As the CO₂ electrolysis field transitions from fundamental studies to commercially relevant engineering challenges, the cations required to maximize catalysis also tend to overconcentrate, leading to salt deposition and concomitant performance degradation. This Comment analyzes both the underlying causes of salt deposition and potential strategies for resolving this issue.

This Review examines membrane and electrochemical technologies for direct lithium extraction, focusing on separation mechanisms, performance trade-offs and the influence of brine composition. It offers a blueprint for treatment train integration and highlights key opportunities and challenges to advance direct lithium extraction toward practical and scalable industrial adoption.

A pore-modulated pyrolysis reactor that enables catalyst-free and energy-efficient upcycling of plastic waste is demonstrated. The graded-pore structure imposes molecular-weight-dependent transport barriers, establishing a gating effect that enhances product selectivity and yields aviation fuel precursor (C₈–C₁₈) with high efficiency.

A Telluride Science Workshop on electrochemical separations was convened in early 2025. In this Feature, 17 of the workshop participants share their perspectives and future outlooks on this rapidly growing research area.

This study reports on a modular and scalable tungsten wire lightbulb reactor that achieves ultrafast ammonia decomposition by electrifying a tungsten wire to extremely high temperatures, increasing productivity without diminishing energy efficiency.

This study introduces a kinetic decoupling–recoupling strategy to overcome kinetic limitations in plastic recycling. A tandem catalytic reactor, utilizing zeolite catalysts, converts polyethylene into ethylene and propylene with yields of up to 79%, offering a promising pathway toward efficient closed-loop recycling of polyolefins.

Engineering structurally and functionally complex synthetic cells remains a key challenge. Here DNA condensate synthetic cells combine phase separation and DNA nanostructures to reveal how switchable artificial cytoskeletons assemble in viscoelastic confinements. These cytoskeletons improve the mechanical properties of synthetic cells and enable stable mechano-interfaces with mammalian cells.

This study reports on a closed-loop approach combining multiscale simulations, interpretable machine learning, experiments and techno-economic analysis for systematic plasma catalyst design, showing that alloys from noncritical minerals can potentially replace costly noble metals such as ruthenium for hydrogen production from ammonia decomposition under plasma conditions.

A solid-phase hot-pressing method is introduced, which can rapidly produce highly crystalline covalent organic framework platelets in a convenient, solvent-free manner. Fifteen platelets of various linkage types are produced, with a proof-of-concept demonstration of the resulting high-performing platelet type in an atmospheric water harvesting device.

The lack of reliable coating methods for amorphous zeolitic imidazolate framework (aZIF) materials hinders their development for applications such as photolithography and separation membranes. Supported by computational fluid dynamics modeling, the authors develop a spin-coating technique to deposit aZIF films from dilute precursors and demonstrate their wafer-scale use in advanced lithographic processes.

In this Editorial, we outline our interest in biological systems research, highlighting how fundamental chemical engineering principles can help translate biophysical complexity into practical, transferable design strategies.

Todd Squires highlights the distinction between weight and volume fraction as a conceptual strategy to control the flow and feel of complex fluid products.

Commercialization is a key milestone in chemical process design and product development. In this Editorial, we emphasize the importance of incorporating industrial expertise and introduce a new article format to support this aim: Down to Business.