Wei Deng (, ), Bao Qiu (, ), Jiahang Chen, Zhen Li, Yongbing Tang (, ), Zhaoping Liu (, ), Ying Shirley Meng
{"title":"Understanding the degradation complexity of ultrahigh-energy lithium metal batteries","authors":"Wei Deng \u0000 (, ), Bao Qiu \u0000 (, ), Jiahang Chen, Zhen Li, Yongbing Tang \u0000 (, ), Zhaoping Liu \u0000 (, ), Ying Shirley Meng","doi":"10.1038/s41570-026-00801-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-026-00801-2","url":null,"abstract":"The combination of Li-rich layered oxide cathodes and lithium metal anodes enables lithium metal batteries (LMBs) to achieve specific energies exceeding 600 Wh kg−1, which is a crucial threshold requiring the activation of anionic oxygen-redox of cathode. The specific energy is attained owing to oxygen-redox reactions at the cathode and reversible Li plating–stripping at the anode, but these processes also induce distinct failure mechanisms. Structural destabilization at the cathode and anodic dendrite growth cause cell-level failures that impact the lifespan of LMBs more profoundly than material degradation alone. Moreover, the presence of lithium metal anodes obscures the detection of active Li loss, often leading to misinterpretations related to capacity fading and cycle life. This Review examines the progress in realizing 600 Wh kg−1 LMBs and understanding their lifespan failure mechanisms. We discuss the challenges in accurately assessing the lifespan and Li loss pathways of LMBs, and we elucidate the fundamental chemistry mechanisms driving both material-level and cell-level failures. In particular, the electrochemical implications of cell parameters, cell assembly and operating conditions on the lifespan are highlighted. We also outline the gaps in knowledge and advanced techniques required to decipher detailed failure modes for LMBs with oxygen-redox reactions and Li plating–stripping. This Review discusses the lifespan failure chemistry of lithium metal batteries beyond 600 Wh kg−1, highlighting the challenges in assessing active Li loss. We correlate material degradation, cell parameters, cell assembly and operating conditions to the overall performance and failure of a lithium metal battery.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"10 5","pages":"315-331"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146258695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Arismel Tena Meza, Caitlyn Fick, Erin M. Bucci, Jordan A. M. Gonzalez, Katherine McCarthy, Katherine Snell, Luca McDermott, Madeline E. Ruos
{"title":"Empowering the next generation of scientists","authors":"Arismel Tena Meza, Caitlyn Fick, Erin M. Bucci, Jordan A. M. Gonzalez, Katherine McCarthy, Katherine Snell, Luca McDermott, Madeline E. Ruos","doi":"10.1038/s41570-026-00806-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-026-00806-x","url":null,"abstract":"We are a group of graduate students from the University of California, Los Angeles who represent the Organization for Cultural Diversity in Science. In this Comment we describe a number of our initiatives to uplift and enrich the scientific community of which we are a part.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"10 3","pages":"149-150"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146215665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Carbon capture with COFs","authors":"Liang Zhang \u0000 (, ), Jun Jiang \u0000 (, )","doi":"10.1038/s41570-026-00802-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-026-00802-1","url":null,"abstract":"A polyamine-functionalized covalent organic framework (COF) overcomes traditional direct air capture limitations with rapid CO2 adsorption kinetics and high capacity, offering a promising solution for efficient carbon capture and sustainable climate mitigation.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"10 3","pages":"154-155"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146195104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Eric C.-Y. Yuan, Yunsheng Liu, Junmin Chen, Peichen Zhong, Sanjeev Raja, Tobias Kreiman, Santiago Vargas, Wenbin Xu, Martin Head-Gordon, Chao Yang, Samuel M. Blau, Bingqing Cheng, Aditi Krishnapriyan, Teresa Head-Gordon
{"title":"Foundation models for atomistic simulation of chemistry and materials","authors":"Eric C.-Y. Yuan, Yunsheng Liu, Junmin Chen, Peichen Zhong, Sanjeev Raja, Tobias Kreiman, Santiago Vargas, Wenbin Xu, Martin Head-Gordon, Chao Yang, Samuel M. Blau, Bingqing Cheng, Aditi Krishnapriyan, Teresa Head-Gordon","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00793-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00793-5","url":null,"abstract":"Conventional computational methods for modeling chemical and materials systems are limited by system size and timescale, forcing a trade-off between quantum-mechanical accuracy and the sampling needed for realistic observables. Large language and vision foundation models — pre-trained on massive datasets using transformer architectures — have revolutionized many fields. It is thus interesting to ask whether a foundation model — subject to suitable data, parameter scaling and training — could enable learned simulations of chemistry and materials. Here, we review the field of machine-learned interatomic potentials (MLIPs) and posit that scaling up large and diverse chemical and materials datasets and highly expressive architectures using advanced training strategies should result in models that are: more efficient, transferable, robust to out-of-distribution scenarios, and easier to fine-tune to a variety of downstream physical observables than models trained from scratch on small datasets corresponding to specific, targeted atomistic simulation tasks. We provide specific criteria for creating such large-scale MLIP foundation models, coordinated strategies for their development, evaluation and deployment, and highlight potential emergent capabilities that could transform predictive simulations in chemistry and materials science and accelerate discovery across multiple technological domains. We examine the historical development and underlying principles of foundation models realized in language and vision, and propose how physics-infused machine learning interaction potentials could dramatically transform at scale to create transformative foundation models for chemistry and materials science.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"10 3","pages":"212-230"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146165993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A conversation with a chemical biology pioneer","authors":"Stuart Schreiber, Stephanie Greed","doi":"10.1038/s41570-026-00803-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-026-00803-0","url":null,"abstract":"Ahead of his 70th birthday, Stuart Schreiber, Morris Loeb Research Professor at Harvard University, discussed his life in science.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"10 3","pages":"151-153"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146131997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kirsty Tinto, Lorraine Gibson van Mil, Fraser J. Scott
{"title":"Towards effective and ethical GenAI in chemistry education","authors":"Kirsty Tinto, Lorraine Gibson van Mil, Fraser J. Scott","doi":"10.1038/s41570-026-00799-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-026-00799-7","url":null,"abstract":"In 2025, chemistry education research moved towards more mature and critical uses of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Recent studies show how GenAI can support visualization and learning of abstract chemical concepts, while highlighting the need for strong AI literacy to manage errors, ethics and misuse.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"10 3","pages":"156-157"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146132059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A call for chemical safety and sustainability","authors":"Oskar Karlsson, Berit Olofsson, Aji P. Mathew","doi":"10.1038/s41570-026-00798-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-026-00798-8","url":null,"abstract":"The Stockholm Declaration on Chemistry for the Future, launched during the Nobel Symposium in May 2025, aims to align research, education, industry, and governance with the goal of focusing the future of chemistry on safety and sustainability.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"10 3","pages":"147-148"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146131027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Liangtao Yang, Xingxing Yin, Jun Wang, Yanan Sun, Yongchun Li, Zhenggang Zhang, Zhongqing Liu, Si-Min Huang, Philipp Adelhelm, Dong Zhou
{"title":"Substitution and electrochemistry in layered oxide cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries","authors":"Liangtao Yang, Xingxing Yin, Jun Wang, Yanan Sun, Yongchun Li, Zhenggang Zhang, Zhongqing Liu, Si-Min Huang, Philipp Adelhelm, Dong Zhou","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00795-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00795-3","url":null,"abstract":"Substitution is a vital strategy for developing high-performance sodium layered oxides (SLOs), which demonstrates great potential for making sodium-ion batteries a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries. Numerous studies have been conducted on substituted SLOs; however, each substitute exhibits varied effects on the structure and electrochemical performance of the SLOs, and no clear design principles have been established. Clarifying the relationship among substitution, structure and performance is therefore important to enable a rational design strategy for high-performance SLOs. In this Review, the up-to-date substitution guidelines and the current understanding of how substitution affects the structure and electrochemistry in SLOs are discussed, and the site preference and characteristic redox features of different types of substitutes are outlined. The inherent challenges and opportunities for the innovation of better-performing SLOs are summarized, paving the way for accelerating the commercialization of SLO-based sodium-ion batteries and the realization of their applications ranging from electric vehicles to grid energy storage systems. The impact of atomic substitution in sodium-layered oxides and how substitutions affect the properties and performances of battery materials are discussed, with the aim of improving sodium-layered oxides and accelerating the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"10 3","pages":"196-211"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146073354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}