Articles

Rechargeable aqueous batteries are attractive owing to their relatively low cost and safety. Here the authors report an aqueous zinc/manganese oxide battery that operates via a conversion reaction mechanism and exhibits a long-term cycling stability.

Controlling the surface of quantum dots has enabled higher efficiency in quantum dot solar cells. Now, the role of surface passivation and suppression of hydroxyl ligands in the performance and photostability of cells with an efficiency of 9.6% is unveiled.

Organic thermoelectric materials are emerging as low-cost, versatile alternatives to more established inorganic ones. Avery et al. report carbon nanotube-based materials with selected properties that exhibit enhanced thermoelectric performance.

The development of all-solid-state batteries requires fast lithium conductors. Here, the authors report a lithium compound, Li_9.54Si_1.74P_1.44S_11.7Cl_0.3, with an exceptionally high conductivity and demonstrate that all-solid-state batteries based on the compound have high power densities.

Government support for energy technology is vital, but quantifying its effects downstream is complicated. Towards this end, David Popp analyses scientific publication data resulting from public money, exploring the time lags between funding and new publications and the resulting policy implications.

Solar cells based on CdTe are a promising low-cost alternative to mainstream Si devices, but they usually produce voltages below 900 mV. Burst et al. now show that open-circuit voltages greater than 1 V can be achieved by doping the CdTe with a group V element.

Uncontrolled lithium deposition during cycling is a major concern in the development of lithium-based batteries. Here, the authors analyse the lithium nucleation pattern on various metal substrates and demonstrate that lithium can be selectively deposited in a nanoseed inside hollow carbon spheres.

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.

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.

The use of doped-silicon contacts in silicon solar cells adds cost and complexity to the fabrication process. These issues can now be circumvented by using dopant-free carrier-selective interfaces on silicon, realized by alkali metal fluorides and metal oxides.

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.

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.

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.

Many people globally still use solid fuels for cooking and heating, leading to programmes designed to subsidize cleaner alternatives. This study analyses possible effects of climate mitigation policies on fuel costs and hence the effectiveness of such schemes.

Ongoing efforts are devoted to raising the efficiency of solar cells in converting energy from solar radiation. Now, improved structural order in the charge transport layers of perovskite solar cells is shown to increase the efficiency from 17.1% to 19.4%.

Precious metals are efficient oxygen electrocatalysts but suffer from poor stability and high cost. Now, nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes derived from metal–organic frameworks are shown to have activity and durability comparable to that of Pt/C catalysts.

There is an intensive research effort in suppressing the first-cycle lithium loss in lithium-ion batteries. Now, a cathode prelithiation method with nanocomposites of conversion materials is demonstrated to compensate the initial lithium loss and improve the battery performance.

Biofuels offer a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels but may need large land-use changes. This study combines ecosystem and economic models to explore land-use allocation and greenhouse gas emissions for a 32-billion-gallon Renewable Fuel Standard in the US.

Safety is a major issue in the development of lithium-ion batteries. Now, a thermoresponsive polymer composite embedded into electrodes is shown to rapidly shut down batteries at overheating but quickly resume function at normal conditions.