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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.
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.
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.
Ensuring safety during operation is a major issue in the development of lithium-ion batteries. Coating the electrode current collector with thermoresponsive polymer composites is now shown to rapidly shut the battery down when it overheats, and to quickly resume its function when normal operating conditions return.
The open-circuit voltage is one of the parameters determining the efficiency of solar cells in converting solar radiation to electricity. Reducing the structural disorder in fullerene electron-transport layers is now shown to significantly improve the open-circuit voltage of perovskite solar cells.
Household energy conservation can help to significantly lower energy consumption. Visual cues provided by thermal imaging of heat loss in buildings are now shown to increase energy conserving behaviours and implementations among homeowners more effectively than just performing carbon footprint audits.
The sustainable production of hydrogen is key to the delivery of clean energy in a hydrogen economy; however, lower-cost alternatives to platinum electrocatalysts are needed. Now, isolated, earth-abundant cobalt atoms dispersed over nitrogen-doped graphene are shown to efficiently electrolyse water to generate hydrogen.
