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Although using proton (H+) conductors is attractive for energy applications, practical conductivity at intermediate temperatures (200–400 °C) remains a challenge. A K2NiF4-type Ba–Li oxyhydride is shown to exhibit a temperature-independent hydrogen conductivity of more than 0.01 S cm–1 above 315 °C.
Grain boundary conductivity limitations are ubiquitous in material science. Illumination with above-bandgap light is now shown to decrease grain boundary resistance in a model gadolinium-doped ceria solid ionic conductor.
Symmetry breaking in colloidal crystals is achieved with DNA-grafted programmable atom equivalents and complementary electron equivalents, whose interactions are tuned to create anisotropic crystalline precursors with well-defined coordination geometries that assemble into distinct low-symmetry crystals.
The separation of multicomponent mixtures is performed by distillation, as multiple-membrane cascades are too complex. Here, a porous organic cage composite undergoes solid-state transformation in solvent; this alters pore size, enabling graded separation of three dyes with a single membrane.