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Abstract Proton conductors have found diverse applications, such as electrolytes in proton ceramic fuel cells, which require high ionic conductivity at low temperatures and high chemical stability. Here, we report the oxide, Ba2LuAlO5, which exhibits proton conductivities of 10− 2 S cm− 1 at 487 °C and 1.5 × 10− 3 S cm− 1 at 232 °C, high diffusivity and high chemical stability without chemical doping. Ba2LuAlO5 is a hexagonal perovskite-related oxide with highly oxygen-deficient hexagonal close-packed h′ layers, which enables a large amount of water uptake x = 0.50 in Ba2LuAlO5·x H2O. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and neutron diffraction show the hydration in the h′ layer and proton migration mainly around cubic close-packed c layers existing at the interface of octahedral LuO6 layers. These results demonstrate that the high proton conduction allowed by the highly oxygen-deficient and cubic close-packed layers is a promising strategy for the development of high-performance proton conductors.

Abstract The chemical order and disorder of solids have a decisive influence on the material properties. There are numerous materials exhibiting chemical order/disorder of atoms with similar X-ray atomic scattering factors and similar neutron scattering lengths. It is difficult to investigate such order/disorder hidden in the data obtained from conventional diffraction methods. Herein, we quantitatively determined the Mo/Nb order in the high ion conductor Ba7Nb4MoO20 by a technique combining resonant X-ray diffraction, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and first-principle calculations. NMR provided direct evidence that Mo atoms occupy only the M2 site near the intrinsically oxygen-deficient ion-conducting layer. Resonant X-ray diffraction determined the occupancy factors of Mo atoms at the M2 and other sites to be 0.50 and 0.00, respectively. These findings provide a basis for the development of ion conductors. This combined technique would open a new avenue for in-depth investigation of the hidden chemical order/disorder in materials.

The authors develop an RNA sequencing-based platform, PERSIST-seq, to simultaneously delineate in-cell mRNA stability, ribosome load, and in-solution stability of a diverse mRNA library to derive design principles for improved mRNA therapeutics.

Honeycomb layered oxides are an emerging class of materials with peculiar physicochemical properties. Here, the authors report the synthesis and electrochemical energy storage characterisations of a mixed-alkali honeycomb layered oxide material capable of storing Na and K ions simultaneously.

Oxide-ion conductors are important in various applications for clean energy. Here, authors report high oxide-ion conductivity of hexagonal perovskite-related oxide Ba7Nb3.9Mo1.1O20.05, which is ascribed to the interstitialcy diffusion and low activation energy for oxide-ion conductivity.

Oxide-based lithium/sodium-rich antiperovskites are regarded as promising solid electrolytes. Here, authors report a series of antiperovskites with a soft lattice containing hydride (H–) and chalcogenide (S2–, Se2–, Te2–) anions, enabling the fast Li+ /Na+ transport assisted by rotational phonon modes.

Properties of perovskite oxides can be changed by manipulating anion-vacancy order patterns, but they are difficult to control. Here the authors show strain-induced creation and switching of anion vacancies in perovskite films in which the direction or periodicity of anion-vacancy planes is altered depending on the substrate employed.

Oxide ion conductors are an exciting class of materials with applications in various domains. Here, the authors show that Dion–Jacobson Phases are a structure supporting high O2− mobility. The bulk conductivity of CsBi2Ti2NbO10−δ even exceeds that of YSZ, offering new possibilities in electrolyte discovery.

Gene expression is regulated at several levels, including through the modulation of protein translation. Here the authors find that translation control diversifies gene expression between developing tissues and regulates major signalling pathways through a complex landscape of upstream open reading frames (uORFs).