Liangbing Hu

Reliance on petroleum-derived plastic packaging exacerbates environmental burdens and lacks intrinsic antimicrobial protection against food spoilage. While biobased materials offer a sustainable alternative, optimizing their formulations is hindered by vast component libraries, inefficient trial-and-error experimentation, and complex multiproperty requirements. Herein, we develop an integrated workflow combining robotic automation, machine learning predictions, density functional theory, and life cycle assessment to accelerate biobased packaging discovery. Leveraging data augmentation and ensemble modeling, we use a hierarchical neural network to predict ∼1 billion candidate formulations, balancing mechanical properties, optical transparency, and environmental footprint. The resulting biobased packaging demonstrates enhanced hydrostability, effective antimicrobial activity, and high barrier performance, significantly extending the shelf life of cucumbers and avocados. Last, we release a data-sharing platform featuring forward prediction, inverse design, and environmental impact functions to support community use. This integrative framework provides sustainable, antimicrobial packaging materials alternative to conventional plastic films.

Traditional thermochemical processes typically operate under relatively static conditions, where conventional reactors restrict the time scales over which key reaction parameters (such as temperature) can be varied. Electrification via Joule heating offers a way to overcome this limitation by producing pulsed temperature profiles with millisecond time resolution via programmable electric currents through a lightweight resistive catalyst support. The programmable heating and quenching (PHQ) approach enables access to nontraditional reaction dynamics and may significantly enhance product yield and selectivity with improved energy efficiency. Ammonia (NH3), produced by the Haber–Bosch (HB) process, plays a critical role in fertilizer production and is gaining attention as a potential hydrogen carrier. The conventional HB process requires high temperatures and pressures, limiting energy efficiency and decentralized production. Dong et al. demonstrated NH3 synthesis from H2 and N2 at ambient pressures using a PHQ reactor and an Fe catalyst, with yields higher than those obtained under isothermal conditions and stable output [Dong et al., Nature, 605, 470–476 (2022)]. Here, we used density-functional-theory-based microkinetic modeling under both steady-state (isothermal) and dynamic (PHQ) conditions to understand the effect of controlled thermal fluctuations on heterogeneous catalysis of NH3 synthesis on the most stable facet of Fe, namely, (110). We demonstrate how PHQ can alter reaction rates and surface species; specifically, we predict fluctuations in concentrations of adsorbed N and NH; we also investigate how variations in temperature pulsing, e.g., the maximum temperature allowed and cycle time, influence yield. We find that PHQ enhances NH3 yield only when the average of the fluctuating temperature deviates from the optimal isothermal temperature (especially when lower). Furthermore, increasing the time between high-temperature pulses could dramatically improve energy efficiency due to the slow temperature decay between pulses.

Growing energy demands and renewable integration are stressing the aging power grid infrastructure. Lignocellulosic oil-impregnated paper is widely used in power transformers but suffers from critical limitations, such as low dielectric strength, mechanical strength, and thermal conductivity, causing premature transformer failures. Here, we demonstrate a superior electrically insulating oil-impregnated paper design using the naturally anisotropic structure of densified wood veneer to achieve nanosized channels of oil that efficiently disrupt electrical breakdown pathways. The developed oil-impregnated densified wood (ODW) creates aligned cellulose fibers with 166 ± 87–nanometer oil nanochannels, achieving record dielectric strength of 105 kilovolts per millimeter. The structure also delivers a mechanical strength of up to 384 megapascals and a thermal conductivity of 0.33 watts per meter per kelvin, enabling enhanced longevity upon thermal aging tests. The ODW could replace conventional transformer insulation to enhance power transformer performance and improve lifetime. Moreover, its anisotropic oil-filled nanochannel design offers a general strategy for hybrid dielectrics in medium- and high-voltage applications.

Copper’s exceptional electrical and thermal conductivities make it essential for electronics and energy systems. However, oxidation and corrosion limit its long-term reliability, and existing protection strategies often involve high-temperature or multistep processing. We report a molecularly reactive strategy that converts copper precursors to metallic copper at 1000 hours in acid, >200 hours in sulfide, >240 hours at 140°C). This strategy resolves the long-standing trade-off between conductivity, corrosion resistance, and processability for next-generation flexible electronics and energy systems.

Cu ²⁺ -doped cellulose nano fiber (Cu-CNF) solid electrolytes were developed for fast charge, high energy density batteries. Cellulose chains in the fibers are opened by Cu ²⁺ coordination, and a binary salt (LiTFSI) was added with minimal residual solvent left after the drying process. The Li ⁺ and TFSI ⁻ transport both within and between fibers greatly enhances the ion transport. To advance understanding of salt transport in Cu-CNF electrolytes, we conducted restricted diffusion experiments on two formulations of Cu-CNF samples to obtain the binary salt diffusivity ( D ± ) vs temperature, and measured the influences of test protocols and sample-to-sample variation. In addition, we did pulsed field gradient (PFG) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments and used molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to model species motion. Restricted diffusion experiments show the Cu-CNF materials display concentration polarization voltage relaxation, and the resulting salt diffusivity is D ± ≈ 5 × 10 − 12 m ² s ⁻¹ at 45 °C, with E a ≈ 0.5 5 eV . PFG-NMR resulted in values for D L i + and D TFS I − with a similar magnitude to D ± , while MD (focused on intra-fiber transport) gave lower ion diffusivities and activation energies. The multi-component, fiber-based structure of these electrolytes provides new opportunities for transport theory and measurements, with future work focused on studying composition-property relationships to better quantify transport mechanisms.

Molecular dynamics-guided pulse optimization enhances polyethylene conversion, increasing product yield from ∼22% to ∼47%.

Ruthenium dioxide (RuO ₂ ) shows excellent activity toward the acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER); however, its practical application is limited by poor long‐term stability. Herein, a single‐phase Mo _0.5 Ru _0.5 O ₂ nanoparticle catalyst is reported with a high Mo content, synthesized via high‐temperature thermal shock treatment under an oxygen atmosphere (HTSO), exhibiting high activity and stability in OER. The HTSO technique involves rapidly heating the precursor to ≈1200 °C for ≈0.05 s in oxygen, followed by immediate quenching at a rate of ≈10 ⁴ °C s ⁻¹ . The resulting nanoparticles exhibit a uniform size of ≈10 nm and homogeneous elemental mixing, overcoming the thermodynamic barriers that typically lead to phase separation in conventional synthesis methods. The Mo _0.5 Ru _0.5 O ₂ catalyst achieves an overpotential of 210 mV at 10 mA cm ⁻² and maintains stable performance over 300 h at 50 mA cm ⁻² in OER, significantly surpassing the stability of RuO ₂ and other reported high‐metal‐content doped RuO ₂ catalysts. High‐valence Mo, with its multiple accessible oxidation states and compatible ionic radius, serves as an ideal dopant for RuO ₂ , enabling stable lattice substitution, effective electron donation, and ultimately suppressing Ru over‐oxidation while enhancing stability. This approach enhances catalyst stability and Ru utilization, providing a versatile platform for synthesizing other metal‐doped RuO ₂ systems toward cost‐effective and stable OER catalysts.