News from Science China Press

Researchers have developed a solid-state electrolyte design strategy that enables rapid lithium-ion transport while using substantially less lithium. By forming connected interfacial networks inside oxychloride electrolytes, the strategy combines high ionic conductivity with tunable properties, including high-voltage stability. The concept was validated in long-life, high-rate all-solid-state batteries and may provide a new route for designing a family of lean-lithium solid electrolytes.

A recent study published in National Science Review developed an open-access interactive map of ARGs in Chinese soils. It revealed that the relative abundance of total ARGs and Rank I ARGs in croplands declined by 52.6% and 77.0%, respectively, after 2016, coinciding with the implementation of China’s National Action Plan to Contain Antimicrobial Resistance (2016–2020). The study further highlights chemical pollutants and agricultural activities as important factors for future environmental AMR management.

Professor Zheng Yanzhen's team at Xi'an Jiaotong University has discovered a single-molecule magnetic ring whose shape responds to changes in the magnetic field. In this system, the large spin ground state generated by ferromagnetic coupling can rapidly respond to the magnetic field, thereby inducing macroscopic crystal striction, a phenomenon that characterizes a 'single-molecule magnetostrictor'.

Reported in Science Bulletin, a new study presents the design and fabrication of an ultra-robust and multifunctional ionic biogel with multiscale architecture via a synergistic structural engineering strategy, and demonstrates its application in self-powered human interaction.

This work introduces a self-cleaning lamination technique for two-dimensional (2D) materials, using an elastic bevel stamp-assisted thermal lamination (EBTL) approach. By actively expelling interlayer impurities such as water and oxygen during lamination, the method eliminates bubbles, wrinkles, and interface defects, achieving ultra-clean van der Waals interfaces. The technique enables large-area, damage-free stacking of monolayers, twisted bilayers, and complex superlattices, as well as fully vdW-laminated transistor arrays with high performance and low device-to-device variability.

Researchers from Zhejiang University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong have discovered that silk sericin—long considered a mere glue coating silk fibers—actively orchestrates the self-assembly of silk fibroin into ordered nanofibrils. Published in Science Bulletin, the study shows that sericin drives liquid-liquid phase separation to create dynamic micro-compartments that concentrate, stabilize, and guide fibroin proteins through a multi-stage maturation process. The findings provide a new mechanistic framework for silk fiber formation and offer design principles for bioinspired programmable materials.

Low thermal conductivity of β-Ga₂O₃ can restrict power density and accelerate device degradation of β-Ga₂O₃-based power electronics. To alleviate the thermal management problem, researchers developed a Ga-assisted strategy to realize high-quality β-Ga₂O₃ film epitaxy on diamond. The constructed β-Ga₂O₃/Diamond heterostructure presents superior thermal boundary conductance (165.4 MW⋅m⁻²⋅K⁻¹) and ultra-high interfacial fracture strength (> 2.09 GPa). The identified new interfacial phonon mode at ~60 meV can significantly enhance the phonon transport between diamond and β-Ga₂O₃.

It has been a challenge that Dirac points in topological acoustics are typically pinned in reciprocal space, restricting versatile applications for wave steering and manipulation. Now, an article shows that Dirac points can be moved arbitrarily across the Brillouin zone by independently adjusting coupling strengths in a 2D sonic crystal. This enables a full-space scanning topological antenna and an acoustic heterostructure for fully angle-tunable Klein tunneling. Both passive devices surmount the angle-tuning barrier, offering a new paradigm for classical wave control.