Chang Liu

Bismuth vanadate (BiVO ₄ ) is a promising candidate for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, yet its performance is limited by sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics. Although oxygen evolution cocatalysts (OECs) mitigate this issue, conventional OEC systems often require additional hole‐transport layers to form multilayer cascade architectures, which inevitably increase interfacial resistance and hinder scalable fabrication. Herein, we simplify the photoanode design by developing a single‐layer, multifunctional OEC based on Co‐doped Ti ₂ CO ₂ quantum dots for BiVO ₄ photoanodes (Co:Ti ₂ CO ₂ /BiVO ₄ ). The optimized photoanode achieves a remarkable photocurrent density of 4.48 mA·cm ⁻² ·for water oxidation, which further reaches 6.24 mA·cm ⁻² (83.2% of the theoretical limit) in the presence of a hole scavenger at 1.23 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Meanwhile, it exhibits excellent photocorrosion resistance for over 130 h. The performance enhancement arises from the synergistic effect of the Co‐doped Ti ₂ CO ₂ layer. Its narrow‐bandgap semiconducting Ti ₂ CO ₂ skeleton acts as a fast channel to suppress charge recombination, while Co dopants provide active sites to promote surface OER kinetics. Additionally, a large‐area photoanode of 100 cm ² was successfully fabricated using the same scalable all‐spray pyrolysis approach, underscoring its potential for practical deployment. This work offers new insights into the development of cost‐effective, scalable, and efficient PEC devices.

Transformative technologies demand polycrystalline piezoelectric ceramics with piezoelectric coefficients ( d ₃₃ ) exceeding 6000 picocoulomb per Newton (pC/N), but this goal has remained elusive because of the intrinsically weak nature of piezoelectricity and incomplete polarization alignment in polycrystals. We overcome this barrier by placing a polycrystalline lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic in a temperature and electric-field control module so that it operates at a quadruple phase point (QP). This QP ceramic exhibited a d ₃₃ of ~6850 pC/N, which surpasses that of commercial PZT ceramics by 10 to 30 times and commercial lead magnesium niobate–lead titanate single crystals by ~4 times. This exceptional property arises from the tricritical nature of the QP, a thermodynamic singularity that produces an ultrasoft lattice and enables complete polarization alignment in polycrystals. The module maintained this performance for surrounding ambient temperature ranging from 25° to 350°C.

Current methods for superhydrophobic modification of polypyrrole (PPy) are typically complex and challenging to implement at scale. To address this limitation, this study developed a durable superhydrophobic photothermal coating by modifying PPy through a facile surface treatment method. The successful modification was confirmed by TEM and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses, revealing a uniform polymer film on PPy surfaces. When combined with epoxy resin at an optimal mass ratio of 0.3, the coating exhibited well‐defined micro/nano structures with a contact angle of 153.6°. The coating maintained good chemical stability and mechanical durability. Under simulated conditions, the coating demonstrated excellent photothermal conversion efficiency and cycling stability. In freeze–thaw testing, coated concrete specimens showed significantly enhanced frost resistance, with mass loss reduced to one‐fifth compared to uncoated samples after 50 cycles. This innovative coating system provides an effective strategy for improving concrete durability in harsh environments. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.

High-performance superelastic materials with a combination of high superelastic stress, large elastic recovery strain, and stable elastic modulus over a wide temperature range are highly desired for a variety of technological applications. Unfortunately, it is difficult to achieve these multi-functionalities simultaneously because most superelastic materials have to encounter the modulus softening effect and the limited superelastic stress, whereas most Elinvar-type materials show small elastic strain limit. Here, we report a (TiZrHf)₄₄Ni₂₅Cu₁₅Co₁₀Nb₆ high-entropy alloy that meets all these requirements. This alloy also shows good cyclic stability, thermally-stable capacity for elastic energy storage, high micro-hardness and good corrosion resistance, allowing it to operate stably in hostile environments. We show that its multi-functionalities stem from a natural composite microstructure, containing a highly-distorted matrix phase with strain glass transition and various structural and compositional heterogeneities from micro- to nano-scale. Our findings may provide insight into designing high-entropy alloys with unconventional and technologically-important functional properties.

The grain boundary phase (GBP) has a significant influence on the magnetization behavior in nanocrystalline PrNd–Fe–B magnets. The current study demonstrates that reversible/irreversible magnetization behavior and the phenomenon of open recoil loops are related to both the nature of GBPs and the magnetization state by in situ observation. The optimization of GBPs nature (increase the volume fraction and improve the composition of GBPs) leads to the suppression of reversible magnetization behavior and the phenomenon of open recoil loops at low fields. Since the asymmetric magnetic domain structure appears only at low cycle fields, the openness phenomenon originates from the weak pinning grain boundaries (GBs). In addition, optimization of the GBPs also enhances pinning strength and uniformity, which contributes to the domain walls being pinned in the GBs at higher external fields. At this moment, the domain wall is dominated by irreversible magnetization behavior, and the openness phenomenon disappears. This proves that the coercivity mechanism is transformed from inhomogeneously weak pinning to homogeneously strong pinning with the optimization of GBPs. Consequently, the coercivity and squareness factor are significantly enhanced. This study sheds light on the understanding of the effects of GBP's nature on recoil loops and coercivity mechanism, and it also provides significant guidance for the development of advanced permanent magnets.

Futuristic technologies such as morphing aircrafts and super-strong artificial muscles depend on metal alloys being as strong as ultrahigh-strength steel yet as flexible as a polymer^1,2,3. However, achieving such ‘strong yet flexible’ alloys has proven challenging^4,5,6,7,8,9 because of the inevitable trade-off between strength and flexibility^5,8,10. Here we report a Ti–50.8 at.% Ni strain glass alloy showing a combination of ultrahigh yield strength of σ_y ≈ 1.8 GPa and polymer-like ultralow elastic modulus of E ≈ 10.5 GPa, together with super-large rubber-like elastic strain of approximately 8%. As a result, it possesses a high flexibility figure of merit of σ_y/E ≈ 0.17 compared with existing structural materials. In addition, it can maintain such properties over a wide temperature range of −80 °C to +80 °C and demonstrates excellent fatigue resistance at high strain. The alloy was fabricated by a simple three-step thermomechanical treatment that is scalable to industrial lines, which leads not only to ultrahigh strength because of deformation strengthening, but also to ultralow modulus by the formation of a unique ‘dual-seed strain glass’ microstructure, composed of a strain glass matrix embedded with a small number of aligned R and B19′ martensite ‘seeds’. In situ X-ray diffractometry shows that the polymer-like deformation behaviour of the alloy originates from a nucleation-free reversible transition between strain glass and R and B19′ martensite during loading and unloading. This exotic alloy with the potential for mass producibility may open a new horizon for many futuristic technologies, such as morphing aerospace vehicles, superman-type artificial muscles and artificial organs.