Water Electrolysis Charge redistribution induced by incorporation of Ni to tungsten carbide results in near ideal hydrogen adsorption energies and a low hydrogen desorption energy via downshifting the d-band centre of Ni for fast release of hydrogen. Fe6W6C serves as a sacrificial material that undergoes in-situ surface reconstruction into highly oxygen evolution reaction-active (Fe,W)OOH. More in article number 2511280, Kun-Han Lin, Shih-Yuan Lu, and co-workers.

Nematic Liquid Crystals Bent-core nematic liquid crystals exhibit giant flexoelectricity and polar electro-optic responses. Confined in nanopores, they stabilize chiral nanostructures, enhance polar order, and enable defect-driven switching. Studying CB7CB in anodic aluminium oxide and silica nanochannels reveals confinement's impact on phase behaviour and suppressing order under strong spatial constraints, paralleling electric field effects. This enables novel functionalities in responsive and anisotropic materials. More in article number 2506651, Patrick Huber, Andriy V. Kityk, and co-workers.

Liquid Crystalline Nanoparticles In article number 2506077, Guoxing Liao, LinGe Wang, and co-workers prepared spherical liquid crystalline nanoparticles using a liquid crystalline polymer as the core-forming block during polymerization-induced self-assembly. Further analysis confirmed the straight main-chain conformation of the core-forming block, which exhibits unique birefringence as lyotropic liquid crystal behaviour in nanoparticle formations under polarized optical microscopy.

DNA Origami In article number 2502496, Tania Patiño Padial and co-workers highlights real-time single-particle tracking of ligand-functionalized DNA origami nanorods interacting with cell membranes. Leveraging the spatial programmability of DNA origami, this approach enables precise interrogation of receptor-ligand binding kinetics and dynamics at the cell surface, offering new insights into nanoscale biointerfaces with high spatial and temporal resolution.

Flexible Microwave Devices In article number 2503857, ZhengMing Sun, Xingce Fan, Wei Bing Lu, and co-workers explain their design of an interwoven MXene sediment architecture on natural crosslinked textiles that simultaneously achieved high material yield (90 %) and superior conductivity (up to 1.6×106 S m−1). The MXene sediment architecture demonstrates high performance in electromagnetic interference shielding and supports high-quality and long-range wireless communications.

Ionic conductivity In article number 2502943, Thi Thu Le, Claudio Pistidda, and co-workers illustrate the ionic transport behaviour of the newly developed Rb0.5Cs0.5NH2 solid solution. Rotational dynamics of NH2 groups, coupled with cation pathways, enable significantly high ionic conductivity. The synergy between experimental observations and DFT calculations reveals the fundamental mechanisms underlying enhanced ion mobility and structural stabilization in this promising solid-state material.

Hydrogen Evolution In article number 2503335, Yun Chen and co-workers pioneer flash Joule heating in synthesis of g-C3N4, completing the process within 72s. This method introduces nitrogen defects and tunes the band structure of g-C3N4. Pt loaded on the resulted g-C3N4 achieving a high photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of 16936.5 µmol h−1 g−1, providing a key reference for scalable synthesis of g-C3N4-based photocatalysts.