Windows contribute significantly to energy inefficiency across global infrastructure. Overcoming complex trade-offs in multispectral optical responses, scientists in China have developed a physics-guided neural network to design energy-efficient thermochromic smart windows for directional privacy protection. These inverse-designed windows achieve ultrahigh simultaneous modulation of near-infrared transmittance and longwave infrared emissivity. Applied to electric vehicles and building envelopes, these customized smart windows demonstrate superior, climate-adaptive all-weather thermal management.

Researchers developed asymmetric [3+2+1] coordinated iridium(III) complexes featuring strong electron-withdrawing groups for deep-blue phosphorescent OLEDs. The optimized device achieved a record external quantum efficiency of 29.0% with CIE coordinates of (0.147, 0.089), meeting NTSC standards. A hyper-OLED demonstrated an operational lifetime exceeding 2000 hours, and the emitters were successfully integrated into microdisplay technology.

This new review interrogates how bacterial persisters survive antibiotic exposure and drive the development of chronic, recurrent, and difficult-to-treat infections. The work distinguishes the difference among persistence, tolerance and resistance. It further synthesizes current understanding of persister pathobiology, as well as interactions between persister populations, the host, and co-occurring pathogens. Additionally, this review outlines emerging persister detection methods and promising therapeutic strategies to eradicate persister cells, including combination antibiotic therapies, metabolic targeting interventions, and host-directed anti-persister approaches.

Recently, the research team led by Xiang Ma and Fan Gu from East China University of Science and Technology developed a luminescent soft material by doping coronene into an epoxy-based shape memory polymer, demonstrating both actuation capability and tunable ultralong afterglow property at high temperature. This strategy enabled real-time visual monitoring of dynamic material deformation at temperatures up to 200 °C, opening up new avenues for intelligent equipment monitoring, information encryption and circuit protection in extreme environments.

Hydrogel electrolytes have emerged as promising alternatives to conventional aqueous electrolytes in zinc-ion batteries owing to their high ionic conductivity and mechanical robustness. However, hydrogel electrolytes still suffer from stability challenges under wide-temperature conditions. At low temperatures, the freezing of water and the ordering of hydrogen-bond networks restrict ion transport and strengthen the hydrated structure of Zn²⁺. At high temperatures, water evaporation and intensified parasitic reactions can destroy the electrode–electrolyte interface and induce structural degradation. These coupled thermodynamic and kinetic effects indicate that achieving stable wide-temperature operation requires coordinated regulation of ion transport, solvation thermodynamics and interfacial dynamics. To address this challenge, the coordination–entropy (C-E) regulation framework is proposed as a unified design concept. Within this framework, coordination regulation reconstructs Zn²⁺ solvation environments and lowers desolvation barriers, while entropy regulation increases the diversity of accessible ionic configurations and transport states across multiple structural scales. Their intrinsic coupling enables stable ion transport and interfacial chemistry under temperature variation. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in polymer, salt, cosolvent and filler regulation strategies directed by the C-E framework, aiming to establish a unified physicochemical framework for wide-temperature hydrogel electrolytes and guide the development of durable, high-energy–density zinc-ion batteries.