📄 chemistry

Preparation of tetra-branched PEG network and its application to gel polymer electrolyte

This paper reports the synthesis of a gel polymer electrolyte with a tetra-branched network structure via a thiol-yne click reaction, demonstrating that its ionic conductivity is influenced by polymer content and PEG chain length, which facilitates lithium cation transport along the polymer chains in addition to the electrolyte solution.

Tomoya Enoki, Ryodai Kagami, Takahiro Uno, Nanami Sasaki, Nobuyuki Imanishi, Masataka Kubo2026-07-14
📄 chemistry

3D Cerium Doped In₂S₃ Immobilised Hydrogel for Efficient Photocatalytic Sulphamethoxazole Degradation And H₂O₂ Production-Mechanistic Insights and Applications

This study demonstrates that a 3D cerium-doped indium sulfide hydrogel photocatalyst effectively degrades sulfamethoxazole (up to 91% efficiency) and simultaneously produces hydrogen peroxide under visible light by leveraging improved charge separation, a reduced band gap, and hydroxyl radical generation.

HRITANKHI TRIPATHY, ABHIJEET SAHOO, ARVIND KUMAR2026-07-14
📄 chemistry

Formation charging reveals hidden manufacturing defects in lithium-ion batteries

This study demonstrates that a unified formation-stage charge-acceptance partitioning index can effectively detect diverse lithium-ion battery manufacturing defects by capturing their common convergence on reduced charge acceptance, offering a simple and low-cost alternative to complex, defect-specific screening methods.

Rui Xiong, Wei Chen, Ying Li, Jinpeng Tian, Xuyi Shan, Kang Li, Fangfang Pan, Hong Li2026-07-14
📄 chemistry

Rougher flotation of copper flotation tailings from southern Peru: Fe upgrading, metallurgical balance and batch flotation kinetics

This study demonstrates that bench-scale rougher flotation of copper tailings from southern Peru can effectively upgrade iron content to approximately 50.8 wt.% with a recovery of 58.3%, achieving a reproducible baseline for Fe recovery while noting that the absence of specific sulfur and mineralogical data prevents confirmation of pyrite recovery or environmental desulfurization.

Kenny Salazar2026-07-14
📄 chemistry

Investigating the mechanical and rheological properties of 3D-printed PLA-agave biocomposites

This study demonstrates that incorporating 1 wt.% Agave Americana fibers into recycled PLA significantly recovers mechanical properties, whereas higher loadings (2–3 wt.%) degrade performance due to poor interfacial bonding, void formation, and PLA chain scission-induced viscosity reduction.

Ferenc Palásti, Pál Hansághy, Péter Gerse, Erika Varga, Kanageswary Sockalingam, Chan Mieow Kee, László Tóth2026-07-14
📄 chemistry

Large language models do not replace chemists in a closed-loop catalysis experiment

While large language models demonstrated superior speed and cost-efficiency in navigating a complex closed-loop catalysis experiment, they failed to outperform human experts in discovering the most active catalyst formulations due to silent errors and logical inconsistencies, indicating that LLMs currently serve best as complementary tools requiring expert oversight rather than standalone replacements.

Andrew Ian Cooper, Qi Jie Yeow, Ziheng Xiao, Mengjia Zhu, Abdoulatif Cissé, Xenophon Evangelopoulos, Charlotte Boott2026-07-13