A new class of ultrathin polymer membranes, dubbed Polymers of Locked Intrinsic Microporosity (PLIMs), has been developed through a global research collaboration.

These membranes can separate complex hydrocarbon mixtures (like crude oil), potentially transforming the energy-intensive refining process.

Modifying membrane structure

Every single day, standard crude oil refining uses the thermal distillation method. This process boils oil to separate it into useful fractions like gasoline, plastics, and jet fuel. It works well, but it carries an environmental price tag. It consumes a high amount of energy.

Now, a team of international researchers has created a workaround that could take the heat out of the equation entirely.

The Polymers of Locked Intrinsic Microporosity (PLIMs) are ultrathin membranes that can filter out complex hydrocarbon mixtures at a microscopic level without needing a heat source.

“Membranes can, in principle, do the same job as distillation or evaporation, using far less energy,” explained Andrew Livingston, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Vice President Research and Innovation at Queen Mary University of London, and CEO of Exactmer. 

“The problem has been finding materials that are both fast and selective when exposed to real hydrocarbon mixtures,” the lead researcher added.

The study introduces a novel fabrication method that injects a crosslinking agent during membrane formation to create highly efficient separating layers. It combines two features that have eluded scientists for decades: extreme molecular selectivity and incredibly fast transport speeds.

Testing of membrane

Membranes promise a cleaner, low-energy alternative to massive boilers. In this concept, rather than boiling the liquid, it is run through a molecular sieve that catches specific molecules based on their size.

In practice, organic liquids like crude oil ruined everything.

The team focused on highly porous polymers, materials possessing an internal structure like a sub-nanometer sponge. However, these materials have a flaw. When exposed to harsh hydrocarbons, it swells. As the polymer expands, the tiny pores dilate, allowing larger molecules to slip through. The filter becomes useless.

To fix this, the team altered the fabrication process and introduced an in situ crosslinking agent directly into the polymer film during its formation.

“The key was stabilizing the structure before the polymer had a chance to swell,” said Dr Zhiwei Jiang. “This preserves the tiny pores that make molecular separation possible, while still allowing hydrocarbons to flow through very quickly.”

When the researchers tested the membranes against real Arabian Extra Light crude oil, the results defied standard expectations. The PLIM system successfully stripped out 99.8% of heavy hydrocarbons (those with more than 15 carbon atoms). It also slashed corrosive sulfur compounds by 93%. 

This is a massive victory for refineries, as sulfur frequently degrades downstream equipment and catalysts.

The membrane performed just as well on lighter refinery streams, such as virgin naphtha. It sorted out smaller molecules destined for fuel upgrading from heavier components used to manufacture everyday plastics. It did all this while operating at flow rates comparable to those of commercial water desalination systems.

Moreover, this team designed the material with mass manufacturing in mind from day one.

Using standard roll-to-roll processing, PLIM sheets were manufactured over a meter wide. These sheets were wrapped into spiral-wound modules, the exact shape used in existing industrial filtration plants worldwide.

The membranes also proved they have stamina, running continuously for 30 days without a drop in performance.

The results were published in the journal Science on June 18.

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SpaceX might be stealing the spotlight right now with its blockbuster stock market debut, but things are moving just as fast over at Tesla.

The technical specifications of Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab have reportedly been leaked from its official U.S. Environmental Protection Agency certification documents. 

The regulatory filing, certified on May 26, 2026, confirms several of Tesla’s design goals while revealing a few mechanical surprises regarding the robotaxi’s drivetrain and overall mass.

In February, Tesla announced that production of the upcoming two-seater Cybercab had begun. The company’s official X account shared a photo showcasing the first robotaxi rolling off the assembly line at Gigafactory Texas. However, not many details were disclosed back then.

First Cybercab off the production line at Giga Texas pic.twitter.com/kY8vCqtrCA

— Tesla (@Tesla) February 17, 2026

Vehicle specifications

The Cybercab serves as Tesla’s purpose-built, fully autonomous vehicle designed exclusively for Robotaxi service. The two-seater achieves an unusually light overall mass for an electric vehicle by eliminating driver controls such as a steering wheel or pedals.

According to EPA filings, Tesla has built an EV that weighs a mere 3,113 pounds. This puts the vehicle’s weight roughly 700 pounds below the lightest Tesla Model 3 configuration.

As it is so light, it doesn’t need a massive, heavy battery. It runs on a compact 48-kWh pack and a single front-mounted 219-horsepower motor.

According to The Verge, the Tesla Cybercab is poised to become one of the most efficient electric vehicles ever certified, boasting a 165-watt-hour-per-mile (Wh/mi) rating that yields an expected real-world range of 290 to 300 miles after EPA adjustments. 

This hyper-efficiency allows the robotaxi to travel roughly six miles on a single kilowatt-hour (kWh) of power — outperforming standard EVs that typically get only three to four miles per kWh.

Way behind Waymo

Yet, for all its technical brilliance, the Cybercab remains stuck.

Musk confidently promised investors last summer that autonomous ride-hailing would cover half the U.S. population by the end of the year. It didn’t happen. The service remains locked down to just three Texas cities: Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

The fleet itself is microscopic. Tesla currently holds permits for just 42 unsupervised Model Y robotaxis in Texas, and only 14 of those are actively driving without a human safety monitor behind the wheel. 

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Waymo is utterly dominating the asphalt. Waymo operates a rapidly scaling fleet of over 3,000 driverless vehicles across 11 major U.S. cities.

Tesla fans often point to safety data as a benefit. The company has logged only 18 automated driving crashes with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) compared to Waymo’s 697. However, experts say that it is simply a game of numbers. If you barely have any cars on the road, you barely have any crashes.

The pieces are moving behind the scenes, though. Tesla has quietly filed municipal plans to build dedicated “robocar” car washes and automated charging stations in Las Vegas and Austin. The infrastructure is coming. The engineering is certified. Now, Tesla just has to prove it can actually scale the service before its competitors leave it in the dust.

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Researchers at the National University of Singapore and Applied Materials have developed a method to grow extremely thin films on chips. 

Interestingly, the tungsten disulfide film is only 0.7 nanometers thick, protecting the tiny copper wires inside microchips.

Atomically thin material

We are building a digital world of roaring AI models and fast supercomputers, but the physical wires carrying that data are choking.

Computer chips are shrinking toward their absolute physical limits, leaving the microscopic copper wires inside them with virtually no breathing room.

The issue isn’t actually the copper itself. It is the bulky insulation wrapped around it.

Every nanoscale copper wire inside a modern processor requires two bodyguard layers. A barrier layer keeps runaway copper atoms from leaking out and short-circuiting the chip. Meanwhile, a liner layer acts as a structural glue, ensuring the copper sticks smoothly to the chip’s foundation. 

Today, the tech industry uses tantalum-based materials for these coatings. But these are hard to scale down.

Yet as chip components shrink, these bulky coatings consume half the wire’s cross-section, spiking electrical resistance and choking chip performance.

To solve this, researchers have successfully grown an ultrathin film of tungsten disulfide that acts as both a liner and a barrier.

And its total thickness is just 0.7 nanometers. 

Reduces electrical resistance

Conventional engineering logic dictated that you needed two entirely separate materials to handle the dual jobs of adhesion and insulation. How does a single layer of atoms replace a bulky, multi-material stack? It happens through an intentional structural labyrinth.

Using advanced computational modeling, the NUS Department of Chemistry discovered that the tungsten disulfide (WS2) film grows in a chaotic, polycrystalline pattern. It is made of tiny, microscopic grains. When layered, these grains are completely mismatched.

“The calculations showed us that the polycrystalline nature of these films, which might initially seem like a limitation compared with a perfect single crystal, is actually an asset. The random grain orientations between layers create a labyrinth that copper atoms struggle to traverse,” said Professor Richard Wong from the NUS Department of Chemistry, who is also a co-director of the Corporate Lab.

“This gives us a design principle where we engineer the grain structure to optimize barrier performance instead of pursuing perfect crystallinity,” Wong added. 

This random alignment creates a winding, staggered barrier rather than a straight path. As a result, the overlapping boundaries trap copper atoms in a structural labyrinth, blocking them from leaking through.

When tested under heavy-duty processing demands, the WS2 atomic shield delivered definitive results. It slashed electrical resistance by a millionfold, leaving a 20-nanometer wire’s space wide open for copper current by shrinking the coating’s footprint to just 7 percent. 

Plus, the method extended the projected lifespan of the wiring by more than 10 times under extreme electrical stress.

Plasma-free process

Designed for immediate commercial viability, the team’s plasma-free growth process operates at a low 350°C (662°F) to prevent damage to underlying chip components. 

This method is the first to simultaneously meet all four strict industry manufacturing standards: low-temperature execution, uniform coverage across full wafers, atomic-level thickness control, and over 95 percent conformal coating inside deep, narrow trenches.

With global chip demand hurtling toward US$1 trillion annually, this atom-thin shield arrives just in time. The team notes the new material is thinner than any barrier target set on the international semiconductor technology roadmap through 2037.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Electronics.

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