Nature Energy最新文献

Micro-sized alloying anodes offer lower cost and higher capacity than graphite in Li-ion batteries. However, they suffer from fast capacity decay and low Coulombic efficiency in carbonate electrolytes because the organic solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) strongly bonds to the alloys, leading to cracks of both SEI and alloying particles, which allows electrolyte penetration and forms new SEI during lithiation–delithiation cycles. Using nano-sized alloying anodes can enhance the cell cycle life but also reduces the battery calendar life and increases the manufacturing costs. Here we significantly improved the cycle performance of micro-sized Si, Al, Sn and Bi anodes by developing asymmetric electrolytes (solvent-free ionic liquids and molecular solvent) to form LiF-rich inorganic SEI, enabling 90 mAh μSi||LiNi_0.8Mn_0.1Co_0.1O₂ and 70 mAh Li_3.75Si||SPAN pouch cells (areal capacity of 4.5 mAh cm⁻²; N/P of 1.4) to achieve >400 cycles with a high capacity retention of >85%. The asymmetric electrolyte design forms LiF-rich interphases that enable high-capacity anodes and high-energy cathodes to achieve a long cycle life and provide a general solution for high-energy Li-ion batteries.

To extract natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, energy companies often need to obtain consent from many different private landowners, whose properties lie atop the gas reservoir. Negotiations with these landowners have important economic, environmental and social implications. In this paper we present a dataset on negotiations in Ohio and use these data to investigate how landowners may be advantaged or disadvantaged in these lease negotiations. We find that they are disadvantaged in two ways. First, because energy companies can use persistent and personal strategies to overcome landowner reluctance. Second, because of the institutional context: specifically the widespread use of compulsory unitization. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for equity in energy policy and by drawing out the other potential uses of these data.

Electrochemically mediated carbon capture utilizing redox-tunable organic sorbents has emerged as a promising strategy to mitigate anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. However, most reported systems are sensitive to molecular oxygen, severely limiting their application under ambient air conditions. Here we demonstrate an electrochemical carbon capture concept via non-aqueous proton-coupled electron transfer, where alkoxides are employed as the active sorbent while carbon dioxide absorption and desorption are modulated reversibly by the redox-tunable Brønsted basicity of certain organic molecules. Since all species involved in the process have outstanding oxygen stability and relatively low vapour pressure, our electrochemically mediated carbon capture mechanism intrinsically minimizes parasitic reactions and evaporative losses under aerobic conditions. Flow-based prototypes are demonstrated to operate efficiently in the presence of 20% oxygen under various practically relevant carbon dioxide feed concentrations, paving a way towards effective carbon capture driven by electrochemical stimuli.

Perovskite tandem solar cells show promising performance, but non-radiative recombination and its progressive worsening with time, especially in the mixed Sn–Pb low-bandgap layer, limit performance and stability. Here we find that mixed Sn–Pb perovskite thin films exhibit a compositional gradient, with an excess of Sn on the surface—and we show this gradient exacerbates oxidation and increases the recombination rate. We find that diamines preferentially chelate Sn atoms, removing them from the film surface and achieving a more balanced Sn:Pb stoichiometry, making the surface of the film resistive to the oxidation of Sn. The process forms an electrically resistive low-dimensional barrier layer, passivating defects and reducing interface recombination. Further improving the homogeneity of the barrier layer using 1,2-diaminopropane results in more uniform distribution and passivation. Tandems achieve a power conversion efficiency of 28.8%. Encapsulated tandems retain 90% of initial efficiency following 1,000 h of operating at the maximum power point under simulated one-sun illumination in air without cooling.

Quantum dot (QD) provides a versatile platform for high-throughput processing of semiconductors for large-area optoelectronic applications. Unfortunately, the QD solar cell is hampered by the time-consuming layer-by-layer process, a major challenge in manufacturing printable devices. Here we demonstrate a sequential acylation-coordination protocol including amine-assisted ligand removal and Lewis base-coordinated surface restoration to synthesize conductive APbI₃ (A = formamidinium (FA), Cs or methylammonium) colloidal perovskite QD (PeQD) inks that enable one-step PeQD film deposition without additional solid-state ligand exchange. The resultant PeQD film displays uniform morphology with elevated electronic coupling, more ordered structure and homogeneous energy landscape. Narrow-bandgap FAPbI₃ PeQD-based solar cells achieve a champion efficiency of 16.61% (certified 16.20%), exceeding the values obtained with other QD inks and layer-by-layer processes. The conductive PeQD inks are compatible with large-area device (9 × 9 cm²) fabrication using the blade-coating technique with a speed up to 50 mm s⁻¹.

The electrification of trucks is a major challenge in achieving zero-emission transportation. Here we gathered year-long records from 61,598 electric trucks in China. Current electric trucks were found to be significantly underutilized compared with their diesel counterparts. Twenty-three per cent of electric delivery trucks and 30% of semi-trailers could achieve one-on-one replacement with diesel counterparts, while on average 3.8 electric delivery trucks and 3.6 electric semi-trailers are required to match the transportation demand that is served by one diesel truck separately. For diesel trucks that are capable of one-on-one replacement, electric trucks have 15–54% and 1–49% reductions in cost and life-cycle CO₂ emissions, respectively. Enhancements in usage patterns, vehicle technologies and charging infrastructure can improve electrification feasibility, yielding cost and decarbonization benefits. Increased battery energy densities with optimized usage can make one-on-one electrification feasible for more than 85% of diesel semi-trailers. In addition, with cleaner electricity, most Chinese electric trucks in 2030 will have lower expected life-cycle CO₂ emissions than diesel trucks.

As perovskite photovoltaics stride towards commercialization, reverse bias degradation in shaded cells that must current match illuminated cells is a serious challenge. Previous research has emphasized the role of iodide and silver oxidation, and the role of hole tunnelling from the electron-transport layer into the perovskite to enable the flow of current under reverse bias in causing degradation. Here we show that device architecture engineering has a significant impact on the reverse bias behaviour of perovskite solar cells. By implementing both a ~35-nm-thick conjugated polymer hole transport layer and a more electrochemically stable back electrode, we demonstrate average breakdown voltages exceeding −15 V, comparable to those of silicon cells. Our strategy for increasing the breakdown voltage reduces the number of bypass diodes needed to protect a solar module that is partially shaded, which has been proven to be an effective strategy for silicon solar panels.

The anion-exchange-membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) is an attractive and cost-effective energy-conversion technology because it can use Earth-abundant and low-cost non-precious metal catalysts. However, non-precious metals used in AEMFCs to catalyse the hydrogen oxidation reaction are prone to self-oxidation, resulting in irreversible failure. Here we show a quantum well-like catalytic structure (QWCS), constructed by atomically confining Ni nanoparticles within a carbon-doped-MoO_x/MoO_x heterojunction (C-MoO_x/MoO_x) that can selectively transfer external electrons from the hydrogen oxidation reaction while remaining itself metallic. Electrons of Ni nanoparticles gain a barrier of 1.11 eV provided by the QWCS leading to Ni stability up to 1.2 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (V_RHE) whereas electrons released from the hydrogen oxidation reaction easily cross the barrier by a gating operation of QWCS upon hydrogen adsorption. The QWCS-catalysed AEMFC achieved a high-power density of 486 mW mg_Ni⁻¹ and withstood hydrogen starvation operations during shutdown–start cycles, whereas a counterpart AEMFC without QWCS failed in a single cycle.