Research articles

Protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (PCECs) interconvert hydrogen and electricity and therefore have potential as long-duration energy storage systems, but the durability of these devices under industrially relevant conditions is limited. Here the authors report a PCEC that maintains low degradation rates throughout exceptionally long-term durability tests.

Pei et al. overcome desorption of passivating molecules under photothermal stress in wide-bandgap perovskites and achieve perovskite/Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ tandem solar cells with a certified efficiency of 27.35%.

Stabilizing lithium-metal anodes is challenging due to their high reactivity with electrolytes. This work presents a dual-passivation polymer coating that enhances solid–electrolyte interphase stability, improving cycling performance and increasing capacity retention over extended cycles.

Across four countries, more people agree with misinformation statements about electic vehicles than disagree with them, and conspiracist mentality is the strongest predictor of this agreement. Interactions with artificial intelligence show promise in reducing misinformation agreement.

The passivation of surface defects is critical in perovskite photovoltaics yet challenging to implement in practice. Wang et al. show that fluorinated isopropanol allows the use of a high concentration of passivator molecules, ensuring the complete passivation of defects.

Ultrapure water is usually used as a feedstock for proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers because trace contaminants can cause failure. Here the authors show that PEM electrolysers can run on impure tap water when Brønsted acid oxides are used at the cathode to create a strongly acidic microenvironment.

Dong et al. achieve Sb₂(S,Se)₃ solar cells with 10.7% efficiency by increasing charge generation with a textured electrode and reducing charge recombination and transport loss with a conformal electron-selective layer.

Electrification is a promising way to decarbonize the chemical industry but could also have important effects on power systems. Here the authors assess the impact of electrifying the production of methanol and ammonia on the Chinese power system in terms of emissions and potential security risks.

Seo et al. present an approach to regulate the formation and optoelectronic quality of the SnO₂ electrodes, improving electroluminescence and efficiency in perovskite solar cells.

Clean cooking fuels can be unaffordable. A year-long randomized control trial in Tanzania finds that a lockbox intervention along with behavioural nudging to encourage savings modestly increased liquefied petroleum gas use but did not lead to exclusive adoption, and that gendered financial constraints explain these results.

A geospatial levelized cost model shows that green hydrogen imports from Africa to Europe remain uncompetitive without major policy support. De-risking policies and strategic site selection are key, but major risks remain.

High-density methane storage typically requires high pressures and/or low temperatures, which can pose operational challenges. Here the authors report graphene-coated carbons that, after high-pressure charging, can store methane at high densities even at ambient external pressure.

From 2003 to 2020, the efficiency of white light-emitting diodes rose from 6% to 39%, while costs fell by 96%. Weinold et al. explore the drivers of such rapid progress to formulate lessons for future clean energy innovation.

The uneven surfaces of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells pose challenges for depositing the upper layers in flexible perovskite/CIGS tandem solar cells. Ying et al. tackle this issue using an antisolvent and seeding strategy, resulting in a certified efficiency of 23.8%.

This study on European carbon management shows how H₂ and CO₂ networks influence whether CO₂ is transported to renewable hubs and sequestration sites or H₂ is delivered to industrial sites for producing clean fuels from captured CO₂.

The efficiency of pure sulfide kesterite solar cells is limited by deep-level defects. Wu et al. develop a heat treatment in an oxygen-rich environment to suppress sulfur vacancies, achieving an 11.51% certified efficiency.

This work quantifies the impact of sound ordinances on the wind energy capacity in the United States. It finds existing sound ordinances reduce the capacity by 8% over standard setbacks and explores impacts of other hypothetical ordinance scenarios.

The electrode–aqueous interface is crucial to designing effective electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction, which occurs in water electrolysers. Here the authors explore the use of organic overlayers on Pt electrodes, enhancing hydrogen evolution activity in alkaline media by up to 50 times.

The instability of quantum dot inks hinders the scaling up of colloidal quantum dot electronics. Now, Shi and team stabilize the inks with an iodine-rich environment in a weakly coordinating solvent, achieving 13.4% in small-area solar cells and over 10% in modules.

A full-cell-level accelerating rate calorimetry test requires large batteries, leading to high costs. The authors design small cylindrical pouch cells (~21 mAh, ~0.1 g cathode material) for lab-scale accelerating rate calorimetry tests, enabling efficient safety screening and faster high-safety battery development.