Naphthenic acids (NAs) are typical refractory organic pollutants in petroleum wastewater, posing significant threats to ecosystems due to their biotoxicity and persistence. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) utilizing persulfate (PDS) have demonstrated great potential for treating such persistent organic contaminants. Among them, non-radical pathways have attracted increasing attention due to their superior anti-interference ability and high selectivity. However, the regulation mechanism of the PDS activation pathway, especially the transition from radical oxidation to direct electron transfer, remains unclear. To address this challenge, an Al-CDs/LNPC composite was prepared by anchoring aluminum-doped carbon dots (Al-CDs) onto porous carbon (LNPC) for PDS activation toward diphenylacetic acid (DPA) degradation. This work aimed to construct an efficient electron transfer catalytic system and elucidate the role of Al-CDs in regulating the PDS activation pathway. Experimental data indicated that the Al-CDs/LNPC/PDS system achieved near-complete DPA removal within 60 min, with a reaction rate (k) approximately 6.5 times higher than that of the LNPC/PDS system. Quenching experiments, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), electrochemical tests, in-situ Raman spectroscopy, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirmed that the LNPC/PDS system mainly degraded DPA through the radical pathway involving •OH and SO4•−. In contrast, the introduction of Al-CDs promoted the formation of Al-N bonds, which reconstructed the electronic configuration of the catalyst and established an efficient electron transfer channel. The Al-CDs/LNPC served as an electron bridge to mediate the formation of metastable Al-CDs/LNPC-PDS* complexes, enabling direct electron transfer from DPA to PDS. DFT results further revealed that Al-CDs/LNPC exhibited stronger PDS adsorption, enhanced interfacial electron transfer, and a more favorable electronic structure for PDS activation. Furthermore, the system displayed broad pH tolerance, strong resistance to most coexisting anions, and satisfactory reusability. It also achieved an 85.3% DPA removal in petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW). This research provides new insight into the directional regulation of PDS activation pathways and offers a promising strategy for the advanced treatment of refractory NAs in petroleum wastewater.

The controllable synthesis of palladium-based multi-rare-earth alloy nanomaterials via chemical methods poses a considerable challenge, owing to the low reduction potential and high oxophilicity of rare earth (RE) elements. Herein, a series of Pd-RE alloy nanoparticles, from binary to septenary alloy, is newly designed and synthesized through the single atom-enhanced chemical potential method. This synthetic strategy utilizes a single atom to effectively enhance the chemical potential of a rare earth atom, which thermodynamically favors the synthesis of a Pd-RE alloy. Using this general chemical synthesis method, we successfully synthesized 22 kinds of Pd-RE alloy nanoparticles, including 4 kinds of Pd-RE high-entropy alloy nanoparticles. The ErPd3 catalyst demonstrated outstanding electrocatalytic performance in acetylene hydrogenation: electron-enriched Pd sites facilitated acetylene adsorption and activation, while the incorporated Er effectively suppressed the competing hydrogen evolution reaction, thereby significantly enhancing the utilization efficiency of H*. This work establishes a general strategy for designing Pd-RE alloy nanomaterials.

Scandium-alloyed aluminum nitride (ScAlN) has emerged as a promising ferroelectric material for next-generation electronics, optoelectronics, photonics, and acoustics due to its high remanent polarization (P-r), tunable coercive field (E-c), and compatibility with GaN, Si, and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technologies. However, ScAlN devices have been limited by large E-c and poor endurance. In this work, we report a Ti-assisted surface oxide layer reconstruction approach to enhance the performance of ferroelectric ScAlN. Ti/ScAlN/GaN capacitors were fabricated and subsequently annealed to promote oxygen migration from the native ScAlON into the Ti electrode, forming an insulating TiOx interfacial layer. This reconstruction reduced the polarization switching field and improved device reliability. At an optimized annealing temperature of 400 degrees C, the capacitors exhibited endurance up to 6 x 10(8) cycles with P-r exceeding 60 mu C/cm(2). These results demonstrate a viable strategy for improving the endurance of ferroelectric ScAlN and underscore the importance of interfacial engineering for nonvolatile memory and neuromorphic computing applications.

Achieving productive aerobic oxidation of alcohols in the presence of more easily oxidized partners is a central challenge in photocatalytic synthesis. In particular, visible-light-driven routes from abundant primary alcohols to benzimidazoles are hampered by the inertness of linear aliphatic alcohols and the oxidative fragility of o-phenylenediamines (OPDs), which has forced previous methods to use the alcohol as the bulk solvent. Here we show that halide-tuned CsPbX3 (X = Cl/Br/I) perovskite nanocrystals act as adsorption-biased, band-engineered photocatalysts for this transformation. By adjusting the halide composition, we prepare a toolbox of photocatalysts whose excited-state oxidation potentials are matched to different classes of primary alcohols: CsPbCl3 under 405 nm irradiation efficiently oxidizes linear aliphatic alcohols, whereas CsPbClBr2 under 455 nm light is optimal for benzylic alcohols. For challenging linear aliphatic alcohols, this oxidative dehydrogenative coupling operates with only ∼3 equiv of the alcohol (rather than solvent-level quantities), while benzylic alcohols are converted with only 2 equiv, in all cases using O2 (1 atm) as the terminal oxidant under mild, noble-metal-free and heterogeneous conditions to furnish a broad range of 2-alkyl and 2-aryl benzimidazoles. Temperature-programmed desorption experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that primary alcohols bind much more strongly to the perovskite surface than OPDs, while photophysical and electrochemical studies map a two-step interfacial electron-transfer sequence: alcohol → perovskite(h+) → O2. Together, these results demonstrate an adsorption-biased, halide-tunable perovskite platform for alcohol-favored aerobic oxidation and suggest a general design strategy for heterogeneous photoredox synthesis.

Leveraging the entropy-stabilized architecture of high-entropy oxides, we develop a family of porous rare-earth-based high-entropy perovskite nanosheets (RE-HEPN) tailored for proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) under acidic conditions. The anchoring-fusion synthesis followed by high-temperature calcination yields nanostructures with abundant oxygen vacancies and uniformly distributed low-valence active sites, enabling efficient oxygen and hydrogen evolution kinetics. Notably, the optimized 8-RE-HEPN catalyst drives overall water splitting with overpotentials of only 183 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and 49 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at 10 mA cm-2. When integrated into a PEMWE cell as both anode and cathode, the system operates at an industrial-scale current density of 1 A cm-2 for 1000 h with a low voltage-rise rate of 0.18 mV h-1, owing to the strong resistance to metal leaching in acidic media. This combination of high activity, prolonged durability, and scalability positions RE-HEPN as a promising non-precious-metal catalyst platform for sustainable hydrogen production in large-scale chemical and energy systems. (c) 2026 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

The heterojunction interface engineering can effectively accelerate electron transfer and regulate the adsorption of reactants and intermediates on catalytic sites, thereby enhancing catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability in the electrocatalytic oxidation reaction. Herein, the crystalline-amorphous heterojunction catalyst (CeO2@CuFe-LDH) is designed to synthesize via a simple solvothermal method for the selective electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA). The crystalline-amorphous heterointerface of CeO2@CuFe-LDH can facilitate the efficient adsorption of the HMF and inhibit the target product over-oxidation of HMFCA, and accelerate reaction kinetics. The CeO2@CuFe-LDH achieved 99.2 % conversion and 86.5 % selectivity for HMFCA with excellent stability over 6 cycles. Furthermore, the CeO2@CuFe-LDH further achieved selective oxidation of aldehyde groups to carboxyl groups for other10 kinds of substrates, including hydroxybenzaldehyde, halogenated hydroxybenzaldehyde, alkoxybenzaldehyde, and pyridinium aldehyde. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that the crystalline-amorphous heterointerface greatly reduces the energy barrier for the oxidation of HMF while hindering the further oxidation of HMFCA. This work offers a promising strategy for designing advanced electrocatalysts for highly efficient and selective electrocatalytic conversion of biomass derivatives to value-added chemicals.

The absence of large-size gallium nitride (GaN) substrates with low dislocation density remains a primary bottleneck for advancing GaN-based devices. Here, we demonstrate the achievement of 8-inch freestanding GaN substrates grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy. Critical to this achievement is the improvement in gas-flow uniformity, which ensures exceptional thickness homogeneity and enables the crack-free growth of GaN. After laser lift-off (LLO) separation, the freestanding GaN substrate exhibits superior crystal quality, evidenced by full width at half maximum values of 68 and 54 arcsec for X-ray diffraction rocking curves of (002) and (102) planes, alongside a low dislocation density of 1.6 & times; 10(6) cm(-2). This approach establishes a robust pathway for the production of large-size GaN substrates, which are essential for advancing next-generation power electronics and high-efficiency photonics.

The development of gallium nitride (GaN)-based red light emitting diodes (LEDs) is critical for full-color display technologies, yet it remains hindered by spectral instability due to wavelength drift. While current strategies employing 2D materials primarily focus on passive strain relaxation to achieve red-shifted emission, the concept of proactive strain modulation for enhanced wavelength stability has not been realized. Here, we present a multilayer graphene-enabled strain modulation approach enabling the growth of 4-inch, mechanically strippable GaN films for red LEDs with exceptional wavelength stability. Through irradiation engineering, precise manipulation over the bonding strength of the GaN/graphene/sapphire interface is achieved, facilitating quasi-van der Waals epitaxy, significant strain relaxation and wafer-level lift-off. Consequently, the graphene-based red LEDs exhibit a widely tunable wavelength shift of 0.6-15.5 nm under increasing current injection-in stark contrast to the similar to 24 nm blue-shift observed in conventional LEDs grown on sapphire. Moreover, the wavelength variation across a temperature range from 298 to 358 K is also decreased by similar to 70 %. This work establishes multilayer graphene-enabled strain engineering as a transformative strategy for realizing stable GaN-based light emitting devices and paves the way for their integration into high-performance display applications.

The development of integrated materials capable of simultaneous adsorption and sensitive detection of naphthenic acids in petroleum wastewater remains a significant challenge. Herein, we report a novel bifunctional composite, aluminum-doped carbon dots/lignin-derived porous carbon (Al-CDs/LNPC-800), which was fabricated by incorporating aluminum-doped carbon dots (Al-CDs) as a fluorescent probe into a lignin-derived porous carbon (LNPC). This design leverages a sustainable and cost-effective lignin precursor to construct a high-surface-area LNPC that effectively hosts and disperses Al-CDs, thereby preventing aggregation-induced quenching. Remarkably, the Al-CDs/LNPC-800 composite exhibits an exceptionally high adsorption capacity of 385.35mg/g for model naphthenic acids, ranking among the highest reported values for naphthenic acids adsorption. The adsorption process follows pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Freundlich isotherm, reaching equilibrium within 60min. More importantly, the composite demonstrates a sensitive fluorescence response to naphthenic acids, with a low limit of detection of 17.45mg/L and a linear range of 3-100mg/L. We reveal that the outstanding detection sensitivity is intrinsically linked to its superior adsorption performance through a “preconcentration-enhanced quenching” mechanism. Specifically, the strong adsorption of naphthenic acids by LNPC creates a locally concentrated environment around the embedded Al-CDs, thereby amplifying the static fluorescence quenching efficiency. In addition to its dual functionality, the composite exhibits excellent bifunctional reusability, retaining 94.37% of its initial adsorption capacity and 90.59% of its original fluorescence intensity after five regeneration cycles, and is proven effective in treating real petroleum wastewater. This work not only presents a high-performance material but also introduces a new design principle of “adsorption-driven fluorescence amplification” for developing advanced self-reporting remediation agents.

Graphene enables precise carrier-density control via gating, making it an ideal platform for studying electronic interactions. However, sample inhomogeneities often limit access to the low-density regimes where these interactions dominate. Enhancing carrier mobility is therefore crucial for exploring fundamental properties and developing device applications. Here, we demonstrate a significant reduction in external inhomogeneity using a double-layer graphene architecture separated by an ultra-thin hexagonal boron nitride layer. Mutual screening between the layers reduces scattering from random Coulomb potentials, resulting in a quantum mobility exceeding 1 0 7 c m 2 V - 1 s - 1 . Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations emerge at magnetic fields below 1 mT, while integer quantum Hall features are observed at 0.002 T. Furthermore, we identify a fractional quantum Hall plateau at a filling factor of v tot = - 10 / 3 at 2 T. These results demonstrate the platform's suitability for investigating strongly correlated electronic phases in graphene-based heterostructures.

Photocatalytic technology represents a key pathway for efficient solar-to-chemical conversion, offering broad prospects for addressing the energy crises and environmental pollution. Rare earth nanomaterials, due to the distinctive 4f electron layer structure, exhibit superior optical characteristics and tunable electronic configuration, including strong light absorption capabilities, broad absorption ranges, variable valence states, and abundant defects, enabling the design of high-performance photocatalysts. This review aims to provide a synthesis-to-application perspective on rare earth nanomaterials for photocatalysis. We systematically outline controlled synthesis strategies for diverse rare earth nanomaterials used in photocatalysis (encompassing rare earth metal organic frameworks, rare earth oxides, and rare earth alloys), and correlate their structural and electronic characteristics with photocatalytic functions. Recent progress is comparatively discussed in three major photocatalytic reactions: pollutant degradation, carbon dioxide reduction, and hydrogen evolution. Finally, current challenges and feasible future directions are outlined, including standardized evaluation, mechanism-verified active site identification, and green synthesis toward practical applications.

The photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide into valuable products is seen as a leading approach to tackle environmental challenges and energy crises. Metal‐organic framework (MOF) has emerged as highly attractive photocatalysts for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) reduction reactions because of excellent visible light absorption, tunable optical properties, well‐defined active sites, post‐modification capabilities, and superior stability. This review summarizes recent advances in the synthesis methods and catalytic performance of transition metal MOF for CO 2 reduction. Moreover, it identifies challenges and outlook for transition metal MOF applications, thereby establishing a foundation for both fundamental research and practical applications.

Graphene enables precise carrier-density control via gating, making it an ideal platform for studying electronic interactions. However, sample inhomogeneities often limit access to the low-density regimes where these interactions dominate. Enhancing carrier mobility is therefore crucial for exploring fundamental properties and developing device applications. Here, we demonstrate a significant reduction in external inhomogeneity using a double-layer graphene architecture separated by an ultra-thin hexagonal boron nitride layer. Mutual screening between the layers reduces scattering from random Coulomb potentials, resulting in a quantum mobility exceeding. Shubnikov de-Haas oscillations emerge at magnetic fields below 1 mT, while integer quantum Hall features are observed at 0.002T. Furthermore, we identify a fractional quantum Hall plateau at a filling factor of at 2T. These results demonstrate the platform's suitability for investigating strongly correlated electronic phases in graphene-based heterostructures.

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting offers a sustainable route for solar-to-hydrogen conversion, with neutral conditions being particularly attractive due to their safety, mild reaction environments, and material compatibility. However, achieving high PEC efficiency under neutral conditions remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate a wafer-scale p-n heterojunction photocathode comprising p-type InGaN nanowires integrated with n-type BiVO4, achieving highly efficient water splitting without any cocatalysts under neutral conditions. By engineering a gradient oxygen vacancy distribution within BiVO4, the internal semiconductor junction field and the external semiconductor/electrolyte field are spatially decoupled, thereby unlocking the intrinsic potential of the heterojunction photoelectrode. The optimized Gradient Ov-BiVO4/InGaN photocathode achieves a photocurrent density of 5.68 mA cm- 2 at 0 VRHE, corresponding to an 87 % improvement over conventional Ov-BiVO4/InGaN, and an onset potential of 1.21 VRHE, the highest reported under neutral conditions. Remarkably, it retains 93.4 % of its initial activity after 100 h of continuous operation and enables unbiased solar water splitting when coupled with a CoRuOx/n-InGaN photoanode. This work establishes spatially decoupled heterojunction engineering as a generalizable strategy for designing highly efficient, durable, and cost-effective catalyst-free PEC photoelectrodes.

The strategic reshaping of Cu active sites in CuInS2 (CIS) photocatalyst via cation exchange is explored, aiming to enhance C-C coupling for the highly selective production of C2H4 from CO2 photoreduction. By incorporating Ag+ into the near-surface layer of CIS (denoted as ACIS), atomic-level modifications of the local microenvironment around Cu sites are achieved, resulting in the formation of Ag single atoms (SAs). The reshaped Cu active sites exhibit increased electron density, facilitating CO2 adsorption and activation, along with a reduced energy barrier for C-C coupling. Resultantly, ACIS not only achieves the transformation of the product from C-1 to C2H4, but also exhibits superior photocatalytic activity with a C2H4 yield of 62.4 mu mol center dot g(-1) and selectivity of 95.0 % during 4 h of illumination, which is 21.4 times higher than pristine CIS within the same illumination time. Theoretical calculations and in situ DRIFTS measurements reveal that the C-C coupling reaction primarily occurs between *CO and *CHO intermediates at the reshaped Cu sites, leading to efficient production of C2H4. This study not only presents an innovative approach for advanced catalytic site design for targeted CO2-to-C2+ transformation but also deepens the mechanistic understanding of cation exchange in modulating photocatalytic reactivity.

Polarization engineering has revolutionized the photonic and electronic landscape of III-nitride semiconductors over the past decades. However, recent revelations of giant ferroelectric polarization in wurtzite III-nitrides challenge the long-standing paradigms. Here, we experimentally elucidate the polarization, including its magnitude and orientation, and its relationship to lattice polarity in III-nitrides. Those experimentally determined polarizations exceeding 1 C/m2 with an upward orientation in metal-polar wurtzite nitride compounds align with recent theoretical predictions. To reconcile these findings, a unified polarization framework is established based on the centrosymmetric layered-hexagonal reference structure. This unified framework redefines the polarization landscape in contemporary GaN heterostructures, quantum structures, and ferroelectric heterostructures. Furthermore, we predict significant tunability and a dramatic increase in sheet carrier concentration in ferroelectric ScAlN/GaN heterostructures, heralding advancements in high-power, high-frequency, and reconfigurable transistors, and non-volatile memories. This work bridges the critical gap in the understanding of polarization in both conventional and ferroelectric wurtzite nitrides, offering fundamental insights and paving the way for next-generation photonic, electronic, and acoustic devices.

The multi-metal alloy (MMA) catalysts display exceptional multifunctional catalytic capabilities. However, it is still a great challenge to improve the catalytic performance by accurately synthesizing the morphology. Herein, we present a simple one-pot method for designing and synthesizing the ultrathin MMA nanotube-structured CuNiCoFeRu catalysts (CuNiCoFeRu UNT), which achieve unprecedented comprehensive performance in nitrate and nitrobenzene reduction. The MMA nanotube with sub-1 nm wall thickness showed efficient mass transfer and nearly 100% surface exposure. Benefiting from high intrinsic activity enabled by the multi-metal alloying effects, the CuNiCoFeRu UNT achieved as high as 98% NH 3 Faradaic efficiency (FE) and 6.8 mol h −1 g −1 cat. yield in the nitrate reduction, and as high as 99% selectivity with a yield of 16.4 mol h −1 g −1 cat. from nitrobenzene to aniline. High electron density and the synergistic effect among elements endow CuNiCoFeRu UNT with considerably enhanced nitrate and nitrobenzene reduction activity. This finding provides a highly efficient electrocatalyst for inorganic and organic nitrogen reduction. Furthermore, this synthetic strategy can be applied to other multi-metal alloy nanotubes with ultrathin walls, including binary, ternary, quaternary, quinary and senary alloy structures, demonstrating that the synthetic route is a general and universal method for multi-metal alloy nanotubes.

The production of urea through C-N coupling via the electrochemical coreduction of CO2 and NO3- represents an environmentally friendly and promising approach. However, the C-N coupling reaction encompasses multiple reactants and complex pathways, necessitating a catalyst that exhibits a high efficiency in both CO2 and NO3- reduction. Herein, the sub-2 nm Cu and Co codoped SnO2 ultrathin nanosheet (SnO2CuCo) with mesoporous structure is synthesized for the electrochemical coreduction of CO2 and NO3- for urea synthesis, and the thickness of SnO2CuCo is only 1.8 nm, and the mesoporous size in the ultrathin nanosheet is 2 nm. The as-synthesized SnO2CuCo achieved a remarkable urea Faraday efficiency (FE) of 50 ± 1% with a production rate as high as 2701.2 ± 99.1 μmol h-1 gcat-1. Additionally, the SnO2CuCo catalyst demonstrated exceptional stability after 10 catalytic cycles. Through in situ spectroscopic analysis combined with density functional theory computations, it has been revealed that Cu doping facilitates the reduction of CO2 to CO and enhances CO adsorption, favoring the creation of the essential *CO intermediate species. Meanwhile, Co doping effectively reduces the activation energy required for the C-N coupling reaction, thereby promoting the catalytic performance, specifically the activity and selectivity, of the SnO2CuCo catalyst in the process of urea synthesis. This finding provides a whole new catalytic strategy for the electrochemical production of urea.

AlGaN‐based ultraviolet (UV) light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) experience a notable reduction in efficiency within the 280–330 nm wavelength range, known as the “UVB gap”. Given the extensive applications of UV LEDs in this wavelength range, it is imperative to bridge this efficiency gap. In this study, a strategy facilitated by the presence of residual Al adatoms is introduced to simultaneously improve the integration of Ga‐adatoms and the migration of Al/Ga‐adatoms during the growth of low‐Al‐composition AlGaN quantum wells (QWs) even at high temperatures comparable to those used for high‐Al‐composition AlGaN quantum barriers. This growth strategy enables the epitaxy of high‐quality AlGaN QWs with a wide tunable emission wavelength range across the UVB gap. Utilizing this approach, high‐efficiency UV LEDs that effectively bridge the UVB gap are developed. Furthermore, benefiting from this QWs growth configuration, these UV LEDs exhibit an exceptionally long L 70 lifetime, marking a significant step forward in the growth technology of AlGaN QWs and expanding the application possibilities of UV LEDs.

The removal of acetylene (C2H2) impurities from ethylene (C2H4) is a critical step in the production of high-purity C2H4. Due to its low reaction temperature, low energy consumption and high selectivity for C2H4, the electrocatalytic semi-hydrogenation of C2H2 is an ideal method for removing C2H2. Herein, ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) mesoporous holmium oxide nanosheet-stabilized copper nanoparticles (Cu/Ho2O3) for stable and efficient electrocatalytic semi-hydrogenation of C2H2 were prepared through a simple and one-step high-temperature calcination-reduction method. The ultra-thin two-dimensional mesoporous structure of holmium oxide creates abundant coordination defects, improving the faradaic efficiency and durability of copper nanoparticles for catalyzing the semi-hydrogenation of C2H2. The as-prepared Cu/Ho2O3 achieved a C2H4 selectivity of 99.6% and a faradaic efficiency of 98.1% because the presence of oxygen vacancies is conducive to forming electron-rich Cu nanoparticles, thereby promoting the adsorption of electrophilic C2H2 and the desorption of nucleophilic C2H4. Meanwhile, the holmium oxide nanosheet with unsaturated coordination sites can stabilize the Cu nanoparticles, and the faradaic efficiency and current density remain stable for more than 600 minutes. This work offers a promising design strategy for a stable and efficient electrocatalyst for the semi-hydrogenation of C2H2 to C2H4.