Quantum chemical mapping of weak interaction networks in N2O4/HNO3/H2O and HNO3/N2O4 propellant systems is reported. Electrostatic potential analysis identifies HNO3 as the dominant hydrogen bond donor (+64.28 kcal/mol), forming the strongest complex with H2O (-9.45 kcal/mol). In the ternary HNO3···N2O4···H2O cluster, water acts as a polarization catalyst, inducing a cooperative stabilization of 1.99 kcal/mol by enhancing the HNO3 donor ability. Most significantly, in water-depleted 2HNO3···N2O4 clusters, a specific weak interaction topology prefigures a concerted double proton transfer pathway (ΔE‡ = +32.1 kcal/mol), forming [HNO2···NO2+]···NO3- ion pairs. This finding provides a new theoretical hypothesis for the source of ions beyond the dissociation of HNO3 in future studies of corrosion origin. Solvation models further confirm the persistence of these weak interaction networks and the feasibility of the proposed proton transfer pathway in the liquid N2O4 environment.

Synchronous characterization of cavitation-cloud collapse morphology and transient wall-impact loads is essential for elucidating cavitating-jet mechanisms and optimizing process parameters. Conventional measurement approaches suffer from optical occlusion and temporal misalignment, making it difficult to simultaneously achieve morphological visualization and high-frequency pressure acquisition. In this study, a multimodal synchronous temporal alignment method is proposed. A transparent PVDF-ITO sensor was developed, characterized by UV-visible transmittance and SHPB dynamic calibration, and integrated into the observation window to enable in situ acquisition of both cavitation morphology and wall-impact response signals. In addition, a physics-constrained temporal-alignment algorithm was developed to identify collapse-related features and assess alignment reliability using multiple validation criteria. The experiments show that the system achieves microsecond-level synchronization accuracy. Under the optimal time shift, the verification matching rate (VMR), causality-criterion pass rate, and peak matching rate are 96.6

Solid-state electrolyte lithium (Li) metal batteries have been considered as promising storage devices due to their high energy density, good thermal stability and safety. The key to achieving their superior performance lies in maintaining a stable solid-solid interface. Although applying high pressure is a common strategy to improve interfacial contacts, the generally poor pressure tolerance of the Li metal anode has largely been overlooked by researchers. Under high pressure, the Li anode undergoes significant volume changes and creep, which not only fails to maintain intimate contact but also intensifies interface separation, ultimately leading to performance degradation. Herein, a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE)/Li metal/carbon fiber cloth (CFC) composite anode (G-LiCFC) with high pressure resistance capability was fabricated by the hot-melting method. The G-LiCFC composite anode not only maintains structural integrity under a high pressure of 30 MPa but also contributes to forming an excellent interface with the electrolyte. As a result, the symmetric cells of the G-LiCFC composite anode display stable cycling for 4870 hours at a high areal capacity of 12 mA h cm-2, and the LiFePO4|GPE|LiCFC full cells exhibit excellent cycling performance with no capacity decay after 410 cycles at 0.2 C under a high pressure of 10 MPa.Keywords: Solid-state electrolyte; Li metal; Carbon fiber cloth/lithium metal composite; Compressive resistance; Interface.

ABSTRACT The growing demand for low‐temperature lithium metal batteries in aerospace, polar exploration, and other extreme environments calls for polymer electrolytes that can maintain efficient ion transport and interfacial stability under cryogenic conditions. Yet the low‐temperature application of polymer electrolytes is typically limited by the strong coupling of Li + transport to sluggish polymer segmental relaxation, leading to severe polarization, slow desolvation, and unstable electrode interphases. Here, we report an ion‐transport topology engineering strategy based on an in situ polymerized poly(1,3‐dioxolane) (PDOL) electrolyte. By introducing fluorobenzene (FB) as a hydrogen‐bond‐guided molecular organizer, we create a preorganized local transport field that weakens excessive Li + ‐ether oxygen coordination and reconfigures the local Li + migration landscape. This topology‐engineered microenvironment promotes anion‐rich coordination, lowers desolvation barriers, and directs inorganic‐rich interphase formation on both Li metal and high‐voltage cathodes. Consequently, the optimized electrolyte delivers a Li + transference number of 0.76 at −40°C and stable operation from −65 to 25°C. Li||Li cells cycle over 2000 h at −40°C, Li||LiNi 0.8 Co 0.1 Mn 0.1 O 2 coin cells retain 99% capacity after 320 cycles, and pouch cells retain 84.9% after 450 cycles. This work establishes ion‐transport topology engineering as a viable design principle for polymer electrolytes under extreme‐temperature conditions.

Cavitating jet impingement is a key phenomenon in marine and ocean engineering that is responsible for cavitation-induced material erosion while also being harnessed for surface treatment applications. However, decoupling these concurrent effects is challenging since hydrodynamic jet pressure, microjet impacts, and shockwave emissions often coincide in space and time, making it difficult to isolate their individual contributions. To address this challenge, this review surveys recent advances in measurement techniques designed to decouple these overlapping effects. It highlights multi-source synchronous measurement methods, such as high-speed optical imaging and broadband piezoelectric pressure sensing combined with advanced signal and image processing, to capture mechanism-specific signatures. The review treats mechanism decoupling as a linked task of mechanism identification, mechanism attribution, and contribution quantification and synthesizes the literature under distinct criteria, such as energy, peak pressure, and damage dominance. It shows that synchronized multi-source diagnostics improve attribution reliability but that true quantitative decoupling remains limited by configuration dependence, inconsistent normalization, and a lack of benchmark evaluation criteria.

The high mechanical sensitivity of 3,4-bis(3-nitrofurazan-4-yl)furoxan (DNTF) severely limits its safe processing and practical applications. Here, we developed a continuous microfluidic assembly strategy combined with in situ ultraviolet (UV) photocuring to produce DNTF/fluororubber (F2604)/hexafluorobutyl acrylate (HFBA) composite microspheres with a core-shell structure and high sphericity. By precisely matching multiphase fluid dynamics to photocrosslinking kinetics, a dense three-dimensional F/HFBA network was rapidly formed on the droplet surface, which resisted crystallization-induced stress and stabilized the interface. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations revealed enhanced interfacial interactions, in which HFBA, acting as a crosslinking monomer, increased the binding strength between DNTF and the polymer matrix. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the dense shell layer shifted the thermal decomposition peak to 293–294 °C. Meanwhile, the viscoelastic dissipation of the crosslinked network significantly improved mechanical safety, reducing impact sensitivity from 100% to 44% and increasing friction sensitivity from 112 N to 360 N. The proposed chemical engineering method enables the precise construction of composite energetic materials, effectively enhancing HEDM safety and providing a structure-controllable system for efficient energy modulation.

Integrating thermodynamically-favorable small molecules oxidation with water electrolysis offers an effective way to realize energy-efficient H2 production and obtain value-added chemicals as well. In this study, we report an energy-saving H2 production system utilizing thermodynamically favorable 3,5-diamino-1H-1,2,4-triazole (DAT) electrooxidation reaction (DATOR) as an oxygen evolution reaction-alternative process of low-energy-consumption for H2 production. At the anode, value-added 3,3'-diamino-5,5'-azo-1,2,4-triazole (DAAT) energetic chemical and H2 are obtained. The carbon cloth-loaded NiS2 (CC@NiS2) substrate and doped with Ru nanoparticles (NPs) cathode could modulate the electronic structure, resulting in a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) overpotential as low as 34.4 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2. Density Functional Theory calculations show that the synergistic effect of the Ru NPs and NiS2 significantly enhanced the alkaline HER kinetics. Benefitting from the DATOR and high hydrogen atom economy to convert H of DAT substrate to H2 via Tafel pathway, the assembled CC@NiS2/Ru NPs||CF@CuO NWs (CF: copper foam) two-electrode coupling system only requires 1.04 V to drive a current density of 10 mA cm-2, and greatly reduces the energy consumption by 36.6% for H2 production compared with conventional water electrolysis, avoiding the traditional hazardous synthesis condition of DAAT. Furthermore, anion-exchange membrane electrolyzer tests show superior long-term stability of 250 h at a high current density of 0.5 A cm-2. This study not only provides a new idea for the sustainable electrosynthesis of energy-containing materials, but also demonstrates the broad application prospects of electrocatalytic coupling systems in the co-production of clean energy and high-value chemicals.

Solid-state lithium batteries (SSLBs) present a promising approach to surmount the safety and energy density constraints of conventional lithium-ion batteries. Nevertheless, their commercialization is impeded by the interfacial instability between the lithium metal anode and the solid electrolyte. The critical current density (CCD) serves as a crucial metric for evaluating this stability. However, conventional stepwise tests merely offer transient assessments and are unable to capture long-term degradation mechanism. This research introduces an improved CCD evaluation method, using a poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP)-based solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) as a model. By integrating long-term cycling tests, electrochemical impedance, overpotential, and morphological analyses, along with Multi-physics Field Coupling Model, this study visualizes the evolution of current density and stress on lithium surfaces with varying roughness. The findings indicate that at 0.5 mA cm-2, lithium deposition changes from dense to porous, with localized current and stress concentrations accelerating interfacial degradation and short-circuit formation. As a result, the practical CCD for this SPE system is 0.5 mA cm-2 which is significantly lower than the 2.2 mA cm-2 estimated by conventional methods. This study emphasizes the necessity of redefining CCD based on long-term stability and presents a unified experimental-computational framework for clarifying failure mechanisms and guiding the rational design of high-performance solid-state electrolytes.

ABSTRACT Electrocatalytic N─N oxidative coupling (OC) offers an eco‐friendly approach to produce value‐added azo materials, but suffers from sluggish kinetics and limited Faradaic efficiency (FE). The key fundamental issue is unfavorable competitive adsorption of hydroxyl groups and N ‐heterocyclic species. Here, a Pt‐immobilized Cu/CuO heterostructure is designed to create energy‐favorable N─N OC of N ‐heterocyclic diaminotriazole (DATOC). Operando spectroscopy along with theoretical calculations reveal that the immobilization of Pt nanoclusters (NCs) in Cu/CuO mediates adsorption capacities for both N ‐heterocyclic substrates/intermediates and OH − species on Cu sites of Cu/CuO, collaboratively promoting DATOC kinetics. While the N─N intermediates are effectively adsorbed on Pt─Cu sites via metal–N coordination. Consequently, the Pt@Cu/CuO catalyst only requires 0.832 and 0.904 V RHE to achieve 10 and 100 mA cm −2 , respectively, with a high FE of 95%. Due to the low‐potential DATOC, the adsorbed hydrogen atom from N─H cleavage of aminotriazole undergoes counterintuitive self‐coupling to H 2 . As a result, the dual‐electrode H 2 production requires an electricity input of only 1.15 kWh per m 3 of H 2 . The exceptional catalytic durability of the coupled system is also demonstrated in a flow electrolyzer for 600 h@500 mA cm −2 . This work provides a new perspective for highly efficient green azo electrosynthesis and low‐energy‐consumption H 2 production.

Although electrocatalytic synthesis represents a promising frontier in energetic materials (EMs) development, the mechanistic understanding of the underlying catalytic processes remains elusive, posing both challenges and opportunities to optimize reaction pathways and enhance material performance. This study employs density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the reaction mechanism of the electrochemical oxidative coupling of 5-amino-1H-tetrazole (5AT) to produce 5,5′-azo-tetrazole (ZT), catalyzed by nickel (Ni) and nickel oxide (NiO) under alkaline conditions. Our findings reveal that the dehydrogenation reaction of 5AT follows the proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) mechanism and involves two different pathways: direct dehydrogenation and dehydrogenation initiated by OH∗. Crucially, the involvement of OH∗ shifts the dehydrogenation reaction on both Ni and NiO from endothermic to exothermic, thereby significantly enhancing reaction activity. In addition, OH∗ participation markedly suppresses the competitive oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on Ni and NiO surfaces, ensuring high selectivity towards ZT synthesis. The experimental results corroborate with DFT calculations, confirming that NiO is a more excellent catalyst than Ni, and underscoring the pivotal role of OH∗ in the 5AT oxidative coupling reaction. This work provides a theoretical foundation for the development of green and efficient synthesis of energetic azo compounds.

The stable operation of lithium metal batteries in cold climates is significantly constrained by insufficient dynamics within both the bulk and interfacial regions of the electrolyte. In the study, an in‐situ polymerized quasi‐solid‐state electrolyte employing a ternary‐anion system with co‐initiators to enhance its anti‐freezing performance is proposed. A competitive strategy, driven by the co‐initiators, modifies the Li + coordination environment, weakening the solvation structure and regulating the molecular chain within the bulk electrolyte, effectively lowering the lithium transport barrier. Meanwhile, the polymer‐based electrolyte facilitates the formation of a dual‐layered interphase consisting of a LiF‐rich layer and another layer enriched with silver on the lithium metal electrode. The synergistic effect of the bulk and interfacial phases results in a high Li + transference number of 0.78 at −20 °C. Consequently, the electrolyte effectively inhibits lithium dendrite growth, enabling stable operations of Li symmetric cells for over 600 h at −20 °C and under a current density of 10 mA cm −2 . Furthermore, Li||LFP cells cycled at −20 °C and 20 mA g −1 retain 93.65% capacity after 150 cycles. This work offers new insights into the rational design of multi‐anion electrolytes with optimized bulk and interfacial properties for advanced low‐temperature lithium metal batteries.

3,4-Dinitrofurazanfuroxan (DNTF) is characterized by its high energy, high detonation velocity, strong explosive power, and small critical diameter for detonation. However, its practical application is limited by poor thermal stability and mechanical properties. In this study, the polymeric desensitizer fluororubber (F2603) was introduced as a binder to enhance the overall performance of DNTF. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to investigate the thermal stability (trigger bond length and cohesive energy density (CED)) and mechanical properties, including elastic coefficient (Cij), tensile modulus (E), bulk modulus (K), shear modulus (G), Cauchy pressure (C12–C44), and Poisson’s ratio, for both pure DNTF (1 1 1) and DNTF (1 1 1)/F2603 composite systems at varying temperatures. The thermal stability was further experimentally investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique. The results demonstrated that the addition of F2603 leads to a shorter trigger bond length, higher CED, and a 7.2 kJ·mol−1 increase in activation energy (Ea), indicating improved thermal stability. Additionally, mechanical property simulations indicated that F2603 decreased the E, K, and G of DNTF while increasing the K/G ratio, suggesting enhanced mechanical toughness. These studies have important implications for the formulation design and practical application of DNTF and its composites.

As the critical first step in structural health management and fault diagnosis, corrosion monitoring is inherently multidisciplinary in nature. While conventional in situ techniques capture real-time electrical, vibrational, and thermal signatures, their effectiveness is constrained by limited detection precision, inefficient data analysis, and unreliable predictive modeling. The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics has fundamentally transformed this field, generating considerable academic interest over the past decade. Machine learning (ML) – serving as the cornerstone of this revolution – excels not only in extracting nonlinear features from nonstationary processes but also employs probabilistic inference frameworks to quantify predictive uncertainty, thereby substantially augmenting in situ monitoring capabilities. This review systematically examines advancements in ML-assisted corrosion monitoring throughout the preceding decade, categorizing prevalent algorithms according to domain-specific implementations while evaluating enhanced in situ techniques through empirical case studies demonstrating superior data processing efficacy. Finally, we project future trajectories for intelligent monitoring technology in light of persistent challenges and emergent innovations.

Overall water splitting (OWS) to produce hydrogen has attracted large attention in recent years due to its ecological-friendliness and sustainability. However, the efficiency of OWS has been forced by the sluggish kinetics of the four-electron oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The replacement of OER by alternative electrooxidation of small molecules with more thermodynamically favorable potentials may fundamentally break the limitation and achieve hydrogen production with low energy consumption, which may also be accompanied by the production of more value-added chemicals than oxygen or by electrochemical degradation of pollutants. This review critically assesses the latest discoveries in the coupled electrooxidation of various small molecules with OWS, including alcohols, aldehydes, amides, urea, hydrazine, etc. Emphasis is placed on the corresponding electrocatalyst design and related reaction mechanisms (e.g., dual hydrogenation and N-N bond breaking of hydrazine and C═N bond regulation in urea splitting to inhibit hazardous NCO- and NO- productions, etc.), along with emerging alternative electrooxidation reactions (electrooxidation of tetrazoles, furazans, iodide, quinolines, ascorbic acid, sterol, trimethylamine, etc.). Some new decoupled electrolysis and self-powered systems are also discussed in detail. Finally, the potential challenges and prospects of coupled water electrolysis systems are highlighted to aid future research directions.

Aluminum (Al) powder has been the conventional fuel in solid propellants; however, its combustion products frequently undergo agglomeration during combustion, causing significant energy losses. In this study, additive manufacturing technology was applied to fabricate Al-Li/HTPB solid propellants to gain more energy release. The SEM results demonstrate a uniform component distribution without defects. Compared with the Al/HTPB solid propellant, the friction load is increased by over 36 N and the activation energy of the thermal decomposition is reduced by 38.9 kJ/mol, proving a more stable mechanical safety and high thermal reactivity. The open-air combustion test found that the combustion process of the Al-Li/HTPB solid propellant is accompanied by an intense microexplosion phenomenon. Moreover, the heat release of propellants with Al-Li powders can increase by over 246 J/g, and the combustion temperature was 128.7 degrees C higher than propellants with Al powders. The analysis of combustion products confirms the complete combustion of Al-Li powders, which greatly contributes to the energy release. Furthermore, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are employed to preliminarily investigate the microexplosion phenomenon. Within the temperature range of 300-1000 K, the thermal conductivity of the Al-Li alloy decreased from 3.21 to 1.21 W/(mK), while for pure Al it decreased from 8.88 to 1.73 W/(mK). A substantial decrease in interfacial thermal conductivity is observed for Al-Li/AP (0.3900 W/m2K) relative to Al/AP (0.6332 W/m2K). Thus, the powder inherent thermal conductivity contributed to the microexplosion of propellants containing Al-Li powders. The study revealed that Al-Li alloy powder can be a good candidate fuel in the additive-manufactured propellants.

Cavitation jet nozzles are widely used for cutting, crushing, cleaning, etc., but the erosion behavior of cavitation jets remains highly unpredictable owing to the multiscale complexity of cavitation. The present work integrates an energy balance approach with a hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian cavitation model, and incorporates the dynamic mesh approach to represent the erosion morphology explicitly. The large eddy simulation approach is used to calculate the turbulent flow dynamics, while a random nucleation method is applied to consider cavitation nuclei. A two-way transformation algorithm is employed for bridging between the continuous phase (modeled in the Eulerian framework) and the discrete bubbles (tracked through the Lagrangian approach). An erosion prediction indicator using the material derivative of multiscale vapor volumes is used to assess the cavitation erosion distribution and compare with the previous experiment [Liu and Ma, "Erosion behavior of aluminum by an inclined cavitating jet," Wear 474-475, 203751 (2021)]. A hybrid model coupling cavitation erosion risk with the dynamic mesh technique is proposed to enable high-fidelity prediction of erosion hotspots. The proposed model demonstrates enhanced accuracy in cavitation features through multiscale coupled simulation of large cavities and tiny bubbles, as well as in cavitation erosion distributions by dynamically adjusting mesh nodes according to the erosion risk distribution and achieving specimen surface morphology reconstruction. The results indicate that the multiscale model considering tiny bubbles well reveals the secondary erosion area, and the dynamic mesh coupled method better captures the erosion area compared with the method with a static mesh.

Hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) is widely found in fluid machinery and has emerged as a significant technology in several engineering fields. To investigate the erosion characteristics caused by HC, experimental tests under varying conditions are conducted in this study using a Venturi test section with different divergent angles. The qualitative erosion risk distributions under different conditions are represented through paint experiments, showing that the erosion risk increases as the divergent angle decreases. Subsequently, a Eulerian-Lagrangian multiscale cavitation model is adopted to simulate HC in the test section. This model directly resolves large-scale cavities using the volume of fluid (VOF) method and simultaneously tracks sub-scale discrete bubbles using a discrete bubble model (DBM). A modified aggressive indicator [Li et al., Int. J. Mech. Sci. 262, 108,735 (2024)] is incorporated into the multiscale cavitation model to account for the erosion power produced by multiscale cavitation behaviors, thereby reproducing the distribution of cavitation erosion risks. Simulations corresponding to the experimental conditions are conducted, and the results show that the simulated cavitation features align well with the experimental observations. Furthermore, the cavitation erosion risk distributions predicted by the present model agree well with the paint tests, confirming the reliability of our model.

The 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene (FOX-7) has been adopted in high-energy explosives. To further improve the thermal safety and detonation performance of FOX-7, a microfluidic crystallization platform with a swirl-shaped chip was employed to prepare ultrafine FOX-7. Results show that the crystal structure of FOX-7 could be precisely controlled by adjusting the operational parameters of microfluidic. The microfluidic techniques prepared superfine FOX-7 exhibit a consistent smaller particle size, narrower particle size distribution, reduced crystal defects, and enhanced sphericity structure. On the other hand, the thermochemical properties of FOX-7 are also improved. The thermal decomposition temperature and critical thermal explosion temperature of ultrafine FOX-7 are increased by 24.6 and 22.1 °C, respectively. The thermal stability, energy release efficiency, and combustion of the microfluidic recrystallization method prepared FOX-7 are greatly improved. This research presents a secure, effective, and eco-friendly methodology for the preparation and manipulation of ultrafine FOX-7 crystals.