The increasing global threat of water pollution demands advanced multilayer sensing technologies with efficacy to detect contaminants with high sensitivity and adaptability in complex aquatic environments. In this theoretical analysis, we investigated a novel multilayer surface plasmon resonance (SPR) system as an optical sensing platform to detect water pollutants and salinity concentrations. The proposed sensor comprised silver, barium borate (BBO), and black phosphorus (BP) layers on a Borokon 7 (BK7) prism, which formed a tunable and highly responsive configuration under the Kretschmann geometry. It employed the transfer matrix method (TMM) and angular interrogation in the visible regime to evaluate reflectance spectra and key sensing parameters. The outcomes revealed that the sensor exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity for refractive index (RI) variations corresponding to polluted water samples, including sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations. The system exhibited strong plasmonic coupling and interfacial interactions, yielding the maximum sensitivity (138.7°/RIU) and figure of merit (73.57 RIU⁻¹) toward water samples with 4% NaCl and chemical contamination, respectively. At refractive index of 1.33 and 1.34, by varying the layers of BBO and BP, the maximum sensitivity achieved was 320°/RIU with six BBO layers and a monolayer of BP. These results demonstrated that the proposed SPR sensor configuration, which successfully differentiated between various water quality levels based on refractive index variations, had tremendous potential for next-generation real-time water quality monitoring.

Solar-driven H₂ production coupled with selective organic transformation represents a promising strategy for co-generation of green hydrogen and high-value chemicals, yet its feasibility relies critically on effective bifunctional photocatalysts. Herein, we report the synthesis of ultrafine Cd_xZn_1−xS nanocrystals derived from a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF), featuring high surface area, shortened charge diffusion path, and enhanced H₂ evolution activity. Anchoring amorphous Pt sub-nanoclusters onto these nanocrystals created a bifunctional catalyst (Pt-Cd_xZn_1−xS) for efficient lactic acid photoreforming, enabling co-production of H₂ with switchable selectivity toward pyruvic acid (PA) or 2,3-dihydroxy-2,3- dimethylsuccinic acid (DTA). The optimized 0.5Pt-Cd_0.3Zn_0.7S catalyst achieved an exceptional H₂ production rate of 270.6 mmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹, 73.1% PA selectivity, and 62.8% apparent quantum efficiency at 400 nm. Mechanistic studies revealed that lactic acid undergoes C-H cleavage to form carbon-centered radicals. Pt sub-nanoclusters served as electron sinks to facilitate O-H dissociation and PA formation, whereas pristine Cd_0.3Zn_0.67S promoted direct C-C coupling of radicals to predominantly yield DTA. This work offers critical insights for designing advanced bifunctional photocatalysts to integrate solar hydrogen and value-added chemical synthesis.

The global community is increasingly focused on the conversion and utilization of waste materials, yet office waste paper (OWP), one of the most common solid wastes, still lacks an efficient and eco-friendly disposal method. The massive accumulation of OWP not only causes significant resource waste but also imposes severe pollution on the environment. In this study, OWP is selected as the source of carbon aerogels, which are further upgraded to Co/C aerogels (Co/CAs) through the in situ growth and pyrolysis of ZIF-67 crystals. Notably, the heterogeneous attachments derived from ZIF-67 crystals significantly enriched electromagnetic loss mechanisms, thereby reinforcing microwave absorption performance. Specifically, an optimum sample, Co/CA-2, exhibited a porosity of over 80% and achieved an effective absorption bandwidth of 5.6 GHz with a thickness of merely 1.6 mm. Its performance was superior to that of most microwave absorbing materials prepared from waste materials. It is believed that this work not only developed a low-cost and sustainable strategy for preparing high-performance wave-absorbing materials but also provided a brand-new idea and direction for the treatment of OWP.

Efficient dissipation of waste heat in chips with thermal interface materials (TIM) is essential for high-performance electric devices. The superiorities of thermal conductance, dielectric insulation, and self-healing capability make polymer composites promising candidates for TIM. However, the inherent rigidity limits its shape adaptive contact with chips/sinks. Inspired by the dimension-crossover architecture of semi-crystalline spider silk, we develop an electrically responsive semicrystalline ferroelectric polymer at elevated temperature. The crystalline domains stabilized by weak bonding networks create mechanical anchor points. It enables controllable loading and maintains efficient thermal pathways, depicting remarkable shape adaption (41% elongation) and directional thermal conductance (2.50 W·m⁻¹⋅K⁻¹). The dipole polarization induced localized crystallization, evolving from random coil to twisted to trans conformation in amorphous domains, imitates a controlled inter-chain alignment in spider silk. Additionally, electric stimuli at 500 K activates a self-healing process via reversible chain realignment, which extends the remaining lifetime of electronic devices. This electrically responsive TIM represents a significant advance in the design and optimization of next-generation TIM, and offers a highlight insight into the process–structure–property relationship.

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are widely explored as electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage owing to their rich redox activity, tunable oxidation states, and high theoretical capacitance. However, conventional synthesis routes often rely on toxic chemicals, high-temperature processing, and energy-intensive steps, limiting their sustainability and large-scale applicability. This review highlights recent progress in green synthesis approaches, particularly plant-mediated, microbial, and agro-waste-derived methods that use environmentally benign reducing and stabilizing agents to produce nanostructured TMOs. These green routes enable controlled morphology, enhanced porosity, and defect-rich architectures, resulting in improved charge storage, rate capability, and cycling stability. A comparative assessment of green-synthesized and conventionally prepared TMOs is provided, along with insights into synthesis mechanisms, advantages, limitations, and performance trends. Green chemistry–based strategies show strong potential for developing high-performance, scalable, and eco-friendly electrode materials for next-generation supercapacitors and batteries.

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) bone cement is the earliest and most widely used in clinical applications. However, PMMA bone cement has high hardness and high modulus, which leads to secondary fracture of adjacent vertebrae. In this study, a PMMA/polylactic acid (PLA)/carbon nanotube (CNT) compound bone cement with decreased compression modulus is developed for overcoming the limitation of PMMA commercial bone cement (CBC). Compared with CBC, the compression modulus of composite PMMA/PLA/CNT bone cements is reduced from 893.34 MPa (CBC) to 487.25 MPa (54.54% of the CBC), which is beneficial for reducing stress concentration at the bone implantation site. The cytotoxicity studies also indicate that the prepared composite cements are nontoxic and harmless, which has the necessary condition for orthopedic clinical applications.