Featured
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Letter |
Lithium–antimony–lead liquid metal battery for grid-level energy storage
All-liquid batteries comprising a lithium negative electrode and an antimony–lead positive electrode have a higher current density and a longer cycle life than conventional batteries, can be more easily used to make large-scale storage systems, and so potentially present a low-cost means of grid-level energy storage.
- Kangli Wang
- , Kai Jiang
- & Donald R. Sadoway
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Letter |
A low-cost non-toxic post-growth activation step for CdTe solar cells
MgCl2 is shown to be a cheap and non-toxic replacement for the costly and environmentally unfriendly salt CdCl2 that has long been used as the ‘activation’ step in the production of cadmium telluride solar cells.
- J. D. Major
- , R. E. Treharne
- & K. Durose
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Letter |
Ultralow thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric figure of merit in SnSe crystals
The main obstacle to improving the thermoelectric efficiency of a material arises from the common interdependence of electrical and thermal conductivity, whereas one ideally wants to raise the former while lowering the latter: a simple layered crystalline material — SnSe — is now reported that seems to have these qualities built in.
- Li-Dong Zhao
- , Shih-Han Lo
- & Mercouri G. Kanatzidis
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Letter |
A metal-free organic–inorganic aqueous flow battery
Flow batteries, in which the electro-active components are held in fluid form external to the battery itself, are attractive as a potential means for regulating the output of intermittent renewable sources of electricity; an aqueous flow battery based on inexpensive commodity chemicals is now reported that also has the virtue of enabling further improvement of battery performance through organic chemical design.
- Brian Huskinson
- , Michael P. Marshak
- & Michael J. Aziz
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Letter |
Perovskite oxides for visible-light-absorbing ferroelectric and photovoltaic materials
Most known ferroelectric photovoltaic materials have very wide electronic bandgaps (that is, they absorb only high-energy photons) but here a family of perovskite oxides is described that have tunable bandgaps, allowing their use across the whole visible-light spectrum.
- Ilya Grinberg
- , D. Vincent West
- & Andrew M. Rappe
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Letter |
Efficient planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells by vapour deposition
The use of organometal halide perovskites as the light-absorbing material in nanostructured solar cells has increased efficiency to practical levels; here it is shown that vapour deposition of the perovskite removes the need for complex nanostructures and will hence simplify large-scale manufacture.
- Mingzhen Liu
- , Michael B. Johnston
- & Henry J. Snaith
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Letter |
The role of spin in the kinetic control of recombination in organic photovoltaics
The interplay of spin, energetics and delocalization of the electronic excitations are shown to create a spin blockade of electron–hole recombination in organic photovoltaic cells, resulting in high quantum efficiencies.
- Akshay Rao
- , Philip C. Y. Chow
- & Richard H. Friend
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Letter |
Sequential deposition as a route to high-performance perovskite-sensitized solar cells
A method of producing perovskite-sensitized solar cells by sequential — as opposed to single-step — deposition of the perovskite’s components onto a nanoporous titanium oxide film allows for greater reproducibility of device performance and a record power conversion efficiency of 15 per cent.
- Julian Burschka
- , Norman Pellet
- & Michael Grätzel
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Outlook |
Resources: Mine, all mine!
Throughout history, gold has been prized around the world and eagerly sought. But where does it come from, and where does it all go? By Neil Savage.
- Neil Savage
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Outlook |
Catalysis: The accelerator
Gold can speed up a multitude of chemical reactions — so why isn't it widely used in industry?
- Mark Peplow
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Letter |
Mesoporous TiO2 single crystals delivering enhanced mobility and optoelectronic device performance
A new low-temperature synthetic method of growing semiconductor mesoporous single crystals of titanium dioxide is described; the resulting films have much higher conductivities and electron mobilities than nanocrystalline titanium dioxide.
- Edward J. W. Crossland
- , Nakita Noel
- & Henry J. Snaith
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Letter |
Porous materials with optimal adsorption thermodynamics and kinetics for CO2 separation
A series of porous crystalline materials known as metal–organic materials are prepared, and a full sorption study shows that controlled pore size (rather than large surface area) coupled with appropriate chemistry lead to materials exhibiting fast and highly selective CO2 sorption.
- Patrick Nugent
- , Youssef Belmabkhout
- & Michael J. Zaworotko
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News |
Pioneering battery maker files for bankruptcy
A123 Systems goes under after 11 years.
- Devin Powell
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Research Highlights |
Bendable battery yields flexible LED
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News & Views |
The matryoshka effect
By tailoring the architecture of a bulk material at several different length scales, the ability of a semiconductor to convert heat into voltage has been optimized to a groundbreaking level of performance. See Letter p.414
- Tom Nilges
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News |
Out of disorder comes electricity
Nanostructured thermoelectric material breaks record for turning heat into electricity.
- Geoff Brumfiel
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Letter |
High-performance bulk thermoelectrics with all-scale hierarchical architectures
Controlling the structure of thermoelectric materials on all length scales (atomic, nanoscale and mesoscale) relevant for phonon scattering makes it possible to increase the dimensionless figure of merit to more than two, which could allow for the recovery of a significant fraction of waste heat with which to produce electricity.
- Kanishka Biswas
- , Jiaqing He
- & Mercouri G. Kanatzidis
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Research Highlights |
Polymers track the Sun
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Review Article |
Materials interface engineering for solution-processed photovoltaics
- Michael Graetzel
- , René A. J. Janssen
- & Edward H. Sargent
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Research Highlights |
Rechargeable Li–air battery
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News & Views |
Thermal spin power without magnets
The spin Seebeck effect has hitherto relied on a temperature gradient in a magnetic system to generate an electric current based on the intrinsic spin of electrons. It has now been demonstrated in a non-magnetic material. See Letter p.210
- Tero T. Heikkilä
- & Yaroslav Tserkovnyak
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Review Article |
Electrocatalyst approaches and challenges for automotive fuel cells
Although automotive fuel-cell catalyst development has come a long way in the past fifteen years, more research is needed for oxygen reduction electrocatalysts to be successfully commercialized.
- Mark K. Debe
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News & Views |
Molecules meet materials
An inorganic semiconductor can take the place of the liquid electrolyte typically used in dye-sensitized solar cells. This achievement points the way to making these devices more easily manufactured and more stable. See Letter p.486
- Thomas E. Mallouk
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News |
'Artificial leaf' faces economic hurdle
Company founded to commercialize solar hydrogen device focuses on cheaper design.
- Richard Van Noorden
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News |
Manufacturing woes haunt high-tech battery maker
Clean-technology darling A123 Systems suffers financial losses following recall.
- Katherine Bourzac
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Research Highlights |
Nanoscale shells trap light
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News |
Engineering slimmer solar cells
A recipe to increase a thin film’s appetite for light.
- Kate McAlpine
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Research Highlights |
Solar-cell progress
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Research Highlights |
See-through solar cells
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Books & Arts |
Technology: Charging towards the superbattery
Lithium-ion technology is bringing us closer to solving energy and transport problems, finds Bruno Scrosati.
- Bruno Scrosati
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Research Highlights |
Solar cells improve with acid
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Letter |
Convergence of electronic bands for high performance bulk thermoelectrics
- Yanzhong Pei
- , Xiaoya Shi
- & G. Jeffrey Snyder
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Research Highlights |
Solar cells take a stretch
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News |
Chilled light enters a new phase
First Bose–Einstein condensate of photons could help build solar cells and lasers.
- Zeeya Merali
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News & Views |
Thin films with a hidden twist
Many naturally occurring substances have a 'handedness' that enables them to interact highly specifically with matter or light. The helical features responsible for this can now be replicated in solid, porous films. See Letter p.422
- Andreas Stein
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Letter |
Free-standing mesoporous silica films with tunable chiral nematic structures
Some beetle shells exhibit iridescence owing to the chiral organization of chitin making up the beetle's exoskeleton. Inspired by this, these authors fabricate thin glass films with helical pores introduced using a renewable cellulose template. The chiral structure allows the material, which can be free-standing, to selectively reflect light at a specific wavelength that can be tuned across the visible spectrum by altering the ratio of silica to cellulose during synthesis.
- Kevin E. Shopsowitz
- , Hao Qi
- & Mark J. MacLachlan
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News |
Solar cells sliced and diced
Peel-and-stamp technique could pave the way for more efficient semiconductors.
- Geoff Brumfiel
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News Feature |
Hydrogen vehicles: Fuel of the future?
Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, largely forgotten as attention turned to biofuels and batteries, are staging a comeback. Jeff Tollefson investigates.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News |
Cheaper catalyst cleans diesel-car fumes
Platinum-free material means fuel-efficient engines at lower cost.
- Richard Van Noorden
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Research Highlights |
Chemistry: Water splitting
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News Feature |
Smart grids: The energy storage problem
Renewable energy is not a viable option unless energy can be stored on a large scale. David Lindley looks at five ways to do that.
- David Lindley