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Conductive hydrogels have attracted widespread attention for their promising application prospects in portable and flexible electronic devices. However, hydrogels commonly suffer from problems such as solvent volatilization and freezing at low temperatures. Inspired by tissues such as human muscles, tendons, and ligaments, this study proposes a facile method to produce anisotropic conductive strong and tough eutectogels through directional freezing integrated with solvent substitution (DFSS) strategy. Eutectogels with anisotropic characteristics exhibit a highly anisotropic structure, conferring distinctive anisotropic mechanical properties and electrical conductivity. The prepared anisotropic PVA-M-DES eutectogels exhibit excellent mechanical properties (high strength of 6.31 MPa, high toughness of 20.75 MJ m -3 , elastic modulus of 2.36 MPa, and fracture strain of 596%), high conductivity (0.17 S m -1 ), excellent anti-freezing and anti-drying properties. Environment-tolerant anisotropic PVA-M-DES eutectogels can be assembled into strain sensor and triboelectric nanogenerator to achieve real-time monitoring of various human motions and have potential applications in wearable electronics, personal healthcare, energy harvesting, and human-machine interfaces., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Elucidating the correlations between the core structure of atomically precise nanoclusters and their catalytic activities is fundamentalfor exploring highly efficient nanocatalysts. Herein, a series of Ag-based nanoclusters protected by 2,4-dimethylphenylthiophenol (specifically Ag 4 Pd 2 (SPhMe 2 ) 8 and Ag 24 M(SPhMe 2 ) 18 where M = Ag, Pd, and Pt) were synthesized and deposited on TiO 2 supports as heterogeneous catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes with NaBH 4 as the reductant. It was found that Ag 4 Pd 2 (SPhMe 2 ) 8 could spontaneously lose its ligands during catalysis, leading to the formation of polydispersed AgPd nanoparticles. This transformation endows the system with extraordinary activity for driving the hydrogenation of nitroarenes. However, the Ag 24 M (M = Ag, Pd, and Pt) systems, maintain their core structures during catalysis. They follow the generally reported ligand-mediated hydride-involved process, with catalytic activities depending on the central atom (Pt > Pd > Ag), which affects the hydride transferred from the nanoclusters to the reactant to regulate the catalysis.

The development of efficient, high-performance catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains a significant challenge, especially in seawater media. Here, RuIr alloy catalysts are prepared by the polyol reduction method. Compared with single-metal catalysts, the RuIr alloy catalysts exhibited higher activity and stability in seawater electrolysis due to their greater number of reactive sites and solubility resistance. The RuIr alloy has an overpotential of 75 mV@10 mA cm -2 , which is similar to that of Pt/C (73 mV), and can operate stably for 100 hours in alkaline seawater. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that hydrogen atoms adsorbed at the top sites of Ru and Ir atoms are more favorable for HER and are most likely to be the reactive sites. This work provides a reference for developing highly efficient and stable catalysts for seawater electrolysis., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Atomically precise Ag 4 Ni 2 nanoclusters with 2,4-dimethylbenzenethiol as the ligands were synthesized and characterized as a cocatalyst of SiC for the selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes to arylamine in the presence of NaBH 4 . The obtained Ag 4 Ni 2 /SiC samples exhibited extraordinary catalytic activity, and a self-accelerated catalytic process was observed with the reduction of nitrophenol to aminophenol as the model reaction. Experimental comparison between the Ag 4 Ni 2 /SiC samples before and after the catalysis showed that the transformation of Ag 4 Ni 2 clusters to polydisperse Ag particles as well as amorphous NiO x on the surface of SiC in the catalysis was the key to their high activity. AIMD calculations revealed that the transformation of Ag 4 Ni 2 was driven by the presence of multiple hydrides on the cluster, which induced the detachment of the thiol ligand of the nanoclusters.