Themed collection EES Family journals: showcase collection

Traditionally, metal-free interphases were preferred to avoid continuous electrolyte reduction. Recent studies, however, show that some metal-incorporated interphases formed between inorganic solid electrolytes and Li can enhance Li reversibility.

Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft require significantly different cell considerations compared to electric vehicles, we consider a wide range of cell selection criteria, assessing the viability of commercial cell formats and chemistries for usage in eVTOLs.

This perspective summarizes principles and trends in extreme fast charging lithium-ion batteries, a key enabler of the mass adoption of electric vehicles.

This perspective highlights the challenges and opportunities in interfacial evaporation, heat and water management, materials synthesis, and device development for solar steam generation.

Systematic insights into the recent attainments, limitations, and future directions of hydrogen production, storage, delivery, and usage are provided, aiming at offering critical guidance for the future establishment of a hydrogen society.

Modulation of ion transport behavior and interfacial stability of halide SSEs by chemical substitution.

This review comprehensively summarizes the recent advances on crystalline carbon nitrides, including their preparation, optimization strategies, photocatalytic applications, as well as challenges and prospects.

Recent progresses of value-added electrolysis that replace OER with value-added anodic reactions. Representation of the elements: hydrogen (white color), carbon (gray), oxygen (red), nitrogen (blue), and iodine (magenta).

This article reviews organic photocatalyst hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), discussing the excitonic behaviour and improvement strategies. It also covers progress in organic photocatalysts, and assesses HER efficiency and stability.

Critical review of main aging mechanisms and health prognostic methods for lithium-ion batteries. Comprehensive summary of challenges and prospects for future trends with potential solutions.

The release and diffusion of corrosive iodine species limit perovskite solar cell (PSC) stability. An organic-MoO₃ composite hole transport layer (HTL) with enhanced thermal stability is devised to suppress iodine diffusion and improve PSC stability.

The proposal of dispersion region can complete the HC model, explain the anomalous diffusion in the low-voltage region, guide the microstructure design of high-performance HC materials, and provide new insights into the storage mechanism of SIBs.

The optimized cupric oxide nanoparticles on gas diffusion electrodes exhibited ultra-high-rate CO₂ reduction reactions to multicarbon products with a current density of 1.7 A cm⁻² in neutral electrolytes.

Substrate temperature governs precursors adhesion, film morphology, and charge transport in vacuum-deposited perovskite films. Optimized growth at −20 °C yields efficient, thermally stable wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells.

Environmental needs and international regulations urgently ask for a robust practice for the recycling and reusing of critical components of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to reduce the primary material demand and energy consumption.

We report on an examination of mobile ion concentration (N₀) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) as a function of temperature and device architecture.

Slurry-processed t-Li₇SiPS₈ SE-sheets with larger thiophosphate particles show enhanced ionic conductivity and Li diffusivity, highlighting the importance of SE morphology and microstructure on the performance of all-solid-state batteries.

A mesoporous carbon scaffold rich in oxygen-functional groups, combined with a chemical sulfur loading method, enables effective sulfur confinement and stable cycling in high-performance Li–S batteries.

Equal resistance single and bilayer films establish that thin film/electrolyte interfaces are more important for battery performance compared to copper/thin film interfaces due to their role in inorganic-rich solid electrolyte interphase formation.

Humid atmosphere annealing enhances interdiffusion in sequentially evaporated perovskites, leading to improved crystallinity and reduced non-radiative recombination. This boosts PLQY and raises PCE to 21.0%, while enhancing stability under 85 °C and full-spectrum illumination.

The co-alloying of antimony and bismuth in a new CsMAFA-Sb:Bi perovskite-inspired material leads to enhanced microstructure, reduced ion migration, increased solar cell power conversion efficiency, and impressive operational stability.

A multi-metallic seed strategy integrated with an elastic polymer network is proposed to facilitate the room-temperature operation of anode-less all-solid-state batteries (ALASSBs), marking a significant step toward their practical application.

Despite the potential for a greater energy density than lithium-ion batteries, polysulphide dissolution, the polysulphide shuttle effect, and lithium metal instability impede the commercialization of lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries.

Lithium imide is an underexplored candidate for an all-solid-state battery electrolyte. Here it is shown to possess many desirable properties and unusual electrochemical behaviour, alongside its first operation in two lithium metal batteries.

The calendar aging of Si-containing batteries is accompanied by prominent Li⁺ crosstalk, in which graphite was forced to compensate for the Li loss caused by Si. As a result, the self-discharge was inhibited by adjusting the Li⁺ crosstalk effect.

The role of A-site cations (MA⁺, FA⁺, Cs⁺) in the defect chemistry of metal halide semiconductor is well-studied in lead halide perovskites; here we investigate it in the less explored tin perovskites.

We report the mechanochemical pretreatment of precursors for lead-free tin-based perovskite solar cells and highlight the effect of grinding temperature and time.

This work studies bifacial surface passivation methods for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells through cation engineering. Combining MEO-PEAI with NH₄SCN yields optimal passivation effectiveness at both interfaces.

Thermal co-evaporation of halide perovskites is a solution-free, conformal, scalable, and controllable deposition technique with great potential for commercial applications, particularly in multi-junction solar cells.

Using high coordination dimethyl sulfide, the anti-solvent bathing technique enables efficient extraction of precursor solvents in the perovskite wet film. The resulting highly crystalline films achieve a photovoltaic performance of 20.6%.

This work investigates the cathode active material Li₂FeS₂ in all-solid-state batteries. Promising areal capacities can be achieved upon increasing the active material fraction and electrode thickness, but coming at the cost of rate capability.

A urea-assisted water splitting electrolyzer based on Pt nanoparticle-anchored Ni(OH)₂@Ni-CNF catalyst and Pt@Ni-CNF catalyst is constructed for effectively reducing the energy consumption of H₂ production.

Meticulously designed neighboring WOR and ORR active sites significantly enhance the overall photocatalytic synthesis of hydrogen peroxide.

A single frequency impedance method is introduced, based on an optimum high frequency of minimum phase and faradaic processes, to monitor gas bubble evolution during water electrolysis in operando.

CO₂ reduction in gas diffusion electrodes is modeled using direct numerical simulation, with species transport resolved in 2D throughout the catalyst layer, including steric effects. Modeling yields numerous ways to optimize GDE performance.

Combining theory and experiment, we unveil the mechanisms for furfural electroreduction on copper and provide a rationale to tune reaction conditions to increase activity towards value-added products.

A zwitterionic additive (L-CN) with a positively charged quaternary ammonium site and multifunctional polar groups was employed to achieve ultralong-life Zn-ion batteries.

The grain boundary defect engineered Ni nanoparticles has been explored for boosting selective nitrate electroreduction to ammonia, and its NH₃ generation rate is much higher than those of the reported copper or noble metal-based catalysts.

A hydrated deep eutectic electrolyte with a water-deficient solvation structure and reduced free water in bulk solution is proposed, resulting in highly reversible and stable Zn anodes.

An electronegativity-dominant high-entropy atomic environment regulation strategy was developed to manipulate the electrocatalytic properties by tailoring the competitive adsorption sites in HEA NPs.

The defect-copper chalcopyrite CuGa₃Se₅ is a promising photocathode material for solar hydrogen generation. Here we assess its performance with photoelectrochemical measurements and vibrating Kelvin probe surface photovoltage spectroscopy.

In a direct carbonate electrolysis system, a CO₂ diffusion layer enabled the production of CO-rich syngas.

PdCu/CBC exhibited a remarkable R_urea of 763.8 ± 42.8 μg h⁻¹ mg_cat.⁻¹ at −0.50 V (vs. RHE) and an exceptional FE of 69.1 ± 3.8% at −0.40 V (vs. RHE). Taking advantage of operando spectroscopy characterization, the C–N coupling mechanism was verified.