What if we could design a material that acts like a molecular “sniper,” zeroing in on a single harmful antibiotic in water—while ignoring everything else?

That’s no longer science fiction. Thanks to researchers at Universiti Sains Malaysia, a new class of smart adsorbent is turning this idea into reality.

POSTECH, KAIST, and Gyeongsang National University achieve a record-breaking energy density of 1,270 Wh/L.

In a paper published Dec. 21 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), a team led by Prof. Laura Gagliardi of the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) and Department of Chemistry and Nobel laureate Prof. Omar Yaghi of the University of California, Berkeley outlined a new method for excluding water when using covalent organic frameworks (COFs) to build carbon capture materials.

Researchers typically analyze images taken by geostationary satellites to identify regions of the sky where contrails form, but new research shows adding images taken by low-Earth-orbiting satellites would help identify many more such regions. Pilots could avoid these regions to reduce aviation’s climate impact. 

Abstract:

A research group led by Professor Hiroaki SUZUKI and Takeshi HAYAKAWA from the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Chuo University, graduate student Zhitai HUANG, graduate students Kanji KANEKO (at the time) and Ryotaro YONEYAMA (at the time), together with Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Tomoya MARUYAMA from the Research Center for Autonomous Systems Materialogy (ASMat), Institute of Integrated Research (IIR), Institute of Science Tokyo, and Professor Masahiro TAKINOUE from the Laboratory for Chemistry and Life Science, Institute of Integrated Research, Institute of Science Tokyo, has developed a novel and highly accessible technology for producing uniform Biomolecular Condensates^*1) using a simple, low-cost vibration platform.

Lithium metal batteries hold great promise for high performance energy storage due to their high theoretical energy density. However, practical implementation is hindered by interfacial side reactions and dendrite growth at the Li metal anode, particularly in carbonate-based electrolytes. Hereby, the authors introduce a novel multifunctional group additive strategy using 2-fluorobenzenesulfonamide (2-FBSA) to address these challenges. The 2-FBSA additive plays a crucial role in modulating the solvation structure of the electrolyte, facilitating Li⁺ transport kinetics by lowering the desolvation energy barrier. Additionally, the preferential decomposition of 2-FBSA at the anode interface leads to the formation of a robust solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) enriched with inorganic Li salts, including LiF, Li₃N, and ROSO₂Li. This SEI layer effectively suppresses Li dendrite growth and mitigates parasitic side reactions, resulting in significantly improved cycling stability and rate performance of Li||Li symmetric cells and Li||LiFePO₄ full cells. The Li||Li symmetric cell achieves a remarkable lifespan exceeding 2400 h at 0.5 mA cm⁻²/1 mAh cm⁻² , while the Li||LiFePO₄ full cell demonstrates a capacity retention of 72% after 400 cycles at 1 C. This study highlights the potential of multifunctional group molecular additive 2-FBSA in interfacial optimization and provides new insights into additive design principles for high performance battery systems.