Themed collection Spotlight on Women in Energy

George W. Huber, Muxina Konarova, Jason Y. C. Lim and Karen Wilson introduce the Sustainable Energy & Fuels themed collection on biorefining.

The demonstration of disposal and utilisation of waste cooking oil as potential feedstock towards biodiesel synthesis by catalytic heterogeneous transesterification.

Monolithic perovskite-based triple junction solar cells have the potential to surpass the power conversion efficiency (PCE) limits of single and dual-junction solar cells.

This review offers a comprehensive depiction of g-C₃N₄-based materials for PEC water splitting. The fundamentals of PEC water splitting, along with the applications of g-C₃N₄-based materials as photoanodic and photocathodic materials are discussed.

This review discusses recent insights in catalyst layer design strategies for anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers, including electrode design, catalyst/ionomer integration, operational variables, in situ diagnostics, and cell durability.

Development of aviation and aerospace fuels requires deep insight into the pyrolysis and combustion mechanisms.

Photovoltaic-coupled electrolysis and photoelectrochemical water splitting are two options for storing solar energy as hydrogen. For each technology, the energy inputs and hydrogen output need to be considered to compare the overall energy balance.

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction is a topic of major interest in contemporary research as an approach to use renewably-derived electricity to synthesise useful hydrocarbons from waste CO₂.

Surface plastics and microplastics commingled with biomass are emerging pollutants in the marine environment.

Aqueous zinc (Zn) metal batteries are promising candidates for large-scale energy storage owing to their low cost and high safety.

Two high-salt-content ionic liquid electrolytes with distinct cationic chemistries were compared. The one with a phosphonium cation showed superior characteristics, particularly in terms of its enhanced capacity when used in lithium metal batteries.

In this research, we highlight ion beam irradiation as an effective external stimulus for precisely tuning the size, density, composition, and spatial distribution of exsolved nanoparticles within a wide range of oxide materials.

A machine-learning methodology was applied to unveil the structure–property relationships of the fabricated ternary Ni, Fe, and Co amorphous oxygen evolution catalyst, showcasing remarkable performance and stability via corrosion engineering.

The dynamic impacts from the ball mill process inducing a pressure phase change.

This work provides a robust technoeconomic analysis of a range of direct solar hydrogen generation (DSHG) systems to understand the opportunities and challenges of deploying DSHG to reduce the cost of renewable hydrogen production.

Ionomer oxidation is the dominant degradation pathway for electrolyte-free HEM electrolyzers and may be mitigated by new catalyst layer design strategies.

Is solid-electrolyte interphase formation affected by electrode conductivity?

Derivatisation of iron vanadate from a Prussian blue analogue is reported, and the role of water-based surfactants in its electrochemical stability is studied. The environmental impact of the material is reduced by altering the synthesis, heat treatment and electrode preparation methods.

A structurally simple hole transport material, with an extremely high glass transition temperature, achieves an average initial efficiency of 24.5% and remarkable 85 °C durability in perovskite solar cells.

Photoelectrocatalysis offers the opportunity to close the carbon loop and convert captured CO₂ back into useful fuels and feedstocks, mitigating against anthropogenic climate change.

A detailed study on the optimisation of the synthesis of LiNiO₂ is reported, with further preliminary results showing improved performance on Mo doping.

Ca_2/3Ce_1/3Ti_1/3Mn_2/3O₃ demonstrates promising two-step thermochemical H₂ production potential. Quantum-based modeling highlights A-site Ce⁴⁺ reduction as the key factor in its redox activity, providing insights for further performance optimization.

A high performance Na-ion capacitor has been assembled by using S-doped carbon sponges and highly porous carbon sponges produced from biomass-derived products by using sustainable salt-templating approaches.

Phase shuttling of Pb₃O₄ leads to the reconstructed β-PbO₂ phase and significantly enhances the electrochemical ozone production (EOP) through water oxidation.

A pathway to a carbon-neutral electricity-chemical nexus in China by 2060 is attainable. Sector coupling reduces fossil power generation by 10%, drives renewable curtailment rates to below 5%, and expands energy transmission capacity by at most 18%.

Kicking out water: optimising the interaction between support hydrophobicity and surface acid sites in WO_x/ZrO_x/PMO catalysts unlocks an efficient route for the upgrading of low-quality waste bio-oil feedstocks to biodiesel.

A semi-supervised machine learning pipeline is reported for the discovery of new Li-ion solid-state electrolytes. The approach is experimentally validated with the synthesis and characterization of a new superionic conductor predicted by the model.

An ultra-thin indium tin oxide interlayer design was developed for interfacing perovskite solar cells with Si solar cells thereby minimising shunting effects for large area monolithic tandem devices.

We report a push–pull BODIPY-based dye functionalised with an electronegative SF₅ group at the meso position for applications in photocathodes in tandem dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).

Non-nucleophilic and non-fluorinated compounds are the most important class of solvents to enable sustainable rechargeable magnesium batteries but suffer from poor stability due to the formation of an unstable solid–electrolyte-interphase.

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