Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The realization of the full potential of Li metal batteries requires high-performance electrolytes. Here Z. Bao and colleagues develop low-concentration electrolytes with a single-solvent and single-salt formulation, offering promise for high-energy and long-cycling batteries.
Building-integrated installation of semi-transparent solar cells is limited by a trade-off between transparency and efficiency. Now, Huaulmé et al. demonstrate dye-sensitized solar cells with photochromic sensitizers that adjust their light transmission and power conversion efficiency with light exposure.
Defects are believed to detrimentally affect the efficiency of quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells. Now, we show that charge-trapping defects actually assist the photoconversion process, while the quantum dot density in the mesoporous electrode is a primary limiting factor in device performance.
Activating methane at ambient temperature is challenging due to its stability, but could ultimately give access to a variety of other fuels and chemicals. Here, the authors present a photochemical looping strategy based on silver chemistry that converts methane to ethane under illumination at room temperature.
The electroreduction of CO2 to ethanol could enable the clean production of fuels using renewable power. This study shows how confinement effects from nitrogen-doped carbon layers on copper catalysts enable selective ethanol production from CO2 with a Faradaic efficiency of up to 52%.
Using photosynthetic microorganisms may be a route to sustainable hydrogen production from solar energy, but hydrogen generation is typically short lived. Here the authors address this challenge by engineering cyanobacteria to construct photosystem I–hydrogenase fusions that produce hydrogen in vivo.
It is not clear what factors drive sustained use of clean cooking fuels after adoption in places such as India and China. With India achieving a liquified petroleum gas penetration of 95%, Mani et al. use longitudinal data from a survey of more than 8,000 rural households to identify the reasons for the uptake and sustained use of the clean fuel.
Hot carrier solar cells offer greater conversion efficiency than single junction cells but they have yet to be demonstrated in real devices. Esmaielpour et al. show that hot carriers are harnessed from metastable valleys in III–V heterojunction devices at voltages greater than the absorber bandgap.
Chunsheng Wang and colleagues develop an electrolyte strategy to enable the use of commercially available microsized alloys, such as Si–Li, as high-performance battery anodes. They ascribe its success to the formation of robust LiF-rich layers as the solid–electrolyte interface.
Stacking multiple junctions with different bandgaps and operating under concentrated light allows solar cells to reach efficiencies beyond the limits of standard devices. Geisz et al. present a six-junction solar cell based on III–V materials with a 47.1% efficiency—the highest reported to date.
Transition from coal to gas, retrofitting and retirement of coal power plants are expected to reduce air pollution and therefore have positive health effects. Casey et al. present direct evidence of this phenomenon by reporting improved asthma outcomes in the wake of coal plant closure and retrofit in Louisville, Kentucky.
Carbon dioxide can be reduced electrocatalytically to fuels using copper catalysts, but the key features that determine the selectivity of these materials to specific products remains uncertain. Here Arán–Ais et al. use in situ methods to explore the influence of morphology and oxidation state on the performance of copper catalysts.
Although more cities are considering mandatory building energy audits, their effect on energy use in buildings is not clear. Using data from New York, Kontokosta et al. estimate the extent to which Local Law 87 mandating building energy audits has contributed to a decrease in energy use.
Detailed measures of energy use inequality globally and within countries are essential to ensure a just energy transition. Estimating embedded energy in goods and services used by different income groups, Oswald et al. measure the large inequality in energy use in 86 countries, and internationally.
Understanding what underpins the activity and stability of oxygen evolution catalysts is an ongoing issue in the field of water splitting. Now, researchers show that balancing the rate of Fe dissolution and deposition over a metal hydr(oxy)oxide host yields dynamically stable Fe active sites, with the Fe–host interaction key to the performance.
Low energy density and limited cyclability are preventing the commercialization of aqueous Zn–MnO2 batteries. Here, the authors combine the merits of operating Zn anodes in alkaline conditions and MnO2 cathodes in acidic conditions, via an electrolyte-decoupling strategy, to realize high-performance batteries.
Ocean currents offer a potential source of power, but identification of the best sites requires a detailed understanding of their variability. Barnier et al. undertake global eddy-resolving ocean modelling to gain insight into the feedback from ocean power plants on currents and the changes they can induce.
Future resilience planning for large-area long-duration electricity outages requires, in part, estimates of what electricity consumers are willing to pay for preparedness. Baik et al. arrive at those estimates using a representative survey and find some willingness to invest in community resilience.
Solid-state Li metal batteries represent one of the most promising rechargeable battery technologies. Here the authors report an exceptional high-performance prototype solid-state pouch cell made of a sulfide electrolyte, a high-Ni layered oxide cathode and, in particular, a silver–carbon composite anode with no excess Li.
Anion exchange membrane water electrolysers have potential cost advantages over proton exchange membrane electrolysers, but their performance has lagged behind. Here the authors investigate the cause of the poor performance of anion exchange membrane electrolysers and design ionomers that can overcome some of the challenges.