Volume 1 Issue 2, February 2016

High-performance polymer solar cells are normally processed with halogenated solvents, which are toxic and hazardous. Now, high power-conversion efficiency in bulk-heterojunction devices is achieved by using a non-toxic hydrocarbon solvent through an environmentally friendly processing route.

Improving the design of catalytic materials for clean energy production requires a better understanding of their electronic properties, which remains experimentally challenging. Researchers now quantify the number of electrons transferred from metal nanoparticles to an oxide support as a function of particle size.

Micrometre-sized silicon particles are attractive negative-electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries but are prone to mechanical failure during electrochemical cycling. Now, graphene cages grown conformally around the micro-silicon particles are shown to improve their cycling stability.

Combined water and power models are important to predict how changes in one resource will impact the other. A new global assessment of hydropower and thermoelectric power plants predicts future vulnerabilities arising from climate-change-induced water constraints and tests possible adaptation options.

Ontario, Canada, has seen a number of policy measures introduced since 2009 to increase wind energy production. This Perspective explores the impacts and implications of those policies on wind energy disputes in terms of health, financial benefit, community engagement and the landscape.

Renewable energy technologies are enabling many changes to our electricity systems. This Perspective argues that social, economic and technological factors are rapidly driving the global energy policy discourse towards more flexible, renewable-based systems.

The thermal degradation of perovskite solar cells is an obstacle to their commercialization. Now, the mechanisms for thermally induced structural and chemical changes are identified by in situ measurements in a transmission electron microscope.

Organic–inorganic perovskites are promising materials for photovoltaic devices, however they have poor tolerance to ambient humidity. Now, their surface can be functionalized with water-resistant molecules to stabilize their performance under humid conditions.

The efficiency of perovskite solar cells is limited by the performance of the hole-transport material, which extracts charges from the active layer. Here, a molecularly engineered hole transporter with performance comparable to spiro-OMeTAD is demonstrated.

It is challenging to integrate a natural photosystem with a redox enzyme on an electrode to convert light energy into electricity. Now, photo-bioelectrochemical cells with efficient photocurrent generation are demonstrated with such an integration.

The processing of high-performance organic solar cells usually requires environmentally hazardous solvents. Now, hydrocarbon-based processing is shown to achieve relatively high performance in a more environmentally friendly way.

Micrometre-size silicon particles are desirable battery anode materials but are even more prone to structure degradation than nanoscale particles. Here, graphene cages grown conformally around the micro-silicon particles are shown to improve their cycling stability.