X-rays are a common component of diagnostic testing and industrial monitoring, used for everything from monitoring your teeth to scanning your suitcase at the airport. But the high-energy rays also produce ionizing radiation, which can be dangerous after prolonged or excessive exposures. Now, researchers publishing in ACS Central Science have taken a step toward safer X-rays by creating a highly sensitive and foldable detector that produces good quality images with smaller dosages of the rays.

Industrial gas separation, essential for clean energy and environmental protection, demands efficiency and adaptability. Current materials, however, lack the flexibility to selectively separate gases like carbon dioxide (CO₂) and hydrogen (H₂) while remaining energy-efficient. Researchers at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (WPI-iCeMS) at Kyoto University and the Department of Chemical Engineering at National Taiwan University have developed a phase-transformable membrane that could meet these needs.

Metallic nanoparticles, consisting of a few to several thousand atoms or simple molecules, are attracting significant interest. Electrodes coated with layers of nanoparticles (nanolayers) are particularly useful in areas such as energy production, serving as catalysts. A convenient method for producing such layers on electrodes is electrodeposition, the subtle complexities of which have just been revealed by an international team of researchers led by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow.

In the quantum world, particles behave in bizarre and fascinating ways, often defying our everyday understanding of reality. One such phenomenon is localization, where particles become "trapped" in a disordered environment, unable to move freely. This concept, predicted by Nobel laureate Philip W. Anderson in 1958, has intrigued scientists for decades, particularly when it comes to understanding how particles transition between localized and extended states. At the heart of this mystery is the concept of the mobility edge (ME), a critical energy threshold that separates localized from extended states. Now, new research has made significant strides in experimentally probing multiple MEs in a cutting-edge integrated photonic system.

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Chemistry, Wenjun Luo, Zhigang Zou et al., found and proved the enhancement of a Si/In₂S₃ heterojunction photocurrent by Cl^- ions in the electrolyte comes from faster charge transfer rate at the In₂S₃/electrolyte interface.