Reviews & Analysis

Aqueous batteries have drawbacks related to their low energy densities. Now, highly concentrated hetero-halogen electrolytes can be used to enable fast multielectron transfer, leading to cost-effective, reversible and high-energy-density aqueous batteries.

The shift towards low-carbon heating technologies and associated infrastructure often disrupts citizens’ lives. Research now demonstrates how the socio-psychological context may influence the circumstances under which citizens are willing to accept heating transitions and related construction work, and those where reactance and rejection is to be expected.

The activation barriers of interfacial energy conversion reactions are key to controlling the efficiency of electrolysers. Work on the structural dynamics of water during charge transfer at electrified solid/liquid interfaces now brings greater understanding of the components of the activation barriers for water dissociation and hydrogen evolution.

One of the major challenges in realizing lithium (Li)-metal batteries is the instability of Li metal in the electrolyte. Now, a study unveils the significant role of lithium oxide in protecting Li metal, thereby contributing to stable battery operation.

Pay-as-you-go energy systems are a promising market-based approach to paying for energy in small amounts in sub-Saharan Africa; however, implementation and the suitability of current business models show room for improvement. This Perspective outlines an agenda for more inclusive PAYG systems.

Wide band gap perovskite solar cells suffer from halide segregation, which hampers their use in tandem solar cells. Now, researchers develop an additive with redox and defect passivating capabilities to suppress halide migration, enabling perovskite–organic tandems with over 25% efficiency.

Using a hybrid fixture, application of an appropriate external pressure on Li-metal pouch cells with a liquid electrolyte considerably reduces cell swelling. Mapping of the pressure distribution across the cell surface provides insight into the electroplating process that could inform strategies to overcome uneven Li plating on the Li-metal surface.

During extreme storms, the failure of a small fraction of transmission lines can trigger a cascade of outages in a power grid. Going beyond static approaches, it is now demonstrated that resolving the spatio-temporal interactions between the storm and the power grid is key to identifying these critical lines.

Recycling spent batteries is crucial for a circular battery economy, yet knowledge of solid-state battery (SSB) recycling lags behind that of lithium-ion batteries. This study evaluates SSB recycling techniques, emphasizing the need for specific, energy-efficient methods tailored to distinct electrolytes.

Factors such as wealth might be expected to affect the transition to clean cooking, specifically the transition choices of uptake, primary use, and exclusive use of liquefied petroleum gas. Data from Ghana’s largest household energy survey show, however, that eleven out of thirteen factors considered do not have a significant or consistent role across these transition choices.

Copper catalysts hold promise for producing multi-carbon chemicals through electrochemical CO₂ reduction, but improving performance is challenging due to the limited tunability of the copper surface. Now, research uses organic functionalization to modify the surface oxidation state of copper, yielding improved energy efficiency for ethylene production.

To date, organic-based redox flow batteries (RFBs) have relatively low open-circuit voltages (OCVs), limiting their commercial viability. Achieving higher OCVs with pH-decoupled RFBs faces challenges due to severe ion crossover, prompting new research that proposes an acid–base regeneration cell to address this limitation.

Surface reconstruction, chemo-mechanical degradation, and interfacial side reactions are major factors limiting the cyclability of Ni-rich cathodes. A strategy based on entropy-assisted epitaxial coating is now shown to effectively mitigate these issues, leading to improved battery performance and promising advances in electrochemical energy storage.

Non-flammable electrolytes are essential for ensuring the safe operation of sodium-metal batteries; however, challenges arise in applications due to limited stability between the electrolytes and electrodes. Now, an electrolyte engineering approach using salts as a diluent is proposed to achieve both high interfacial stability and improved safety.

Injecting hydrogen into subsurface environments could provide seasonal energy storage, but understanding of technical feasibility is limited as large-scale demonstrations are scarce. Now, field tests show that hydrogen can be stored and microbially converted to methane in a depleted underground hydrocarbon reservoir.

The scarcity of raw materials and complex synthesis procedures have impeded the development of electrolytes for Mg and Ca metal batteries. Research now reports a facile synthesis of organoborate electrolytes through cation replacement reactions, offering highly reversible Mg or Ca electrochemistry.

Inhomogeneities in the optoelectronic properties of polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ absorbers can limit solar cell performance. Now, researchers quantify the spatial distribution of charge carrier concentration with nanometre resolution and show how different alkali-metal post-deposition treatments reduce the grain-to-grain fluctuations.

Development ramifications of global decarbonization efforts for fossil fuel-producing low and lower–middle income countries remain underexplored. This Perspective suggests three transition pathways for navigating these ramifications.

Carbon monoxide can be reacted with water to synthesize hydrocarbons, but low activity and poor selectivity has plagued the conventional thermal catalytic route. Now, leveraging photocatalytic and thermocatalytic effects, a TiO_2–x/Ni catalyst is shown to produce C₂₊ hydrocarbons directly from carbon monoxide and water with high yield and selectivity.

Polymer nanocomposite-based dielectric capacitors are promising candidates for high- power-density energy storage devices. However, they exhibit poor performance at high temperatures. A polymer nanocomposite based on sub-nanosheets shows high energy density at elevated temperatures due to the unique structure, geometry, and high surface area to volume ratio of the nanosheets.