Protein engineering is a powerful tool to create new proteins with useful functions and behaviors, but it is slow, laborious and requires specialized knowledge, limiting its broad application. Here, the authors present a system that combines AI and experimental automation to autonomously engineer proteins without human intervention.

Bipolar ion-exchange membranes are a class of charged polymers that enable precise control of ionic fluxes and local pH, making them potentially valuable for many energy and environmental applications. This Review focuses on the fundamental physics underpinning their operation across multiple scales, from nanomorphology to integration within devices such as in bipolar-membrane electrodialysis (BPM-ED).

Steering the selectivity-determining steps is as important as the C–C coupling steps in CO₂ electroreduction. Here the authors highlight that single-site noble metal dopants on the Cu surface can influence C–O bond dissociation and direct the post-C–C coupling pathways to ethylene versus ethanol.

A self-driving catalysis laboratory, Fast-Cat, is presented for efficient high-throughput screening of high-pressure, high-temperature, gas–liquid reaction conditions using rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation as a case study. Fast-Cat is used to Pareto map the reaction space and investigate the varying performance of several phosphorus-based hydroformylation ligands.

Achieving a net-zero future requires that hard-to-abate sectors be addressed. Co-production offers an opportunity to mitigate chemical and steel sector emissions by extracting H₂ and CO from steelmaking off-gas and using them for chemical syntheses. The authors examine carbon mitigation and costs of co-producing chemicals and steel in China.

Real-life plastic waste exists as complex mixtures, posing a challenge for efficient upcycling. Now a sunlight-powered thermocatalytic process using a Ni-based catalyst converts a plastic mixture into CH₄, H₂O and HCl. Notably, chlorine poisoning is minimized through temperature modulation driven by the diurnal sunlight cycle.

Robust decarbonization strategies for the petrochemical industry are hampered by many sources of uncertainty in greenhouse gas emissions estimates. Here the authors quantify and prioritize uncertainty sources, finding that the most significant factor is the lack of detailed data about specific production processes used in chemical facilities.

It is essential to develop new dressing designs for wounds that can maintain ideal thermal comfort even under high temperatures in outdoor conditions. Now, a daytime radiative cooling dressing based on a polyamide 6/silk fibroin bilayer is demonstrated to accelerate wound healing by reducing the thermal load for skin wounds under sunlight illumination.

The recovery of gold and platinum group metals from sources like electronic waste, catalytic converter waste and mining streams remains challenging. Now, an electrochemically mediated liquid–liquid extraction process leverages the selectivity of redox-active extractants for the selective recovery of precious and critical metals including gold and platinum group metals from diverse feedstocks.

Positively charged anodes should short circuit when they are brought into contact with a cathode. The authors demonstrate that a liquid-metal anode can naturally flow toward the cathode, completely surround it and ultimately transfer to the cathode without short circuiting in an electrochemical cell.

Electrification endows modern separation processes with the capability to tackle a broader array of challenges using potentially sustainable energy resources.

An appreciation of characteristic timescales can save quite a lot of effort, as Ian Wilson explains.

Junwang Tang and Binhang Yan discuss the role of the Industrial Catalysis Center at Tsinghua University and their perspectives on modern industrial catalysis with Nature Chemical Engineering.