Volume 7 Issue 2, February 2022

The vast potential parameter space for constructing efficient and stable perovskite solar cells makes their assessment no easy task. Now, researchers use high-throughput screening to uncover stable perovskites and devise a bilayer polymer contact to extend the device stability to 1,450 hours under high-temperature operational conditions.

Air pollution policy is often focused on controlling mass emissions, neglecting the differential health impacts from sources like residential particulate matter. A study now shows that the impacts from residential emissions are significantly higher compared with coal-fired power plants in China when toxicity is considered.

Highly concentrated electrolytes offer enhanced energy-density for aqueous batteries, but the high salt concentration presents formidable challenges for practical implementation. Now, an electrolyte has been designed that has a substantially reduced salt concentration while still enabling high-performance batteries.

Fuel cells with acid-doped membranes must avoid liquid water and humid gas streams to prevent leaching of acid, and so are limited to operating above 120 °C, complicating start-up. Now, microporous membranes offer a chance to confine the acid to their pores, allowing start-up without pre-heating, higher performance and perhaps even extended lifetime.

Chemicals and fuels can be generated from CO₂ via electrolysers that employ gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs). In this Review, the authors consider promising catalysts and reactors—and how these fail—to identify key advances and remaining gaps in the development of industrially relevant GDE-based CO₂ electrolysers.

Perovskite solar cells are stable under light and heat stress during operation. Zhao et al. report on the photothermal instability of conventional metal oxide contacts and propose a bilayer polymer contact that enables over 1,400 h of device operation at 65 °C.

Most proton exchange membrane fuel cells are designed to operate within a temperature range of a few tens of degrees, but functioning in a broader range of conditions could be advantageous. Here the authors use ultramicroporous, phosphoric acid-doped membranes that allow fuel cell operation from −20 °C to 200 °C.

Integrated models will be needed to capture the cascading effects of climate change through climatic, water, energy and economic systems. Webster et al. now develop a coupled hydrologic–power-production–economic model to estimate water-stress impacts on electricity cost.

Copper-based catalysts are promising for electroreduction of carbon monoxide to multi-carbon products, yet further improvements in selectivity, productivity and stability are still needed. Here the authors show that doping copper with silver and ruthenium boosts its performance towards synthesis of n-propanol—a useful fuel.

There are increasing questions about emissions from unconventional oil and gas exploration, and the impact of such exploration on health outcomes has not been thoroughly studied. Looking at data from 2.5 million wells and more than 15 million medical beneficiaries, Li et al. find an increased mortality risk for beneficiaries downwind of unconventional plays.

High-energy batteries require electrolytes with a wide electrochemical stability window. Building on the water-in-salt electrolyte concept, the authors develop a ternary eutectic electrolyte with substantially reduced salt concentrations that enable high-performance Li_1.5Mn₂O₄ || Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ batteries

Policy effort has been put into pollution reduction from both coal-fired electricity and domestic solid fuel burning in China; however, the former has attracted greater research and funding. Li and colleagues now show that the more toxic pollution from residential combustion may be responsible for greater health impacts than coal electricity.

To decarbonise the shipping sector, a deeper understanding of the suitability of carbon-neutral fuels is required. Here, the authors assess the techno-economics of a variety of energy carriers in terms of their ability to power the bulk shipping fleet in Europe.