Browse Articles

Comprehensive and meaningful inclusion of marginalized communities within the research enterprise will be critical to ensuring an equitable, technology-informed, clean energy transition. We provide five key action items for government agencies and philanthropic institutions to operationalize the commitment to an equitable energy transition.

Lithium-metal batteries offer great energy density improvement over lithium-ion, but understanding their cyclability is a daunting task. Now, an analytical method is reported to quantify lithium in its electrochemically inactive and active forms, enabling insights about the anode reversibility throughout cycling.

Electrochemical approaches to carbon capture have the advantages of operation under ambient conditions and modular design, but improved sorbent molecules are still needed. Here the authors present a library of redox-tunable Lewis bases, shedding light on molecular design guidelines to tune sorbent properties.

Pyroelectric materials have potential applications in sensors and energy harvesters but it is difficult for these materials to deliver energy in the joule range. Now, a pyroelectric harvester made of lead scandium tantalate with a multilayer structure is shown to generate about 4.43 J cm^–3 from each thermodynamic cycle.

The efficiency of kesterite solar cells has been stuck at 12.6% since 2013 due to challenges in controlling defects. Now Gong et al. present a low-temperature annealing of the kesterite/CdS junction to form an epitaxial interface with a low defect density, enabling 13%-efficiency devices.

The performance of CO₂ electrolysers is often limited by poor transfer of reactants and products. Here the authors design a CO₂ electrolyser in which forced convection of the catholyte throughout a porous electrode addresses this issue and allows high current densities to be reached.

Ammonia has been proposed as a shipping fuel, yet potential adverse side-effects are poorly understood. We argue that if nitrogen releases from ammonia are not tightly controlled, the scale of the demands of maritime transport are such that the global nitrogen cycle could be substantially altered.

Collections of Pt monomers (close to each other but not directly bonded) supported on black TiO₂ exhibit superior photocatalytic performance in the nonoxidative dehydrogenation of alkanes than that of single-atom catalysts. The extent of clustering of Pt species has a decisive role in determining the reaction activity and product selectivity.

Energy-development projects typically adopt a Western perspective, which can create tensions and difficulties among Indigenous communities. In this Review the authors examine sustainable energy interventions in Indigenous territories and call for a more pluralistic approach that is focused on learning from Indigenous narratives.

Dehydrogenation of alkanes produces hydrogen and useful carbon molecules but typically requires harsh conditions to operate effectively. Here the authors show that Pt/TiO₂ photocatalysts where Pt atoms are isolated from, yet still close to, one another are promising for visible-light-driven alkane dehydrogenation.

An accurate evaluation of lithium-metal battery performance is challenging due to the excessive lithium that is often used at the anode. Here the authors report a methodology to assess the degradation mechanism and cycle life of practical lithium-metal batteries.

Clean hydrogen could play a pivotal role in decarbonization but the paths for different sectors remain to be understood. Yang et al. present detailed scenarios to 2060 to explore options for using clean hydrogen in China’s economy for the sectors of industry and transport that are hard to abate.

It is an important challenge to ensure that battery components such as lithium come from a sustainable source. A Li isotope-based approach is now shown to be a potentially useful tool for tracing the origin of processed Li in Li-ion batteries.

Electroreduction of N₂ to ammonia is a possible alternative to the Haber–Bosch process, but the competing hydrogen evolution reaction typically limits yields. Now, electrochemical protocols combining two molecular catalysts are shown to produce ammonia with adequate selectivity at moderate overpotentials under mild conditions.

The electrification of transport could present problems for power grids if charging is not managed well. Powell et al. model deep electrification scenarios for the western United States to understand how different types of charging control and scenarios of charging infrastructure produce different impacts.

The growth of small-scale off-grid solar products across the Global South has expanded access to energy but also created a rising issue of e-waste. Munro et al. explore the structure of the off-grid solar sector, how it creates barriers to addressing e-waste, and what research is needed to overcome them.

The microstructure of metal halide perovskite films has profound implications for solar cells. Here, Zhou et al. analyse the impact of three microstructure types on perovskites’ optoelectronics and on device efficiency and stability, outlining future opportunities for microstructural engineering.