Catalytic CO₂ utilization (CCU) offers a pathway to turn power plant emissions into valuable fuels and chemicals, but deploying these complex technologies has been hindered by safety and economic hurdles. A new review led by Xiansheng Li from China Datang Technology Innovation Co., Ltd. provides a pragmatic, three-tiered engineering framework to help utilities, investors, and policymakers navigate this challenge, offering a clear path from scientific concept to bankable project.

Conventional ceramic sintering is energy-intensive and often leads to uncontrolled grain growth. A new class of field-assisted sintering technologies—including hot oscillatory pressing, cold sintering, and ultrafast high-temperature sintering—is overcoming these limitations. By synergistically coupling temperature, mechanical, and electric fields, these methods achieve >99% relative density while preserving ultrafine microstructures. With energy savings up to 80% and compatibility with temperature-sensitive materials, these innovations are paving the way for next-generation high-performance ceramics and composites in 5G, solid-state batteries, and extreme environment applications.

Porous piezoelectric ceramics exhibit strong potential for sensing weak mechanical stimuli. However, the intrinsic coupling between the piezoelectric charge coefficient (d₃₃) and dielectric constant (εᵣ) limits energy conversion efficiency. Here, a fully open, three-dimensionally interconnected PZT-based porous ceramic (3D-PPC) is developed to overcome this constraint. Despite an ultrahigh porosity of 92%, the material retains a high d₃₃ (~470 pC/N), while εᵣ is significantly reduced (~140), leading to a ~14-fold enhancement in g₃₃ (~380 × 10^-3 V·m/N). This performance arises from synergistic effects of heterogeneous stress/electric fields, multiscale domain structures, and defect engineering, demonstrating that 3D interconnected porosity actively modulates local polarization behavior.

Lithium disilicate glass-ceramics are extensively utilized for dental restorations owing to their semi-translucency, high strength, and superior biocompatibility. While vat photopolymerization 3D printing offers substantial improvements in production efficiency and material utilization over conventional powder sintering and machining, the high transparency of these materials induces severe light scattering, compromising printing precision and causing clinical complications including restoration misfit, bacterial infiltration, and secondary caries. This study introduces a functional composite powder design strategy grounded in light scattering theory, which modulates slurry optical properties to achieve high-precision fabrication while endowing antibacterial functionality, thereby establishing a foundation for clinical translation of 3D-printed functional dental ceramics.