Around 60% of useful energy is wasted in industry, homes, or transportation. Therefore, there has been increasing attention on thermoelectric materials for their ability to harvest waste heat into useful energy. The efficiency of a thermoelectric material depends on its electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity in a conflicting manner which results in efficiency optimization challenges. Single crystals and polycrystalline layered materials have comparatively better thermoelectric and mechanical properties in a certain direction. Texture engineering is a special strategy that allows the exploitation of superior material properties in a specific direction. Texturing could be achieved by various sintering and deformation methods, which yield defects improving thermoelectric and mechanical properties. The results show that for (Bi,Sb)₂Te₃, Bi₂(Se,Te)₃, CuSbSe₂, and SnSe, significant enhancement in the thermoelectric figure of merit is achieved by enhancing the preferred orientation. Texture engineering provides a wide range of strategies to elevate the zT of anisotropic materials to values comparable to those of their single crystalline counterparts.

The dehydrogenation of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone is a crucial industrial process in the production of caprolactam and adipic acid, both of which serve as important precursors in nylon textiles. This endothermic reaction is constrained by thermodynamic equilibrium and involves a complex reaction network, leading to a heightened focus on catalysts and process design. Copper-based catalysts have been extensively studied and exhibit exceptional low-temperature catalytic performance in cyclohexanol dehydrogenation, with some being commercially used in the industry. This paper specifically concentrates on research advancement concerning active species, reaction mechanisms, factors influencing product selectivity, and the deactivation behaviors of copper-based catalysts. Moreover, a brief introduction to the new processes that break thermodynamic equilibrium via reaction coupling and their corresponding catalysts is summarized here as well. These reviews may offer guidance and potential avenues for further investigations into catalysts and processes for cyclohexanol dehydrogenation.

Liquid metal gallium has been widely used in numerous fields, from nuclear engineering, catalysts, and energy storage to electronics owing to its remarkable thermal and electrical properties along with low viscosity and nontoxicity. Compared with high-temperature liquid metals, room-temperature liquid metals, such as gallium (Ga), are emerging as promising alternatives for fabricating advanced energy storage devices, such as phase change materials, by harvesting the advantageous properties of their liquid state maintained without external energy input. However, the thermal and electrical properties of liquid metals at the phase transition are rather poorly studied, limiting their practical applications. In this study, we reported on the physical properties of the solid–liquid phase transition of Ga using a custom-designed, solid–liquid electrical and thermal measurement system. We observed that the electrical conductivity of Ga progressively decreases with an increase in temperature. However, the Seebeck coefficient of Ga increases from 0.2 to 2.1 µV/K, and thermal conductivity from 7.6 to 33 W/(K∙m). These electrical and thermal properties of Ga at solid–liquid phase transition would be useful for practical applications.

Short-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) are a class of persistent organic pollutants that are widely used as substitutes for long-chain PFCAs. However, they also pose a non-negligible risk to ecosystems. In this study, we demonstrated that a fluorescent metal–organic framework (MOF) (named V-101) constructed from In³⁺ and an aromatic-rich tetratopic carboxylate ligand 5-[2,6-bis (4-carboxyphenyl) pyridin-4-yl] isophthalic acid (H₄BCPIA) exhibited highly efficient turn-off and turn-on fluorescence responses toward five short-chain PFCAs in water and methanol, respectively. The limits of detection of V-101 toward five short-chain PFCAs are down to μg/L level, and it showed good anti-interference abilities toward short-chain PFCAs in the presence of common metal ions. The major mechanisms associated with fluorescence responses were molecular collisions and interactions between V-101 and short-chain PFCAs. This work demonstrates that the structure variety of MOFs imparts them with the potential of MOFs in the detection of short-chain PFCAs for pollution control.