A research group led by Prof. LIU Jian from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) presented a new methodology for the preparation of monometallic/metal oxide confined within nitrogen-doped hollow carbon capsules. They applied this non-precious metal catalytic system to the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline. The study was published in Advanced Science.
　　The catalytic hydrogenation nitroarenes into their substituted anilines are importance for the chemical industry such as the production of dyes, pharmaceuticals, pigments, and agrochemicals. However, catalysts currently used in industry have low reactivity and poor hydrogenation selectivity.
　　Although noble-metal catalysts have been proved to be very efficient for catalytic hydrogenation reactions, they are expensive and rare. Therefore, it is necessary to develop transition metals that are cheap, abundant and can improve catalytic activity.
　　Catalytic performance of catalysts with different Zn/Co ratio. (Image by TIAN Hao)
　　The scientists obtained yolk-shell structured Co-CoOx@N-C by coating polymers on the surface of a series of Zn/Co bimetallic zeolite imidazole framework (Zn/Co ZIF), followed by hydrothermal treatment and confined pyrolysis.
　　Compared with monometallic Co ZIF, the introduction of inactive Zn nanoparticles could suppress the sintering of the Co species and enhance their dispersion in the carbon structures. Moreover, the strong interaction between the cobalt nanoparticles and the surrounding carbon shell were greatly enhanced by the presence of Zn within the Co structure, which provided positive synergistic effects and served to better disperse the Co particles.
　　The specific surface area and Co particle size were optimized through finely tuning the original Zn content in ZIF particles, thus enhancing overall catalytic activity. The yolk-shell structured Zn4Co1Ox@carbon hollow capsules were shown to be a highly active and selective catalyst (selectivity >99%) for hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline. Furthermore, Zn4Co1Ox@carbon hollow particles showed superior catalytic stability, and no deactivation after 8 cycles of reaction.
　　The hollow Co-CoOx@N-C capsules might provide a pathway for green and sustainable catalytic process for fine chemicals production.
　　This work was supported by Dalian National Laboratory For Clean Energy Cooperation Fund, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Liaoning Talent Program. This article was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of DICP. (Text by WANG Xinyao and TIAN hao)

　　Prof. WU Zhongshuai from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. YU Yan from the University of Science and Technology of China, reviewed the recent progress of phosphorus-based composites as anode materials for potassium-ion batteries (KIBs), and shared new insights on existing challenges and opportunities for designing high-performance phosphorus-based anodes for KIBs. This review was published in Advanced Materials.
　　Schematic illustration of the phosphorus-based composites as anode materials for KIBs. (Image by WU Ying and HUANG Haibo)
　　Potassium-ion batteries (KIBs) are very promising core energy storage devices that can meet the increasing needs for scalable and affordable stationary applications due to their advantages of low-cost and earth-abundant potassium. Although the KIBs hold tremendous potential, there are still challenges for KIBs resulting from the instability of materials upon insertion/extraction of large K+, accompanied with the poor cyclability and low initial coulombic efficiency.
　　As the key to optimizing a battery's performance, the development of high-performance electrode materials helps to increase the feasibility of KIBs technology. In this sense, phosphorus-based materials (i.e., phosphorus and metal phosphide) with high theoretical capacity and low redox potential tick all the right boxes of choosing material.
　　This review gave a rapid glimpse at recent studies on phosphorus-based anode materials for advanced KIBs, covering the synthetic methods, reaction mechanisms, electrochemical properties and performances.
　　In addition, several promising strategies were highlighted to address the imminent challenges faced by phosphorus-based anode materials, hoping to cast an insightful outlook for possible future direction in this field.
　　This work was supported by the DNL cooperation Fund, CAS, National Key R&D Program of China, etc. and dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS. (Text by HUANG Hai-Bo and HOU Xiaocheng)

　　On September 16th to 20th, the third Sino-German Young Scientists Symposium on Structures & Dynamics at Surfaces was held in DICP.
　　This symposium was funded by Sino-German Center for Science Promotion, organized by Dalian Insititute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the CAS and co-organized by Universitat Duisburg-Essen. It convened by Prof. ZHOU Chuanyao from DICP and Dr. Ulrich Hagemann from Universitat Duisburg-Essen, more than 40 young scientists from China, Germany and America attended this symposium. Prof. QIU Xiaohui from National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, CAS and Prof. Eckart Hasselbrink from Universitat Duisburg-Essen were specially invited for senior scientist reports.
　　There were more than 40 reports on various aspects of surficial dynamics and structures, such as 2D material properties, triplet energy transfer and molecular beam surface scattering. HHG based trARPES, vibrational SFG, AFM and STM were areas where discussions focused. Attendees visited DICP Changxing campus and the Dalian Coherent Light Source.
　　As a part of the academic conferences for the 70th anniversary for DICP, this symposium helped young scientists from both China and Germany to build friendship for further collaboration. (Text by WANG Tianjun and ZHOU Chuanyao Zhou)
　　The Third Sino-German Young Scientists Symposium on Structures & Dynamics at Surfaces Held in DICP. (Photo by Wansheng Liu)

　　Recently, scientists from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) defined the key deubiquitination and ubiquitination interaction networks in cancer by bioinformatics methods. Their findings were published in Oncogene and iScience respectively.
　　A. Schematic diagram of "deubiquitination enzyme - substrate" interaction network predicted by a bioinformatics-based method; B. The study of the "E3 ubiquitin ligase - substrate" interaction was selected as the cover of the iScience journal. (Image by CHEM Di)
　　The deubiquitination and ubiquitination function is one of the most important post-transcriptional modification processes, it involves in nearly all types of biological processes such as cell cycle, immune process and signal transduction in cells. Meanwhile, dysregulation in the deubiquitination and ubiquitination function may lead to serious diseases, like cancer.
　　Within the deubiquitination and ubiquitination system, the specific substrate recognition is respectively controlled by the deubiquitination enzyme (DUB) and E3 ubiquitin ligase (E3). However, the relations between the DUB/E3 and substrates are complex, only a small part of substrates are revealed for certain DUBs and E3s and many DUB-substrate and E3-substrate interactions remain unclear, limiting our understanding about the roles of DUBs and E3s.
　　The scientists utilized the biological big data resources covering molecular structure information, proteomics profiling and biology network to construct the DUB-substrate and E3-substrate interaction prediction models.
　　Novel substrates for DUBs and E3s were respectively predicted by the models, and further validated by experimental assays. Meanwhile, based on the predicted DUB-substrate interactions, pancancer multi-omics data were also applied to reveal cancer-type-specific DUB-substrate interactions.
　　These results provide valuable references for studies of deubiquitination and ubiquitination system, and promote the discovery of novel deubiquitination and ubiquitination relevant cancer therapeutic targets.
　　The above research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Innovation program of science and research from the DICP, and dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS. (Text by CHEN DI)

　　Recently, the Biomicrofluidic System Group led by Prof. QIN Jianhua from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reviewed the advances in hydrogels in organoids and organs-on-a-chip, and it was published in Advanced Materials.
　　Significant advances in materials, microscale technology, and stem cell biology have enabled the construction of 3D tissues and organs, which will ultimately lead to more effective diagnostics and therapy.
　　Organoids and organs-on-a-chip (OOC), evolved from developmental biology and bioengineering principles, have emerged as major technological breakthrough and distinct model systems to revolutionize biomedical research and drug discovery by recapitulating the key structural and functional complexity of human organs in vitro. While these two model systems show remarkable progress and great potential to mimic human physiology to some extent, they still cannot fully resemble the real tissues or organs due to the higher complexity of human organism in vivo.
　　There is growing interest in the development of functional biomaterials, especially hydrogels, for utilization in these promising systems to build more physiologically relevant 3D tissues with defined properties.
　　Hydrogels with high water content can mimic the native ECM microenvironment by spatiotemporal control over biochemical and physical cues due to their high biocompatibility and tunable properties, such as permeability, elasticity, stiffness and chemical reactivity.
　　Illustration of hydrogels in organoids and organ-on-a-chip applications. (Image by WANG Yaqing)
　　The scientists highlighted the recent progress of a variety of hydrogels (e.g., natural, synthetic, hybrid) that was adopted in the rapid development areas of organoids and organs-on-a-chip.
　　They first gave a snapshot of the remarkable properties of hydrogels as ECM analogous for guiding cellular behaviors in 3D tissue/organ models. Then, they described the well-defined hydrogels that was utilized into organoids and OOC systems to improve the physiological relevance of 3D models. Finally, they discussed the future opportunities, challenges and perspectives on how hydrogels with advanced properties could ultimately help to bridge the gap between the in vitro 3D tissue models and their in vivo counterparts, thus accelerating their biomedical applications.
　　This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and National Nature Science Foundation of China, etc. This work was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of DICP. (Text by WANG Yaqing and LIU Haitao)

　　Scientists from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed striking isotopologue dependent photodissociation dynamics of water molecules. The research was published in Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
　　Water, ubiquitous in the universe, absorbs light at all wavelengths in the vacuum ultraviolet region below 190 nm, resulting in fragmentation leading to a hydrogen (H) atom and a hydroxyl (OH) radical. The single bond fission process is an important source of OH radicals in the interstellar medium.
　　Distinctive isotope dependent dissociation features of water in the interstellar space. (Image by YUAN Kaijun) 
　　The scientists revealed an interesting isotope effect, caused by accidental resonance, which led to different dissociation rates, different dissociation mechanisms, and different product energy disposals following excitation to a common excited state of H2O and D2O.
　　Such strikingly different fragmentation dynamics of H2O and D2O represented an extreme example of such accidental resonance induced state mixing and might be expected to contribute to the D/H isotope heterogeneity in the Solar System.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chemical Dynamics Research Center. (Text by YUAN Kaijun)