Volume 7 Issue 11, November 2022

Understanding how beliefs about renewable energy sources are influenced by exposure to information is important for the successful implementation of policies to combat climate change. New longitudinal research shows that messages emphasizing specific benefits of renewable energy can exert a lasting impact on partisans’ beliefs.

Lithium-metal batteries offer great energy density improvement over lithium-ion, but understanding their cyclability is a daunting task. Now, an analytical method is reported to quantify lithium in its electrochemically inactive and active forms, enabling insights about the anode reversibility throughout cycling.

Pyroelectric materials have potential applications in sensors and energy harvesters but it is difficult for these materials to deliver energy in the joule range. Now, a pyroelectric harvester made of lead scandium tantalate with a multilayer structure is shown to generate about 4.43 J cm^–3 from each thermodynamic cycle.

Electrochemical CO₂ capture could potentially avoid large energy inputs typical of approaches based on temperature and pressure swings, but better sorbents are still needed. New research expands the sorbent library using molecules with redox-tuneable sp² nitrogen centres as effective electrochemical CO₂ capture agents.

Collections of Pt monomers (close to each other but not directly bonded) supported on black TiO₂ exhibit superior photocatalytic performance in the nonoxidative dehydrogenation of alkanes than that of single-atom catalysts. The extent of clustering of Pt species has a decisive role in determining the reaction activity and product selectivity.

Evidence from a policy experiment shows that public safety bans on electric scooters and electric bikes can generate unintended traffic congestion in city centres. The studied ban is found to increase travel times by 9–11% for daily evening commutes and by 37% following stadium events.

Discussions abound regarding the future of African energy systems, yet they typically overlook the different starting points and development objectives of each country. This Perspective highlights these differences and calls for more context-specific attention to define low-carbon energy pathways.

Communication is an important tool in combating climate change and building support for new energy policy. Here Gustafson et al. measure the longitudinal effect of three message frames around the benefits of renewable energy on Democrat and Republican beliefs and support for such technology in the United States.

An accurate evaluation of lithium-metal battery performance is challenging due to the excessive lithium that is often used at the anode. Here the authors report a methodology to assess the degradation mechanism and cycle life of practical lithium-metal batteries.

Dehydrogenation of alkanes produces hydrogen and useful carbon molecules but typically requires harsh conditions to operate effectively. Here the authors show that Pt/TiO₂ photocatalysts where Pt atoms are isolated from, yet still close to, one another are promising for visible-light-driven alkane dehydrogenation.

Increased use of cooling technologies, such as air conditioning, during hot weather can lead to higher bills for low-income households. Using Southern California Edison data, this study quantifies the relationship between daily temperature, electricity use and utility disconnections for low-income households in California.

Electrochemical approaches to carbon capture have the advantages of operation under ambient conditions and modular design, but improved sorbent molecules are still needed. Here the authors present a library of redox-tunable Lewis bases, shedding light on molecular design guidelines to tune sorbent properties.

Organic solar cells with a bulk-heterojunction architecture suffer from photocurrent loss driven by triplet states. Now, Jiang et al. show that sequentially deposited donor–acceptor planar–mixed heterojunctions suppress triplet formation, enabling efficiencies over 19%.

High-speed deposition of organic solar cells is crucial to manufacturing, yet it remains a challenge. Now, Sun et al. show that layer-by-layer deposition holds potential for speeding up the fabrication of solar cells while retaining high efficiency.

Micromobility solutions such as e-bikes or e-scooters are rapidly changing urban travel patterns and behaviours. Asensio et al. use travel data from the city of Atlanta, which introduced a No Ride Zone, and uncover trade-offs between public safety policy and traffic congestion.