Energy science and technology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the tunable range of radiative thermal load for a given colour is important for thermal management of outdoor structures. Here, the authors theoretically and experimentally highlighted all mechanisms through which one can control the radiative thermal load of coloured objects.

    • Wei Li
    • , Yu Shi
    •  & Shanhui Fan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nonaqueous redox flow batteries may offer high energy and power densities, but development of separators is key for optimization. Here the authors achieve high coulombic efficiency with a nanoporous aramid nanofibres-based separator with low permeability, high ion conductivity, and exceptional stability.

    • Siu on Tung
    • , Sydney L. Fisher
    •  & Levi T. Thompson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithium sulfur batteries are promising for next-generation energy storage, but are hindered by polysulfide shuttle effects. Here the authors use black phosphorus quantum dots to adsorb and catalyze the conversion of lithium polysulfides to lithium sulfide, achieving low capacity fade and high sulfur loading.

    • Zheng-Long Xu
    • , Shenghuang Lin
    •  & Shu Ping Lau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Superhydrophobic surfaces are expected to increase streaming potential, but are hindered by the presence of air. Here the authors enhance streaming potential by flowing high-dielectric salt water over liquid-filled surfaces infiltrated with low-dielectric liquid, harnessing electric slip and surface charge.

    • B. Fan
    • , A. Bhattacharya
    •  & P. R. Bandaru

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While photocatalysis offers a means to store solar energy as chemical fuels, photocatalysts typically require crystalline structures and expensive noble-metal cocatalysts. Here, authors prepare 2D amorphous nano-nickel oxide capable of plasmonic, photodriven H2 evolution without cocatalysts.

    • Zhaoyong Lin
    • , Chun Du
    •  & Guowei Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sulfide electrolyte materials offer the opportunity for the development of solid-state batteries. Here the authors further improve the voltage stability of core-shell structured sulfides by modifying the microstructures, and pair the optimized electrolytes with lithium metal anode into battery devices.

    • Fan Wu
    • , William Fitzhugh
    •  & Xin Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficient harvest of solar energy beyond the silicon absorption edge of 1100 nm by semiconductor solar cells remains a challenge. Here Sun et al. mix high multi-bandgap lead sulfide colloidal quantum dot ensembles to further increase both short circuit current and open circuit voltage.

    • Bin Sun
    • , Olivier Ouellette
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While quantum dots show high efficiency solar-to-fuel conversion for renewable energy, the frequently toxic elements employed present severe safety concerns. Here, authors demonstrate indium phosphide quantum dots as low-toxicity alternatives alongside efficient hydrogen evolution photocatalysis.

    • Shan Yu
    • , Xiang-Bing Fan
    •  & Greta R. Patzke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Perovskite solar cells often suffer from poor uniformity and reproducibility especially in case of large area devices. Here Liu et al. developed a gas−solid reaction method that enables facile fabrication of over 1 µm thick perovskite films for solar modules with high efficiency, stability and reproducibility.

    • Zonghao Liu
    • , Longbin Qiu
    •  & Yabing Qi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sodium–sulfur batteries operating at a high temperature between 300 and 350°C have been used commercially, but the safety issue hinders their wider adoption. Here the authors report a “cocktail optimized” electrolyte system that enables higher electrochemical performance and room-temperature operation.

    • Xiaofu Xu
    • , Dong Zhou
    •  & Guoxiu Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of potassium-ion batteries requires cathode materials that can maintain the structural stability during cycling. Here the authors have developed honeycomb-layered tellurates K2M2TeO6 that afford high ionic conductivity and reversible intercalation of large K ions at high voltages.

    • Titus Masese
    • , Kazuki Yoshii
    •  & Masahiro Shikano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While multi-carbon (C2+) products present high-value species attainable from emitted carbon dioxide, it is challenging to prepare stable, C2+ selective catalysts. Here, authors support copper on copper nitride to improve copper’s electrocatalytic stability and selectivity toward C2+ synthesis.

    • Zhi-Qin Liang
    • , Tao-Tao Zhuang
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The stability of perovskite solar cell remains the biggest challenge that hinders its commercialization. Here Li et al. incorporate crosslinkable molecules to form a crosslinked perovskite film and increase the device operational stability by 590 times to 400 h under standard Xenon lamp without filters.

    • Xiaodong Li
    • , Wenxiao Zhang
    •  & Junfeng Fang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithium metal batteries suffer from the dendrite growth upon electrochemical cycling. Here the authors introduce a lithiophilic-lithiophobic gradient interfacial ZnO/CNT layer, which facilitates the formation of a stable solid electrolyte interphase, and suppresses the growth of lithium dendrite.

    • Huimin Zhang
    • , Xiaobin Liao
    •  & Hao Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aluminum-air batteries are lightweight and cost effective, but performance is limited by corrosion and solid by-products. Here the authors catalyze oxygen reduction with silver manganate nanoplates and develop an aluminum-air flow battery that delivers high energy density and alleviates side reactions.

    • Jaechan Ryu
    • , Haeseong Jang
    •  & Jaephil Cho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gas discharge plasma sources are bulky and of limited use in remote areas with no external power supply. Here the authors create triboelectric plasma by triggering TENGs with mechanical stimuli and discuss its application as a portable plasma source.

    • Jia Cheng
    • , Wenbo Ding
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The existence of a crystalline precursor is key to perovskite film formation, but the precise chemistry of the precursor and its transformation into perovskite are poorly understood. Here, the authors identify the crystal structure and conversion chemistry of the precursor for PbCl2-derived methylammonium lead iodide perovskites.

    • Kevin H. Stone
    • , Aryeh Gold-Parker
    •  & Christopher J. Tassone

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High entropy oxides provide a new strategy toward materials design by stabilizing single-phase crystal structures composed of multiple cations. Here, the authors apply this concept to the development of conversion-type electrode materials for lithium-ion storage and show the underlying mechanism.

    • Abhishek Sarkar
    • , Leonardo Velasco
    •  & Ben Breitung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing thermal technologies are mainly designed to harvest heat at high temperature, whilst low-grade heat is hardly utilized to date. Here, Wang et al. show an interlocked thermo-mechano feedback mechanism that transfers ambient heat to multimodal locomotions, potentially for soft robotics applications.

    • Xiao-Qiao Wang
    • , Chuan Fu Tan
    •  & Ghim Wei Ho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solar-to-chemical CO2 reduction provides a means to use light’s energy for CO2 removal and upgrading to useful products, although this photochemical conversion is challenging. Here, authors construct a Europium-containing metal-organic framework that selectively converts CO2 to formate with light.

    • Zhi-Hao Yan
    • , Ming-Hao Du
    •  & Lan-Sun Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the occurrence of sudden changes in plasma parameters is important for the operation of magnetically confined fusion devices. Here the authors use simulation to shed light on the formation of abrupt large-amplitude events and the associated redistribution of energetic ions in a tokamak.

    • Andreas Bierwage
    • , Kouji Shinohara
    •  & Masatoshi Yagi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Balancing the carrier selectivity and extraction by the selective contacts is of vital importance to the performance of the nanowire solar cells. Here Oener et al. employ a permanent local gate to overcome this tradeoff and substantially increase the open-circuit voltage by 335 mV.

    • Sebastian Z. Oener
    • , Alessandro Cavalli
    •  & Erik C. Garnett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The performance of wide-bandgap perovskite photovoltaics is limited by the undesired phase transition and high density of deep level traps. Here, Tan et al. incorporate dipolar methylammonium cation to make the material defect-tolerant and achieve a high power conversion efficiency of 20.7%.

    • Hairen Tan
    • , Fanglin Che
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Utilizing mixed-cation-halide can improve stability of the formamidinium perovskite films and devices but sacrifices the photocurrent due to an increase in bandgap. Here Lee et al. introduced small amounts of 2D perovskite to obtain high efficiency and stability based on phase-pure formamidinium based perovskite.

    • Jin-Wook Lee
    • , Zhenghong Dai
    •  & Yang Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Further mechanistic insight of intramolecular singlet fission (iSF) in conjugated polymers can enable novel material design for solar cells. Here, the authors use transient spectroscopy to show iSF in an isoindigo-based conjugated polymer and propose a design rule based on morphology-dependent iSF.

    • Jiahua Hu
    • , Ke Xu
    •  & Matthew Y. Sfeir

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mixed ionic–electronic conductors are limited by material decomposition. Here the authors reveal the mechanism for atom migration and deposition in Cu2–δ(S,Se) materials based on a critical chemical potential difference and propose electronically conducting, ion-blocking interfaces to enhance stability.

    • Pengfei Qiu
    • , Matthias T. Agne
    •  & G. Jeffrey Snyder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystal facet orientations of the polycrystalline hybrid lead halide perovskite thin films play a crucial role in determining the device performance. Here Zheng et al. demonstrate effective control of the crystal stacking mode by cation cascade doping, which promotes the charge transport in the photovoltaic device.

    • Guanhaojie Zheng
    • , Cheng Zhu
    •  & Huanping Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The performance of energy materials is affected by structural defects, as well as physicochemical heterogeneity over different length scales. Here the authors map nanoscale correlations between morphological and functional heterogeneity, quantifying the trap states limiting electronic transport in bismuth vanadate thin films.

    • Johanna Eichhorn
    • , Christoph Kastl
    •  & Francesca M. Toma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The notoriously slow kinetics in CO2 desorption hinders the development of efficient CO2 capture technologies. Here, the authors discover that nanostructured TiO(OH)2 as a catalyst is capable of dramatically increasing the rates of CO2 desorption from spent monoethanolamine.

    • Qinghua Lai
    • , Sam Toan
    •  & Maohong Fan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While renewable energy production is a terrestrial concern, far less attention is devoted to solar-to-fuel conversion for long-term space missions. Here, the authors explore photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation in microgravity and overcome microgravity’s limitations by electrode nanostructuring.

    • Katharina Brinkert
    • , Matthias H. Richter
    •  & Hans-Joachim Lewerenz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantifying burden on hydropower units for balancing variable renewable energy sources has been uncertain and difficult. Herein Yang et al. propose a framework and characterize the burden, performance and compensation of hydropower regulation of renewable power systems.

    • Weijia Yang
    • , Per Norrlund
    •  & Urban Lundin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solid-state electrolytes may improve the performance of batteries; however, many are unstable towards metallic lithium, and little is known about the chemical evolution of the interfaces that form during cycling. Here, the authors use an operando method to map the formation and evolution of a solid-electrolyte interphase during cycling.

    • Kevin N. Wood
    • , K. Xerxes Steirer
    •  & Glenn Teeter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The accelerated growth of thermoelectric technology that efficiently converts waste heat to electricity necessitates the development of high-performance materials. Here, the authors experimentally demonstrate a 2D electron system with enhanced two-dimensionality and thermoelectric power factor.

    • Yuqiao Zhang
    • , Bin Feng
    •  & Hiromichi Ohta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The economic operation of a carbon dioxide capture technique of calcium looping necessitates highly effective CaO-based CO2 sorbents. Here, the authors report a facile one-pot synthesis approach to yield highly effective, MgO-stabilized, CaO-based CO2 sorbents featuring highly porous multishelled morphologies.

    • Muhammad Awais Naeem
    • , Andac Armutlulu
    •  & Christoph R. Müller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interference patterns in photoexcited dynamics of many materials have historically been attributed to electronic and vibrational coherences. Here, the authors demonstrate a simple model based on wavefunction symmetry suggesting these coherences originate from non-adiabatic transitions for optically active molecules.

    • Tammie R. Nelson
    • , Dianelys Ondarse-Alvarez
    •  & Sergei Tretiak

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon capture and storage can help reduce CO2 emissions but the confidence in geologic CO2 storage security is uncertain. Here the authors present a numerical programme to estimate leakage from wells and find that under appropriate regulation 98% of injected CO2 will be retained over 10,000 years.

    • Juan Alcalde
    • , Stephanie Flude
    •  & R. Stuart Haszeldine

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