Nature Energy最新文献

The interlaboratory comparability and reproducibility of all-solid-state battery cell cycling performance are poorly understood due to the lack of standardized set-ups and assembly parameters. This study quantifies the extent of this variability by providing commercially sourced battery materials—LiNi_0.6Mn_0.2Co_0.2O₂ for the positive electrode, Li₆PS₅Cl as the solid electrolyte and indium for the negative electrode—to 21 research groups. Each group was asked to use their own cell assembly protocol but follow a specific electrochemical protocol. The results show large variability in assembly and electrochemical performance, including differences in processing pressures, pressing durations and In-to-Li ratios. Despite this, an initial open circuit voltage of 2.5 and 2.7 V vs Li⁺/Li is a good predictor of successful cycling for cells using these electroactive materials. We suggest a set of parameters for reporting all-solid-state battery cycling results and advocate for reporting data in triplicate.

Home storage systems play an important role in the integration of residential photovoltaic systems and have recently experienced strong market growth worldwide. However, standardized methods for quantifying capacity fade during field operation are lacking, and therefore the European batteries regulation demands the development of reliable and transparent state of health estimations. Here we present real-world data from 21 privately operated lithium-ion systems in Germany, based on up to 8 years of high-resolution field measurements. We develop a scalable capacity estimation method based on the operational data and validate it through regular field capacity tests. The results show that systems lose about two to three percentage points of usable capacity per year on average. Our contribution includes the publication of an impactful dataset comprising approximately 106 system years, 14 billion data points and 146 gigabytes, aiming to address the shortage of public datasets in this field.

Interfacial molecules have been demonstrated to improve the photovoltaic performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the effect is influenced by the targeted substrate and, in particular, by its bond with the interfacial molecule. A weaker bonding of the interfacial molecule with the substrate usually implies a stronger bonding with the perovskite that could lead to uncontrollable insertion of the interfacial molecule into the perovskite bulk, resulting in device degradation. Here we select bis(2-aminoethyl) ether (BAE) as the interfacial molecule between the perovskite and the electron transport layer (ETL) in n–i–p PSCs and develop a strategy to harmonize the strength of the bilateral bonds of BAE. In particular, we manipulate the electronic structure of the ETL with doping to increase the strength of the BAE–ETL bond. This thereby results in a weakening of the BAE–perovskite bond. The harmonization in bilateral bonds of the interfacial molecule leads to PSCs with an efficiency surpassing 26.5% (certified as 26.31%) and improved stability.

Electrochemical reduction of CO₂ (CO₂RR) to multi-carbon products is a promising technology to store intermittent renewable electricity into high-added-value chemicals and close the carbon cycle. Its industrial scalability requires electrocatalysts to be highly selective to certain products, such as ethylene or ethanol. However, a substantial knowledge gap prevents the design of tailor-made materials, as the properties ruling the catalyst selectivity remain elusive. Here we combined in situ surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory on Cu electrocatalysts to unveil the reaction scheme for CO₂RR to C₂₊ products. Ethylene generation occurs when *OC–CO(H) dimers form via CO coupling on undercoordinated Cu sites. The ethanol route opens up only in the presence of highly compressed and distorted Cu domains with deep s-band states via the crucial intermediate *OCHCH₂. By identifying and tracking the critical intermediates and specific active sites, our work provides guidelines to selectively decouple ethylene and ethanol production on rationally designed catalysts.

The oxygen evolution reaction is crucial to sustainable electro- and photo-electrochemical approaches to chemical energy production (for example, H₂). Although mechanistic descriptions of the oxygen evolution reaction have been proposed, the frontier challenge is to extract the molecular details of its elementary steps. Here we discuss how advances in spectroscopy and theory are allowing for configurations of reaction intermediates to be elucidated, distinguishing between experimental approaches (static and dynamic) across a range of surface oxygen binding energies on catalysts (from ruthenium to titanium oxides). We outline how interpreting X-ray and optical spectra relies on established and newly implemented computational techniques. A key emphasis is on detecting adsorbed oxygen intermediates at the oxide/water interface by their chemical composition, electronic and vibrational levels and ion–electron kinetic pathways. Integrating the computational advances with the experimental spectra along these lines could ultimately resolve the elementary steps, elucidating how each intermediate leads to another during oxygen evolution reaction.