Volume 4 Issue 6, June 2019

A wealth of candidates are being investigated to improve the catalysts found in acidic and alkaline electrolysers. However, attention should be focused on developing stable water oxidation catalysts with improved intrinsic activity — not only increased geometric activity — alongside best practice for data collection.

Stationary storage in buildings can help make better use of intermittent renewable power, but safer and cheaper alternatives to lithium-ion batteries are needed to accelerate deployment. Now, demonstration of an aqueous potassium-ion full cell offers a way forward.

A significant portion of the energy required to electrochemically reduce CO₂ to fuels and chemicals is typically consumed by the accompanying oxygen evolution reaction. Now, researchers show that alternative oxidative reactions using biodiesel-waste could improve the economics and emission profiles of this process.

Selenium alloying has enabled record efficiency for CdTe solar cells by changing the optoelectronic properties of the CdTe absorber layer, though its role has not yet been fully understood. Now, non-radiative charge-carrier recombination in the bulk of the CdSeTe layer is revealed to be lower in grains with higher Se concentration.

Biomass cooking will continue for the foreseeable future in most developing countries. However, inefficient cookstoves have a negative impact on well-being. While controversy surrounds whether improved biomass cookstoves effectively address this, a new study shows that they may offer economic and health benefits.

Public responses to new energy technologies can influence adoption and deployment. This Review brings together research on public perceptions of and responses to a wide range of energy technologies around the themes of technology, people, place and process.

Carbon capture and storage can help reduce fossil-fuel power-plant emissions. Here the authors show that the energy return on input of thermal plants with carbon capture is in general lower than the energy return of most types of renewable energy even when combined with energy storage.

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction to fuels and chemicals is typically accompanied by oxygen evolution as the anodic half reaction. Here, Verma et al. identify glycerol oxidation as a viable alternative half reaction, reducing cradle-to-gate CO₂ emissions and improving the economics of CO₂ conversion.

Manufacturing high-performing solid electrolytes at low processing temperature requires improved techniques. Here Jennifer Rupp and colleagues report a ceramic processing strategy, using Li₃N multilayers as a lithium reservoir for the formation of lithium–garnet films, significantly reducing the operating temperature while maintaining the ionic conductivity.

Intensive research efforts are underway to enable applications of layered lithium transition metal oxides in batteries. Here the authors report an oxidative chemical vapour deposition technique to conformally coat both the primary and the secondary particles of these oxides to unleash potential applications.

Intensive efforts are underway towards developing battery-based grid-scale storage technologies. Here, the authors report an aqueous K-ion battery that offers many attractive advantages over various battery alternatives.

Selenium in cadmium telluride solar cells is known to allow bandgap engineering, thus enabling highly efficient devices. Here, Fiducia et al. show that selenium also plays a role in passivating defects in the absorber layer.

Isolating metal atoms on supports is becoming an increasingly studied approach to design water splitting electrocatalysts. Here, the authors prepare a hydrogen evolution catalyst comprising atomically dispersed Pt atoms on curved carbon supports, which outperform similar catalysts where the support is flat.

Some of the best electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline electrolysers are based on oxides of nickel and iron. Here, the authors demonstrate that the water oxidation performance of such catalysts can be enhanced by application of a magnetic field from a permanent magnet.