Articles

High-entropy metal sulfides have emerged as a new class of electrocatalysts, but their synthesis often faces challenges due to their inherent complexity arising from multi-metal interactions. Here, the authors report a low-temperature hydrothermal strategy to fabricate Ce-incorporated (CoFeNiCuCe)₉S₈ nanoballs by leveraging Cu²⁺ as a dynamic director for controlled solution-phase synthesis.

Although photocatalysis research has evolved towards increasingly sophisticated structural regulation and material design, the synergistic enhancement of photocatalysis by multi-component semiconductors and biochar remains underexplored. Here, the authors present a biochar-based g-C₃N₄/Bi₂WO₆/Ag₃PO₄ nanocomposite and apply it to the efficient removal of tetracycline, showing that it forms a double Z-scheme heterojunction that significantly reduces photogenerated carrier recombination.

RegIIIα is an antibacterial protein that forms hexametric pores on Gram-positive bacterial membranes leading to cell lysis, however, hexamers can further assemble into filaments diminishing RegIIIα activity. Here, the authors use cryo-electron microscopy to reveal the 2.2 Å structure of RegIIIα filaments, uncovering a distinct subunit orientation and key interfaces for RegIIIα assembly, proposing the inhibitory mechanism of the pro-segment of RegIIIα.

Boron-containing catalysts, particularly boron oxide (BOₓ) impregnated onto inorganic supports, have recently attracted attention due to their high selectivity and activity in the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODHP), however, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Here, the authors observe volatile BOₓ species under ODHP conditions, showing that BOₓ dispersion and stability depend on the nature of the inorganic support, with silica supports facilitating BOₓ sublimation and propane activation at lower temperatures compared to γ-Al₂O₃ or SiO₂–Al₂O₃.

Cation effects in electrocatalytic reactions have attracted considerable interest due to their role in modulating reaction kinetics and mechanisms. Here, the authors use constant-potential density functional theory and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations to study the atomic-scale synergy between Na⁺ ions and stepped Pt(311) surfaces in the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction, reporting the formation of a Pt–H₂O–Na⁺(H₂O)ₓ adduct at the step edges that positions cations closer to the surface compared to Pt(111) terraces, resulting in a lower Volmer step activation energy.

It is well established that a significant amount of heat produced in the Earth’s mantle is due to the decay of uranium, yet the incorporation of uranium in deep mantle phases remains poorly explored. Here, two chemically simple uranium carbonates (U₂[CO₃]₃ and U[CO₃]₂) were synthesized by a reaction of UO₂ with CO₂ at lower mantle conditions, revealing that uranium carbonates could be host phases of uranium in carbon-rich lithologies in the Earth’s mantle.

Incorporating deep eutectic solvent (DES) mixtures in dye-sensitized solar cells offers an alternative to the use of volatile organic compounds as part of their electrolyte, which limits their use to outdoor environments. Here, the authors design two carbazole-based donor–acceptor dyes that are compatible with DES-based electrolytes and demonstrate their performance under both simulated sunlight and indoor lighting, with enhanced indoor power conversion efficiency under low-light conditions.

While the major sinks for isocyanic acid (HNCO), a toxic atmospheric constituent emitted by biomass burning and catalytic converters in car engines, have been considered to be heterogeneous loss processes and dry deposition in the free troposphere, the role of Criegee intermediates remains underexplored. Here, using electronic structure calculations and kinetic simulations, the authors show that HNCO is highly reactive to stabilized Criegee intermediates in the atmosphere, discussing its potential role as sinks for HNCO.

Carbon dots can serve as drug delivery systems, enhancing drug solubility, bioavailability and accumulation within tumours while reducing off target effects. Here, the authors report a quadruple-conjugated nanomodel consisting of two targeting peptides and two anticancer agents using carbon dots as nanocarriers, demonstrating its cytotoxicity in multiple high-grade glioma cell lines.

Ultrafast photoinduced excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) plays a crucial role in protecting biomolecules and functional materials from photodamage, but how solute-solvent interactions influence ESPT dynamics is not fully understood. Here, the authors use ultrafast absorption spectroscopy supported by quantum chemical calculations to study ESPT in a photobase, 2- (2’-pyridyl)benzimidazole, in methanol, tracking the complete reaction pathway and reporting early-time intermolecular coherent vibrations that may mediate the ESPT process.

Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) require precise proteolytic cleavage to generate bioactive natural products, yet the diversity of serine proteases involved remains underexplored. Here, the authors identify and characterize the serine protease WprP₂ from Streptomyces venezuelae NPDC049867, revealing its unique cleavage activity on precursor peptides WprA₂ involved in the biosynthesis of cyclophane RiPP natural products.

Accurate IC₅₀ prediction of small molecules is crucial for advancing anticancer drug development, however, the effectiveness of deep learning methods for predicting IC₅₀ values remains underexplored. Here, the authors benchmark five deep learning models against a mean-based baseline, revealing that while DeepCDR, DrugCell, and tCNN slightly outperform others, all models struggle with unseen compounds, underscoring the need for improved predictive accuracy.

Protein conformational changes are crucial for signal transduction in cells, yet tracking these changes in living cells remains challenging. Here, the authors develop BIOSCE (BIOprobe based on Steric Confinement-induced Emission) by binding a steric sensitive fluorophore (MTPABP-Cl) to a HaloTag, which uses steric confinement-induced luminescence to monitor protein conformations in living cells with millisecond resolution.

Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography at X-ray free-electron lasers is a powerful approach for studying macromolecular dynamics, but its widespread use is limited by high sample consumption. Here, the authors introduce a segmented-droplet mix-and-inject strategy at the European XFEL that reduces sample consumption by up to 97% while preserving the data quality required for time-resolved structural studies of the enzyme NQO1.

Heterobifunctional small degrader molecules that tether endogenous E3 ubiquitin ligases are promising substrates for targeted protein degradation, however, the precise formation of the E3 ligase–target complex remains challenging and limits their application. Here, the authors introduce indirect ubiquitination of the target proteins via non-covalent interactions that bypass E3 ligases, enabling efficient protein degradation.

Diazo compounds are invaluable intermediates in organic synthesis, however, traditional C–H diazotization methods often face environmental and safety challenges due to the use of azide compounds and excessive acid/base. Here, the authors introduce a protocol using 2-methoxyethyl nitrite, achieving efficient diazotization of 2-substituted indoles with high reactivity and selectivity.

Remote boronate rearrangement of boronic acids to C = N bonds have substantial synthetic utility, however, this synthetic route has been limited by the need for preinstalled directing groups. Here, the authors introduce a lactam-driven dynamic directing strategy, enabling efficient 1,5- and 1,4-boronate rearrangements, advancing the functionalization of inactive C = N bonds and expanding synthetic methodologies.

The structural characterization of powder materials often remains challenging due to the lack of single crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction. Here, the authors present a workflow that integrates microcrystal electron diffraction with high-resolution mass spectrometry, database mining, solution and solid-state NMR, and DFT-D/GIPAW calculations to resolve atomic structures of complex powders, demonstrating the approach on a pyridoxine-N-acetyl-L-cysteine salt, a mechanochemically synthesized adduct for which large single crystals could not be obtained, and on N-formyl-methionyl-leucylphenylalanine, a bacterial chemoattractant peptide.

Chiral organic materials hold significant potential in optoelectronics, sensing, and catalysis, with macrocycles potentially offering enhanced chiroptical properties thanks to their preorganisation. Here, the authors synthesize bis-perylene diimide-based macrocycles with multiple sources of chirality, revealing the dominant influence of chromophore helical chirality on chiroptical properties and enabling chirality induction in achiral guests.

Although pure shift nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has enabled ultrahigh-resolution measurements in complex systems such as reaction mixtures and biomacromolecules, time-consuming data acquisition poses a limitation for further applications. Here, the authors propose a protocol combining non-uniform chunk sampling and physics-informed deep learning reconstruction that enables sampling artifact suppression, weak signal recovery and high-fidelity reconstruction of peak intensities for the fast implementation of one-, two- and multidimensional pure shift NMR.