Energy science and technology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    In organic photovoltaics, electron acceptors are developed to replace fullerenes, and new donors need to be designed to match these acceptors. Here, the authors show that a polymer with strong temperature dependent aggregation and intentionally reduced crystallinity matches non-fullerene acceptors.

    • Zhengke Li
    • , Kui Jiang
    •  & He Yan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High performance CdTe thin film solar cells typically require a chloride activation treatment. Here, Majoret al. show that the main effect of the most effective chloride-based treatments is chloride accumulation at grain boundaries and that it results in improved open circuit voltages.

    • J. D. Major
    • , M. Al Turkestani
    •  & K. Durose

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In photovoltaics, sub-band gap energy photons can be harvested using up-conversion strategies. Here, the authors show that the thermally enhanced up-converted photoluminescence results in enhanced energy conversion, for an accessible temperature range and with a broad range of incident photon energy.

    • Assaf Manor
    • , Nimrod Kruger
    •  & Carmel Rotschild

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The promise of lithium-sulfur batteries with higher energy densities than lithium-ion is hindered by the insulating nature of sulfur and dissolution of polysulfides. Here the authors design titanium monoxide/carbon hollow nanospheres that overcome both obstacles, enabling improved electrochemical properties.

    • Zhen Li
    • , Jintao Zhang
    •  & Xiong Wen (David) Lou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Direct measurement of electron-phonon interactions at the single-mode level has been a challenge. Here, Liaoet al. use a three-pulse photoacoustic spectroscopy technique to investigate the damping of a single sub-terahertz coherent phonon mode by photo-excited free charge carriers in silicon at room temperature.

    • Bolin Liao
    • , A. A. Maznev
    •  & Gang Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiple exciton generation could help limit thermalization losses in solar cells, but the efficiency of the process is still limited. Here, the authors show by atomistic calculations that type-II interfaces in nanostructures along with a change in exciton cooling rate favour multiple exciton generation.

    • Hagai Eshet
    • , Roi Baer
    •  & Eran Rabani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Perovskite solar cells reach high efficiencies but their stability remains a challenge. Here, Bai et al. functionalize the fullerene-based transport layer with hydrophobic and crosslinkable molecules to prepare devices reaching 19% efficiency and degrading by 10% over a month in ambient conditions.

    • Yang Bai
    • , Qingfeng Dong
    •  & Jinsong Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The energy harvesting potential of triboelectric nanogenerators is currently limited by their output power. Here, the authors design a triboelectric nanogenerator inspired by lightning generation, featuring an electric double layer that delivers impressive charge separation and electric potential.

    • Jinsung Chun
    • , Byeong Uk Ye
    •  & Jeong Min Baik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zeolite crystal with porous structure is predicted to be a good membrane material for water purification, but experiments show water uptake orders of magnitude smaller than the theory. Here, Fasano et al. attribute this disagreement to the additional diffusion resistance induced by surface defects.

    • Matteo Fasano
    • , Thomas Humplik
    •  & Pietro Asinari

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Harvesting bio-mechanical energy is a promising route to powering wearable electronics, however design obstacles remain. Here the authors report on a triboelectric nanogenerator with optimized materials and design that can sustainably power an electronic watch and fitness tracker solely by human motion.

    • Jie Wang
    • , Shengming Li
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tomographic imaging of graphite-based anodes is challenging due to weak X-ray attenuation contrast. Here, the authors use operando propagation-based phase contrast tomography and digital volume correlation to study the electrochemical activity and microstructural dynamics in (silicon−) graphite electrodes.

    • Patrick Pietsch
    • , Daniel Westhoff
    •  & Vanessa Wood

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In photovoltaics window electrodes must display uniform current transport, as well as high light transmission from the substrate. Here, Han et al.show that quasi-fractal metallic networks provide a practical realization of an electrode structure with an optimal surface coverage and a uniform current density.

    • Bing Han
    • , Qiang Peng
    •  & Jinwei Gao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The realization of photoelectrochemical water splitting requires the upscale of associated technologies. Here, the authors report a scalable design based on independent photovoltaic and electrochemical silicon thin-film modules and assess its solar hydrogen generation performance.

    • Bugra Turan
    • , Jan-Philipp Becker
    •  & Stefan Haas

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    With the continued miniaturization of electronics, there are increasing efforts to engineer small, powerful energy storage devices. Here the authors review the cutting edge of this rapidly developing field, highlighting the most promising materials and architectures for our future energy storage requirements.

    • Maria R. Lukatskaya
    • , Bruce Dunn
    •  & Yury Gogotsi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Charge generation and transport are crucial to the performance of organic solar cells, but the mechanism remains controversial. Causa’ et al. show that the phase morphology of polymer:fullerene blends determines the exciton dissociation at femtoseconds, although the spatial separation can occur at picoseconds.

    • Martina Causa'
    • , Jelissa De Jonghe-Risse
    •  & Natalie Banerji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon dioxide capture technologies have been implemented as a strategy to alleviate the environmental costs of CO2 emissions. Here, the authors synthesize a functionalized-polyethyleneimine/silica adsorbent for post-combustion CO2 capture that exhibits a large CO2capacity and long-term stability.

    • Woosung Choi
    • , Kyungmin Min
    •  & Minkee Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photoelectrochemical water splitting uses solar power to decompose water to hydrogen and oxygen. Here, the authors integrate thylakoid membranes extracted from spinach into a bio-photo-electro-chemical cell capable of overall water splitting without the need for any sacrificial reagents.

    • Roy I. Pinhassi
    • , Dan Kallmann
    •  & Avner Rothschild

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Determining active species in non-precious metal catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction remains a challenge due to catalyst heterogeneity. Here the authors perform gas-phase treatments on an iron-based catalyst to allow the identification of carbon-encapsulated iron nanoparticles as the active species.

    • Jason A. Varnell
    • , Edmund C. M. Tse
    •  & Andrew A. Gewirth

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