Energy science and technology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evaporation of water represents an alternative source of renewable energy. Building on previous models of evaporation, Cavusoglu et al. show that the power available from this natural resource is comparable to wind and solar power, yet it does not suffer as much from varying weather conditions.

    • Ahmet-Hamdi Cavusoglu
    • , Xi Chen
    •  & Ozgur Sahin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrocatalysis offers important opportunities for clean fuel production, but uncovering the chemistry at the electrode surface remains a challenge. Here, the authors exploit a single-nanosheet electrode to perform in-situ measurements of water oxidation electrocatalysis and reveal a crucial interaction with oxygen.

    • Peiyao Wang
    • , Mengyu Yan
    •  & Liqiang Mai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Simplified device concepts may become important for the development of low cost photovoltaics. Lin et al. report solar cells based on interdigitated gold back-contacts and metal halide perovskites where charge extraction is assisted via a dipole field generated by self-assembled molecular monolayers.

    • Xiongfeng Lin
    • , Askhat N. Jumabekov
    •  & Udo Bach

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Energy wasted for heating the empty space of the entire building can be saved by passively heating the immediate environment around the human body. Here, the authors show a nanophotonic structure textile with tailored infrared property for passive personal heating using nanoporous metallized polyethylene.

    • Lili Cai
    • , Alex Y. Song
    •  & Yi Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal halide perovskites for optoelectronic devices have been extensively studied in two forms: single-crystals or polycrystalline thin films. Using spectroscopic approaches, Wenger et al. show that polycrystalline thin films possess similar optoelectronic properties to single crystals.

    • Bernard Wenger
    • , Pabitra K. Nayak
    •  & Henry J. Snaith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The rational design of intercalation electrodes is largely confined to the optimization of redox chemistry of transition metals and oxygen. Here, the authors report the single anionic redox process in NaCrS2 where it is sulfur rather than chromium that works as the electrochemical active species.

    • Zulipiya Shadike
    • , Yong-Ning Zhou
    •  & Zheng-Wen Fu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    With ligand-mediated layer-by-layer assembly between metal nanoparticles and small organic molecules, the authors prepare metallic paper electrodes for supercapacitors with high power and energy densities. This approach could be extended to various electrodes for portable/wearable electronics.

    • Yongmin Ko
    • , Minseong Kwon
    •  & Jinhan Cho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon-based electrodes able to intercalate Li+ and Na+ ions have been exploited for high performing energy storage devices. Here, the authors combine the ion intercalation properties of porous graphitic carbons with the redox chemistry of iodine to produce iodine–carbon batteries with high reversible capacities.

    • Ke Lu
    • , Ziyu Hu
    •  & Jintao Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Capturing radioactive organic iodides from nuclear waste is important for safe nuclear energy usage, but remains a significant challenge. Here, Li and co-workers fabricate a stable metal–organic framework functionalized with tertiary amine groups that exhibits high capacities for radioactive organic iodides uptake.

    • Baiyan Li
    • , Xinglong Dong
    •  & Jing Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithium metal is an ideal anode material for rechargeable batteries but suffer from the growth of lithium dendrites and low Coulombic efficiency. Here the authors show that nanodiamonds serve as an electrolyte additive to co-deposit with lithium metal and suppress the formation of dendrites.

    • Xin-Bing Cheng
    • , Meng-Qiang Zhao
    •  & Yury Gogotsi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solid-state entropy of reduction increases the thermodynamic efficiency of ceria for two-step thermochemical water splitting. Here, the authors report a large and different source of entropy, the onsite electronic configurational entropy arising from coupling between orbital and spin angular momenta in f orbitals.

    • S. Shahab Naghavi
    • , Antoine A. Emery
    •  & Chris Wolverton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vapour shielding is one of the interesting mechanisms for reducing the heat load to plasma facing components in fusion reactors. Here the authors report on the observation of a dynamic equilibrium between the plasma and the divertor liquid Sn surface leading to an overall stable surface temperature.

    • G. G. van Eden
    • , V. Kvon
    •  & T. W. Morgan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organizing photochromic molecules into 3D networks is a key strategy to access photoresponsive materials, but framework rigidity typically limits conversion efficiency. Here, the authors exploit a flexible metal-organic framework to achieve quantitative and reversible photoisomerization in a porous crystalline solid.

    • Yongtai Zheng
    • , Hiroshi Sato
    •  & Susumu Kitagawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) harvest ambient mechanical energy and convert it into electrical energy. Here, the authors couple surface polarization from contact electrification with dielectric polarization from a ferroelectric material in vacuum to dramatically enhance the TENG output power.

    • Jie Wang
    • , Changsheng Wu
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nuclear-grade graphite is an important high-temperature structural material for fission reactors. Here, the authors perform simultaneous X-ray tomography and mechanical testing on a nuclear-grade graphite, finding simultaneous improvement of strength and toughness at elevated temperatures which they attribute primarily to reduction of residual tensile stresses in the as-made material.

    • Dong Liu
    • , Bernd Gludovatz
    •  & Robert O. Ritchie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    D-band engineering via alloying platinum is a leading design principle for advanced oxygen reduction electrocatalysts, but stability remains a concern. Here the authors make Pt nanoparticles supported on graphite-rich boron carbide for enhanced activity and stability, isolating and optimizing the electronic metal-support interactions.

    • Colleen Jackson
    • , Graham T. Smith
    •  & Denis Kramer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermal rectification is instrumental to achieving active heat flow control and energy harvesting in nanoscale devices. Here, the authors demonstrate thermal rectification in asymmetric graphene nanostructures, achieving a large rectification factor up to 26%.

    • Haidong Wang
    • , Shiqian Hu
    •  & Jie Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ion migration in perovskite solar cells are known to cause hysteresis and instability. Biet al., report a charge extraction layer based on graphene, fullerenes and carbon quantum dots which suppresses ion diffusion and enhances charge carrier diffusion leading to efficient devices with improved stability.

    • Enbing Bi
    • , Han Chen
    •  & Liyuan Han

  • Article
    | Open Access

    2D nanomaterials are promising capacitive energy storage materials, but their tendency to restack hinders electrolyte transport. Here, Yamauchi and colleagues introduce 2D ordered mesoporous carbons in between MXene layers, and metal removal affords all-carbon porous 2D–2D heterostructures in which restacking is prevented.

    • Jie Wang
    • , Jing Tang
    •  & Yusuke Yamauchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Regulating guest access and release in porous materials remains an important goal. Here, May and colleagues elucidate the mechanism by which guest admission can be temperature-regulated in typical microporous materials, and experimentally exploit this process to achieve appreciable and reversible hydrogen storage.

    • Gang (Kevin) Li
    • , Jin Shang
    •  & Eric F. May

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inadequate pore infiltration and low conductivity of hole transporter materials limit the performance of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells. Using fast charge-exchange Cu(II/I) complexes as part of the hole transporting material, Caoet al. overcome these issues to achieve a record photoconversion efficiency of 11%.

    • Yiming Cao
    • , Yasemin Saygili
    •  & Michael Grätzel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystalline uraninite is believed to be the dominant form in uranium deposits. Here, the authors find that non-crystalline U(IV) generated through biologically mediated U(VI) reduction is the predominant U(IV)species in ore deposits, implying that biogenic processes are more important than previously thought.

    • Amrita Bhattacharyya
    • , Kate M. Campbell
    •  & Thomas Borch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Up-scaling represents a key challenge for photovoltaics based on metal halide perovskites. Using a composite of 2D and 3D perovskites in combination with a printable carbon black/graphite counter electrode; Granciniet al., report 11.2% efficient modules stable over 10,000 hours.

    • G. Grancini
    • , C. Roldán-Carmona
    •  & Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Antiferroelectric capacitors hold great promise for high-power energy storage. Here, through a first-principles-based computational approach, authors find high theoretical energy densities in rare earth substituted bismuth ferrite, and propose a simple model to assess the storage properties of a general antiferroelectric material.

    • Bin Xu
    • , Jorge Íñiguez
    •  & L. Bellaiche

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microbial fuel cells generate electricity from a variety of sources, however from methane only negligible electrical power has been reported so far. Here the authors convert methane into electricity using a synthetic consortium consisting of an engineered archaeal strain, microorganisms from methane-acclimated sludge, andGeobacter sulfurreducens.

    • Michael J. McAnulty
    • , Venkata G. Poosarla
    •  & Thomas K. Wood

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change may alter building energy demand. Here, the authors quantify changes in residential electricity and natural gas demand in Los Angeles County and find that rising temperatures may increase electricity demand by 41–87% between 2020 and 2060, but improved efficiency could lower this increase to 28%.

    • Janet L. Reyna
    •  & Mikhail V. Chester

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Direct hydrogenation of CO2 into liquid fuels can mitigate CO2 emissions and reduce the rapid depletion of fossil fuels. Here, the authors show an iron-based multifunctional catalyst that converts CO2to gasoline with high selectivity due to synergistic cooperation of multiple catalytic active sites.

    • Jian Wei
    • , Qingjie Ge
    •  & Jian Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In lithium-ion batteries the interactions between the electrode and electrolyte represent a complex but critical process. Here the authors reveal the dynamic behaviour of interphases driven by conductive carbon through chemical and imaging analyses of a model transition-metal oxide cathode material.

    • Wangda Li
    • , Andrei Dolocan
    •  & Arumugam Manthiram

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vacancies in 2D materials can influence their properties, however controlling their formation remains a challenge. Here the authors show that selective etching of a 3D laminate with in-plane chemical ordering results in formation of MXenes with ordered divacancies, as well as elevated conductance and supercapacitance.

    • Quanzheng Tao
    • , Martin Dahlqvist
    •  & Johanna Rosen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite recent technological advances, it remains challenging to realize reversible high-areal-capacity lithium metal anodes. Here, the authors demonstrate such an anode by tailoring the top solid electrolyte interphase layer.

    • Hui Wang
    • , Masaki Matsui
    •  & Nobuyuki Imanishi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The energy required to control a dynamical complex network can be prohibitively large when there are only a few control inputs. Here the authors demonstrate that if only a subset of the network is targeted the energy requirements decrease exponentially.

    • Isaac Klickstein
    • , Afroza Shirin
    •  & Francesco Sorrentino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In order to fully utilize sulfur vacancies in MoS2 catalysts for industrial applications, a facile and general route for making sulfur vacancies in MoS2 is needed. Here, the authors introduce a scalable route towards generating sulfur vacancies on the MoS2basal plane using electrochemical desulfurization.

    • Charlie Tsai
    • , Hong Li
    •  & Frank Abild-Pedersen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Harvesting incident photons with energy below the bandgap may lead to highly efficient solar cells. By introducing InAs quantum dots at the hetero-interface, Asahiet al. achieve efficient two step photon up-conversion resulting in additional photocurrent and very high external quantum efficiency.

    • Shigeo Asahi
    • , Haruyuki Teranishi
    •  & Takashi Kita

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