challenge, offering a clear path from scientific concept to bankable project.

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel and could offer a sustainable, carbon-neutral alternative to petroleum products. Yet production costs remain a hurdle to its widespread use. Now, researchers have developed an inexpensive way to make biodiesel from materials found along the banks of their Louisiana bayou: algae and oyster shells. The researchers will present their results at ACS Spring 2026.

The state of Kentucky produces 95% of the world’s bourbon, and all that bourbon leaves behind an enormous amount of waste grain, called stillage. Now, researchers at the University of Kentucky have developed a process to transform that stillage into electrodes. With the bourbon byproduct-electrodes, they created supercapacitors that could store more energy than similarly sized commercial devices. The researchers will present their results at ACS Spring 2026.

A research team led by Prof. SUN Jianwei, Chair Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Director of the Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Centre for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has achieved a groundbreaking advance in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry. The team has developed an air-stable chiral phosphine-catalyzed enantioselective approach to synthesize enantioenriched S(IV)-stereogenic vinyl sulfinamides—an under-explored class of organosulfur compounds with promising antiviral activity.

Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä and Aalto University have developed a new method based on laser modification, which allows metal-organic materials to be grown locally one molecule-thick layer at a time. The method enables the precise construction of films of different shapes and offers new ways to modify the properties of materials for various applications.