Volume 6 Issue 7, July 2023

Carbon capture technologies are of utmost importance for the mitigation of climate change. Now, a study shows that all polymineralic rocks, regardless of their composition, can trap significant amounts of CO₂ through mechanochemical processing.

A method for recycling cathodes without fully breaking down the valuable material, and then upgrading it, produces batteries that can provide stable operation at high voltages, enabling enhanced energy-storage possibilities.

A safe aqueous electrolyte design with hybrid salts and solvents turns a zinc metal anode highly reversible under conditions matching practical operational requirements, paving the way for the future market adoption of more sustainable battery technologies.

Incorporating single atoms into carbon-based catalysts is shown to disrupt their crystal symmetry in a way that improves their catalytic activity. The discovery here could offer a generalized approach for the rational design of electrocatalysts.

Human and natural systems are inextricably intertwined, co-evolving systems. The study presents a new conservation framework incorporating the different roles people can play in ecosystem health, through land stewardship.

Many of the barriers to progress in addressing environmental problems, such as climate change, are political. This Review illustrates how insight into politics can help policymakers craft strategies to address the ambition gap, the implementation gap and the international action gap.

This study uses 30-m cropland maps to show that cropland expansion in protected areas accelerated dramatically from 2000 to 2019, compared with the expansion of global croplands, threatening the aspirations of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

How climate, caribou and human well-being are linked is not well known. Using interviews conducted over 9 years with Indigenous hunters from the Western Arctic of America, this study analyses the mechanisms linking climate, caribou and human capacity to satisfy cultural and subsistence needs in a human–caribou system.

Milling of mafic minerals has been proposed as a method to capture carbon dioxide. Hard rocks that are commonly crushed to produce construction aggregate, however, are more efficient at carbon dioxide capture and have the potential to trap substantial CO₂ as a by-product of aggregate production.

Dealing with radioactive pollution first requires the detection of radioactive species released to the environment. Here the authors show an ultrasensitive and selective way to detect ⁹⁰Sr, one of the most frequently discharged products from nuclear reactors.

Recycling forms an essential dimension of batteries’ sustainability. Here the authors show a straightforward process that directly upgrades spent LiCoO₂ to a Mg and Al co-substituted LiCoO₂ cathode with a high voltage of 4.6 V and excellent cycling stability.

Rechargeable aqueous zinc batteries are heralded as a sustainable energy technology but still face technical challenges. The hybrid electrolyte here eliminates hydrogen evolution reaction, the most thorny issue, and allows for impressive battery performance even under harsh conditions.

Oxygen electrocatalysis is at the heart of a range of clean energy technologies, but the best-performing electrocatalysts rely on precious metals. The authors demonstrate a carbon catalyst design with embedded high-entropy 3d transition metal single atoms that shows excellent catalytic activities.

Ethylene is a widely used petrochemical feedstock for the manufacture of various critical chemicals. Here the authors show a rationally designed Cu catalyst that enables electrocatalytic production with high performance and economic feasibility as well as sustainability.

School buses provide crucial transport for millions of children across the United States, but this analysis finds that the diesel exhaust from older buses is impacting their health and that updating the bus fleet nationwide could lead to 1.3 million additional student days of attendance.

Despite the increasing importance of local and regional research for conservation efforts worldwide, research published in languages other than English is routinely ignored by global assessments. This study examines how such research is used and cited at national levels even though it is overlooked internationally

Global initiatives to expand protected areas focus on controlling ‘above ground’ impacts such as land use, overlooking the potential human impacts on protected areas through groundwater flow. This study analyses the potential extent of these impacts by mapping groundwatersheds.

Solutions that can support multiple sustainability goals related to clean energy, and resource use efficiency, will be crucial in the near future. The study estimates the potential of floating solar panels on reservoirs globally to generate renewable energy, reduce water losses and conserve land.