Themed collection Energy & Environmental Science Cover Art

Renewable electricity can be leveraged to produce fuels and chemicals from CO₂, offering sustainable routes to reduce the carbon intensity of our energy and products-driven economy.

This review provides well-organized and up-to-date information about the key factors influencing the properties and performances of alkali-ion transition metal inorganic cathode materials by encompassing a wide scope from atomic to microscopic levels.

An overview of the recent technical advances and major dilemmas facing currently available flexible metal–gas batteries for use in wearable electronics is presented.

Organic materials offer a new opportunity to develop high-performance, low-cost, environmentally benign sodium ion batteries. This review provides insights into the different sodium storage mechanisms in various categories of organic materials.

This review summarizes the recent progress of GDY based catalysts for key gas involved reactions in energy conversion.

2D materials, their features and possible approaches to mitigating the challenges in Li–S batteries are discussed.

This article overviews the latest developments in enhancing the conductivity, electro-catalytic activity, and stability of SOC materials through heterointerface engineering.

An integrated assessment method for co-production pathways can give reliable results to decision makers for sustainable development of biorefineries.

Tuning of the cation–oxygen bond strength effectively promotes B-site ex-solution in a perovskite, thereby boosting the catalytic activity of CO oxidation.

Highly reversible aqueous zinc anodes are demonstrated via suppressing surface diffusion of Zn adatoms from strong orbital hybridization of the Zn adatoms and single vacancy defects.

We demonstrate an unprecedented mode of energy harvesting from shadows that fall on the shadow-effect energy generator (SEG). Furthermore, a self-powered proximity sensor is also demonstrated using the SEG.

An electrochemical reaction assisted by an anionic regulation strategy was proposed for precise construction of hetero-anionic electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution and polysulfide redox reactions.

Sequestering CO₂ in the form of carbon-based liquid fuels would provide both a convenient and sustainable form of energy for practical use as well as mitigate the effects of global warming and climate change.

Ultrafast laser-annealing technique for the fabrication of large-grain perovskite films and efficient perovskite solar cells at room temperature.

The uphill reaction of H₂ evolution was made possible by harvesting wastewater energy using electrical circuiting.

Exceptionally high OER & HER performances were achieved by rationally designing the electrode structure of non-noble NiFe materials.

A fluidic photothermal structure is demonstrated for completely salt-rejecting solar water extraction and simultaneous brine-drenching induced energy generation.

Single-atom Pt/ceria catalysts are extremely active and thermally stable at over 700 °C in high-temperature solid oxide cell electrodes.

The catalyst in which carbon shells encapsulate PtFe nanoparticles shows superior activity and durability for proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Negligible structural reorganization of phenoxazine leads to superior rate capability and a narrow voltage plateau of a lithium–organic battery.

The bias of Ni–Zn batteries between practical applications with gravimetrical limits and scientific research with volumetrical shortages has been corrected.

We provide general descriptions regarding the structure–stability correlations of iridium-based complex-oxide catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction in acid media.

The anisotropic charge carrier diffusion coupled to ferroelastic twin domains in methylammonium lead iodide opens possibilities for further optimization of perovskite solar cells and optoelectronic devices via strain engineering and heat treatments.

A multiscale architectured solid oxide fuel cell is demonstrated by applying a large-area ceramic micropatterning and thin-film deposition processes.

A robust oxygen-evolving electrocatalyst for high-performance seawater splitting was developed using a cost-effective and industrially compatible method.

A simple and effective strategy for fabricating high-stability alkaline anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers for large-scale hydrogen production.

Both organic and inorganic ingredients in SEI undergo reversible conversions and contribute capacity enhancement with the catalysis of Fe₃C.

We report intrinsically self-healable and stretchable ionic thermoelectric materials, which exhibits excellent ionic figure-of-merit (1.04), with remarkable stretchability (~750%) and autonomous self-healability.

Photosystem I-hydrogenase chimera intercepts electron flow directly from the photosynthetic electron transport chain and directs it to hydrogen production.

A low-cost pre-metallation strategy based on inorganic sacrificial salts that decompose on the first charge.

Hierarchical porous carbon nanofibers can efficiently eliminate kinetics and capacity mismatches between the anode and cathode of the potassium-ion hybrid capacitor.

Tuning surface wettability can modulate the escape behaviour of water molecules to accelerate solar water evaporation.

This work reports the origin of high piezoelectricity of inorganic halide thin films poled at high fields along with the electromechanical energy-harvesting and motion-sensing performance.

Unitized regenerative fuel cells with oxygen reactions occurring on different catalyst layers can achieve 60% round trip efficiencies at 1 A cm⁻².

The judicious positioning of rationally designed monodisperse plasmonic NPs in the ETL affords effective tailoring of the carrier dynamics of PSCs.

A phosphate (P)- and Mo-modified BiVO₄ photoanode and AQ-modified carbon cathode achieve efficient and durable photoelectrochemical production of H₂O₂ through dual processes.

A magnetoelectric coupled magneto-mechano-electric energy conversion mechanism allows the generation of high electrical power from ambient stray magnetic fields around infrastructures.

Dye-sensitized photo-rechargeable battery (DSPB) harvests and stores dim light efficiently, realizing indoor-light-harvesting battery to operate IoT devices successfully without sun light.

Catalytic supremacy of Pt-single atoms achieved by CeO_x–TiO₂ interfaces.

It could successfully control the band-bending of the perovskite semiconductor, which led to improvement of the photovoltaic performance.

High-performance, unpoled and recyclable piezoelectric generators are produced by combining dipole templating via single-walled carbon nanotubes with shear-induced polarisation via 3D printing of fluoropolymers.

A high performance, binder-free flexible silicon electrode with high Si content up to 92% is developed for lithium ion batteries with a novel cellulose-based topological microscroll structure.

A novel strategy is designed to stabilize atomic Pt catalysts in alloyed platinum cobalt nanosheets with trapped interstitial fluorine (SA-PtCoF) for zinc-air batteries.

Cl⁻ transport in a conductive polymer (CP) film was demonstrated for n-type thermoelectric (TE) harvesting.

The artificial hydrological cycle built by using deliquescent calcium chloride enables self-operation of a transpiration-driven electrokinetic power generator.

A photocatalyst heterogenized in discrete cages of metal–organic polyhedra provides highly active and robust conversion of carbon dioxide.

We elucidate the multi-redox charge-transfer kinetics across a photocatalyst/(co-catalyst)/water interface and reveal the dynamic interplay between local energetics and kinetics.

A 3D-printed multilayer copolymer rugby ball-structured energy harvester is prepared, and a high peak output power of 16.4 mW cm⁻² is obtained.