Turing structures at the nanoscale: Turing structures arise when imbalances in diffusion rates make a stable steady-state system sensitive to small heterogeneous perturbations. For example, Turing patterns occur in chemical reactions when a fast-moving inhibitor controls the motion of a slower-moving activator. Tan et al. grew polyamide membranes by using interfacial polymerization, where the reactions occur at the interface between oil and water layers. The addition of polyvinyl alcohol to the aqueous phase reduced the diffusion of the monomer. This process generates membranes with more bumps, voids, and islands, which prove to be better for water desalination. Science , this issue p. 518

Lithium–sulfur batteries are promising technologies for powering flexible devices due to their high energy density, low cost and environmental friendliness, when the insulating nature, shuttle effect and volume expansion of sulfur electrodes are well addressed. Here, we report a strategy of using foldable interpenetrated metal-organic frameworks/carbon nanotubes thin film for binder-free advanced lithium–sulfur batteries through a facile confinement conversion. The carbon nanotubes interpenetrate through the metal-organic frameworks crystal and interweave the electrode into a stratified structure to provide both conductivity and structural integrity, while the highly porous metal-organic frameworks endow the electrode with strong sulfur confinement to achieve good cyclability. These hierarchical porous interpenetrated three-dimensional conductive networks with well confined S₈ lead to high sulfur loading and utilization, as well as high volumetric energy density.

For the first time, pressure, salt concentration and pH demonstrated advantages for tuning the nanochannels within lamellar graphene oxide (LGO) membranes to control the separation of small molecules. This provides a new avenue for designing and engineering efficient LGO membranes for molecular separation.