Cell Reports Physical Science

Upcycling Post-Consumer Polystyrene Waste into Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers To address the dual challenges of plastic waste management and sustainable hydrogen storage, we propose an innovative strategy to upcycle post-consumer polystyrene (PS) waste into liquid organic hydro...

Plastic waste pyrolysis yields a complex mixture that is difficult to reuse. In ACS Catalysis, An et al. propose using pyrolysis products as liquid hydrogen carriers, developing a process that gives high catalyst stability and competitive hydrogen transport costs. 5/5
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Demand for hydrogen as an energy source and reagent is growing, but its transport and production can be challenging. In ACS ES&T, Lu et al show that using reclaimed water from power plants can help resolve challenges for electrolytic H2 production across China. 4/5 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Neural Algorithm Aided Operation of CO2 Electrolyzers While the number of reports on the electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction increases at an ever-accelerating rate, achieving long-term stable, selective, and energy efficient operation is still chall...

In ACS Energy Letters, Csaba Janáky and team design an autonomous CO2 reduction electrolyzer test station to collect large amounts of data, which are used to train a neural network. This approach enables efficient optimization of electrolyzer operating conditions. 3/5 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Chirality Makes or Breaks Chemically Driven Self‐Assembly Chirality-controlled reaction cycles: Reaction cycles are constructed to respond to the chirality (handedness) of an acylating agent. Left- and right-handed aminoacyl phosphate esters modulate the st...

In @angewandtechemie.bsky.social , @pappasgroup.bsky.social and colleagues use chiral acylating agents to generate different transient supramolecular structures from homochiral peptides, depending on the absolute configuration of the acylating agent. 2/5
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Feels like an age since our last journal club - it's conference season so the team have been out and about. But today three of us got together to take a look at recent papers. Quick thread of some highlights! 🧵

Building safer laboratories by evolving culture and practice Fostering a safe and productive environment in the laboratory is a challenge that faces both institutions and individual researchers at every stage of their careers. This Voices article shares perspec...

Oh hey our new Voices article is out - on building safer labs, physically, culturally, and psychologically. Featuring contributions from @trantteam.bsky.social, @shufflersunite.bsky.social, @rachael-dickman.bsky.social, and more! www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Building material made of living #fungus can repair itself for over a month. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

@cheveran.bsky.social @vilezz.bsky.social
@cp-cellrepphyssci.bsky.social

In case you missed it, check out this paper from @glowsticks.bsky.social and colleagues. It's one of our most-read papers in the last thirty days, and a great story on a surprising phenomenon (that you may have seen yourself in the lab)! 🌟💡

Message in a bubble: using physics to encode messages in ice. http://dlvr.it/TLR5Wc

Beijing Institute of Technology Mengjie Song
@cp-cellrepphyssci.bsky.social

Electrochemical Li Recovery from Spent LiFePO4-Based Li-Ion Batteries The increase in electric vehicles (EVs) powered by lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) will generate a massive number of spent LIBs in the future. LiFePO4 has recently become the most desired cathode for LIB...

Finally, Choi and colleagues (@uwmadison.bsky.social) propose a feasible, low-cost route to recovering lithium from EV batteries. Their method works on spent batteries and can produce various lithium salts for reuse. 🔋

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Direct Synthesis of para-Xylene from CO2 Hydrogenation with a Record-High Space-Time Yield The direct synthesis of para-xylene (p-X) from CO2 hydrogenation with high space-time yield (STY) remains a significant challenge due to two primary limitations: the Anderson–Schulz–Flory distribution...

An international team from Anhui University of Technology & University of Toyama report a composite catalyst, K-FeMn/Hollow ZSM-5, that enables the efficient hydrogenation of CO2 to para-xylene by integrating two synergistic catalytic functions. ⚗️

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Pd/C promotes C–H bond activation and oxidation of p-hydroxybenzoate during hydrogenolysis of poplar - Nature Communications Hydrogenolysis of lignin produces a complex mixture of products, including small lignin-derived monomers, dimers, and higher oligomers. Using poplar and lignin model compounds, the authors demonstrate...

Steven Karlen (@uwmadison.bsky.social) and colleagues identify previously unrecognised reaction pathways in the Pd/C-promoted hydrogenolysis of poplar lignins. 🌳

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Lab-scale versus industrial-scale thermal runaway tests for lithium-ion battery cells Lithium-ion battery safety is a topic of large importance, and testing is associated with large costs. Safety evaluation is therefore needed also at a…

Battery safety is a paramount concern, especially when developing new energy storage materials. In this JES study, Willstrand and colleagues investigate the applicability of industrial-scale thermal runaway characterization methods at the laboratory scale. 🪫

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In Science Robotics, Yuntao Ma et al. (@ethz.ch) show an impressive display of coordinated motion with a demonstration especially interesting to a general audience - a robot playing badminton. 🏸

www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Our weekly journal club discussion had everything from building robots to breaking down trees - take a look at what we discussed this week! 🤖🌳

Our panelists are:
M. Lisa Manning (@syracuseu.bsky.social) studies collective behaviour of cells in biological tissues and disordered solids
Ramin Golestanian (@maxplanck.de), explores nonequilibrium activity across length scales
Guillaume Salbreux (U. Genève) works on the physics of morphogenesis

Banner advertising a webinar titled "Challenges and opportunities for active matter in biology". Depicts an abstract, liquid-like, blue background.

Save the date - on July 11th we're going live to talk about active matter in biology. Our three panelists work at the interface of physics and biology, promising a fascinating, interdisciplinary conversation. Register for free here: www.bigmarker.com/cellpress-so...

Tumor microenvironment–activated Zn//MnO2 battery for sustained and local electrochemical immunotherapy An implantable battery effectively delivers metal ion agonists and activates immune responses.

Caiyun Wang and colleagues from Jilin University and University of Wollongong report an implanted battery activated by the tumor microenvironment which offers a drug-free approach to cancer immunotherapy. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Hexafluorophosphate additive enables durable seawater oxidation at ampere-level current density - Nature Communications Seawater electrolysis at ampere-level current densities demands durable anodes for practical hydrogen production. Here, the authors report that a single non-oxygen anion enables dual modulation of sur...

In their recent @natcomms.nature.com study, Xuping Sun and colleagues demonstrate durable direct seawater electrolysis for sustainable hydrogen production using a hexafluorophosphate electrolyte additive to limit chloride-induced corrosion. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Strain in Core–Shell Spinel Nanocrystals Enhances ORR Activity Strain engineering of electrocatalysts has been an extensively studied field in recent years, but there has been limited investigation of strain and ligand effects in the catalysts of heterostructured oxides. Such studies could have significant impacts as the localized changes in the electronic structure of metal oxide shells may induce enhanced catalytic activity, complementing those from the well-studied metallic systems. Here, we developed a colloidal synthesis route to monodisperse core–shell spinel oxide nanocrystals with tunable shell thickness for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media. We compare the activity of these heterostructured particles, finding a higher activity for smaller shell thicknesses. The smallest shell thickness aligns with the highest shell strain. The best-performing core–shell sample achieved a half-wave potential of 0.893 V versus RHE in 1.0 M KOH, making it one of the best-reported values for a spinel oxide electrocatalyst for alkaline ORR with a PGM-free catalyst. In addition, this value is within 11 mV of that of the Pt/C reference material. Though a Pt/C reference sample has an overall higher mass activity at 0.9 V vs RHE, when cost is considered, the strained spinel outperforms the Pt/C by over 600-fold at this potential. Our results provide an impetus for exploring the deliberate and controlled use of strain engineering in metal oxides as high-performance, low-cost electrocatalysts.

Richard Robinson and colleagues from @cornelluniversity.bsky.social develop a synthesis route for tuning shell thickness of monodisperse core–shell spinel oxide nanocrystals for enhanced alkaline ORR activity pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Electrocatalytic Reactive Capture of NO from O2-Containing Simulated Flue Gas Using Highly O2-Resistant Fe2+-(salen-SO3) for NH3 Synthesis Efficient removal of nitric oxide (NO) from flue gases remains a significant environmental challenge due to its low concentration, poor water solubility, and the presence of oxygen, which deactivates ...

Nitric oxide, a component of flue gas, is difficult to capture and convert to ammonia. Writing in ACS Energy Letters, Lee and colleagues develop an electrochemical salen-based sorbent for continuous capture and conversion of NO. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

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It's that time of the week again! 🌟 Here are our favorite journal club picks for you to peruse as you head into the weekend!

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CP editors reading CP journals like

In our defence, most weeks the thread has a bunch of ACS, Nature Research, and Wiley papers...

Differential pressure CO2 electrolysis opens the way for direct coupling to industrial processes This study introduces a new reactor that efficiently converts carbon dioxide (CO2) into valuable chemicals using pressurized CO2 and pure water. By operating at differential pressures, the system sign...

Finally, in @cp-chemcatalysis.bsky.social, Ulf-Peter Apfel (@ruhr-uni-bochum.de) and colleagues report a CO2 electrolyzer design enabling selective CO production at high current density & differential pressure for integration with existing chemical infrastructure 4/4 www.cell.com/chem-catalys...

Transformable and stimuli-responsive liquid metal for integrated, sustainable, and biomimetic DNA-based data storage DNA data storage is a promising solution to address the challenges of data explosion due to its high storage density and durability. This study presents a transformable and thermally and electrically ...

In @cp-matter.bsky.social, Hong Liu and colleagues introduce a sustainable and integrated DNA storage architecture that leverages the transformable and stimuli-responsive liquid metal to enable cascaded DNA storage operations on a single dynamic medium. 3/4
www.cell.com/matter/abstr...

Amphiphilic nanopores that condense undersaturated water vapor and exude water droplets Amphiphilic nanopores condense water vapor and exude water droplets under isothermal and undersaturated conditions.

First up: writing in Science Advances, Daeyeon Lee (@upenn.edu) and coworkers look at the fundamentals of water condensation in amphiphilic nanoporous polymer-infiltrated nanoparticle film, and describe simultaneous condensation and exudation of water from pores 2/4 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

a man in a red and blue suit is sliding down a snow covered slope . ALT: a man in a red and blue suit is sliding down a snow covered slope .

Sliding into your timeline to share some papers our team have been reading this week. That's right, it's journal club time babeeeeee 1/4

Ancestral reconstruction of polyethylene terephthalate degrading cutinases reveals a rugged and unexplored sequence-fitness landscape Ancestral sequence reconstruction reveals paths to PET-degrading activity in cutinases, expanding the enzyme fitness landscape.

Finally, in Science Advances, @cjjackson.bsky.social and colleagues use multiplexed ancestral sequence reconstruction to explore the evolution of PET-degrading cutinases www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

(not sure why tagging Nat Comms doesn't seem to work!)

Harnessing database-supported high-throughput screening for the design of stable interlayers in halide-based all-solid-state batteries - Nature Communications All-solid-state lithium metal batteries face interfacial instability challenges. Here, authors develop a computational screening framework to identify Li3OCl as a stable interlayer between Li3InCl6 el...

To identify stable interlayer materials compatible with both Li and solid-state electrolytes in all-solid-state lithium metal batteries, Ciucci and colleagues in @natcomms.nature.com develop a high-throughput screening framework, yielding improved cycling stability.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...