Researchers have determined that six gas valves provide the best protection against plasma disruptions in SPARC, a next-generation, experimental fusion system. By refining the setup for the fusion vessel’s massive gas injection system, researchers are ensuring that disruptions — sudden jets of plasma that can damage the fusion vessel’s inner walls — are controlled efficiently, paving the way for safer, more robust fusion power plants.

This a robot can walk, without electronics, and only with the addition of a cartridge of compressed gas, right off the 3D-printer. It can also be printed in one go, from one material.  Researchers describe their work in an advanced online publication in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems.

Researchers have developed a novel ternary electrolyte system combining ionic liquids (ILs) with water-in-salt (WIS) technology, significantly enhancing the high-temperature stability and voltage capacity of aqueous potassium-ion supercapacitors. The optimized electrolyte achieves a record-breaking 3.37 V electrochemical window and maintains 87.6% capacitance after 2000 cycles at 60°C, offering a breakthrough for energy storage in electric vehicles and industrial applications.

A team from The University of Osaka has created nickel(0)-boron bonds in square-planar complexes. The researchers prepared and characterized nickel complexes containing tris(perfluoroaryl)boranes and showed that the bulky Z-type ligands formed stable bonds that were supported by noncovalent interactions with the other ligands in the complexes. This first for nickel and boron is expected to open new avenues in catalysis for the synthesis of high-value products such as pharmaceuticals and polymers.

Due to the inherent low atomic number of organic materials, their ability to absorb high-energy rays is relatively weak. Coupled with the low utilization rate of excited-state excitons, the radio-luminescence intensity of organic scintillators is generally lower than that of inorganic scintillators. Recently, the research team led by Professor Shuang-Quan Zang from Zhengzhou university innovatively utilized charge-separated (CS) state traps to capture high-energy carriers, significantly enhancing the radio-luminescence intensity of organic scintillators. The related paper was published in National Science Review.

Researchers from Chiba University and Nagoya University, Japan, have developed a highly accurate land cover map for Siberia, providing insights into climate change and predictions. Using advanced machine learning techniques and existing multiple land cover maps, they were able to address the significant discrepancies found in the previous datasets. Being one of the world’s most climate-sensitive regions, Siberia’s newly developed map marks a breakthrough, providing critical details crucial for understanding the region’s extreme environmental changes.