Materials for energy and catalysis articles within Nature Materials

Featured

  • Article |

    The oxygen evolution reaction is central to making chemicals and energy carriers using electrons. Metal hydroxide–organic frameworks are shown to act as a tunable catalytic platform for oxygen evolution, with π–π interactions dictating stability and transition metals modulating activity.

    • Shuai Yuan
    • , Jiayu Peng
    •  & Yang Shao-Horn

  • Article |

    Lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide is used as a conducting salt for rechargeable lithium metal batteries because of its stability, but corrosion with aluminium current collectors is an issue. A non-corrosive sulfonimide salt is shown to suppress anodic dissolution of an Al current collector at high potentials while improving cycling.

    • Lixin Qiao
    • , Uxue Oteo
    •  & Heng Zhang

  • News & Views |

    Despite its tiny magnetization, the non-collinear antiferromagnet YbMnBi2 is shown to possess exceptional transverse thermoelectric performance owing to its anisotropic transport properties.

    • Ken-ichi Uchida

  • Article |

    Metal oxide–zeolite bifunctional catalysts allow coupling of reactions and so enhance catalytic processes, but structure and reactivity control is difficult. Here, a general synthesis is presented for metal oxide–zeolite double-shelled hollow spheres, which outperform other catalysts for petroleum production.

    • Jiadong Xiao
    • , Kang Cheng
    •  & Bert M. Weckhuysen

  • Article |

    Although using proton (H+) conductors is attractive for energy applications, practical conductivity at intermediate temperatures (200–400 °C) remains a challenge. A K2NiF4-type Ba–Li oxyhydride is shown to exhibit a temperature-independent hydrogen conductivity of more than 0.01 S cm–1 above 315 °C.

    • Fumitaka Takeiri
    • , Akihiro Watanabe
    •  & Genki Kobayashi

  • Article |

    In anisotropically shaped photocatalyst particles different constituent facets may form inter-facet junctions at their adjoining edges. Using multimodal functional imaging, inter-facet junction effects on anisotropically shaped bismuth vanadate particles are revealed.

    • Xianwen Mao
    •  & Peng Chen

  • Comment |

    Automated experiments can accelerate research and development. ‘Flexible automation’ enables the cost- and time-effective design, construction and reconfiguration of automated experiments. Flexible automation is empowering researchers to deploy new science and technology faster than ever before.

    • Benjamin P. MacLeod
    • , Fraser G. L. Parlane
    •  & Curtis P. Berlinguette

  • News & Views |

    By using a battery of experimental and theoretical methods, it is shown that ion intercalation into the electrode material birnessite is mediated by structural water.

    • Patrice Simon
    •  & Yury Gogotsi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) in topological materials with large Berry curvature shows great potential for transverse thermoelectrics, but antiferromagnets typically show small ANEs. The antiferromagnet YbMnBi2 has an ANE thermopower of 3 μV K−1, similar to ferromagnets, and a larger ANE conductivity.

    • Yu Pan
    • , Congcong Le
    •  & Claudia Felser

  • Review Article |

    Thermoelectric materials can generate energy from a heat differential. This Review provides an overview of mid- to high-temperature thermoelectrics, their application in modules, and the issues that need to be addressed to enable commercial implementation of state-of-the-art materials.

    • Qingyu Yan
    •  & Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

  • Review Article |

    This Review provides an outlook on current understanding of the role of strain on the performance and stability of perovskite solar cells, as well as on tools to characterize strain in halide perovskite films and on strain management strategies.

    • Dongtao Liu
    • , Deying Luo
    •  & Wei Zhang

  • News & Views |

    Through meticulous care for detail, researchers have now shattered the ceiling on thermoelectric performance, achieving a figure of merit above 3 for bulk SnSe polycrystalline powder.

    • Bo Brummerstedt Iversen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    SnSe has a very high thermoelectric figure of merit ZT, but uncommonly polycrystalline samples have higher lattice thermal conductivity than single crystals. Here, by controlling Sn reagent purity and removing SnOx impurities, a lower thermal conductivity is achieved, enabling ZT of 3.1 at 783 K.

    • Chongjian Zhou
    • , Yong Kyu Lee
    •  & In Chung

  • Editorial |

    Technological civilization often depends on processes that have a significant environmental impact, but emissions control catalysts or porous adsorbent materials can ameliorate these risks.

  • Review Article |

    Porous materials can selectively and reversibly adsorb large quantities of gas. This Review highlights progress made in using this class of materials for CO2 capture processes and discusses key gaps that the materials community can address to accelerate greater adoption of adsorptive carbon capture technologies.

    • Rebecca L. Siegelman
    • , Eugene J. Kim
    •  & Jeffrey R. Long

  • Article |

    Interfaces play crucial, but still poorly understood, roles in the performance of secondary solid-state batteries. Using crystallographically oriented and highly faceted thick cathodes, the impact of cathode crystallography and morphology on long-term performance is investigated.

    • Beniamin Zahiri
    • , Arghya Patra
    •  & Paul V. Braun

  • News & Views |

    First-principles calculations on a prototypical hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite reveal an unexpected role for hydrogen defects in the optoelectronic properties of this material.

    • Leeor Kronik
    •  & Andrew M. Rappe

  • Article |

    First-principles calculations reveal that hydrogen vacancies induce non-radiative losses in methylammonium lead iodide perovskites synthesized under iodine-poor conditions, whereas they are less detrimental in formamidinium-based hybrid perovskites.

    • Xie Zhang
    • , Jimmy-Xuan Shen
    •  & Chris G. Van de Walle

  • News & Views |

    Conjugated sulfonamides have been demonstrated as cathodes with high redox potentials and exceptional atmospheric stability, providing a sustainable alternative to traditional inorganic materials used in commercial lithium-ion batteries.

    • Jing Xie
    •  & Yi-Chun Lu

  • Article |

    Lithium dendrite propagation through ceramic electrolytes can prevent the realization of high-energy-density all-solid-state lithium-anode batteries. The propagation of cracks and lithium dendrites through a solid electrolyte has now been tracked as a function of charge.

    • Ziyang Ning
    • , Dominic Spencer Jolly
    •  & Peter G. Bruce

  • Article |

    Porous materials can absorb energy by water infiltration, but studies at industrially relevant high-rate intrusions are rare. Here, high-rate experiments are performed on ZIFs showing high energy storage capacity, while molecular simulations allow design rules to be formulated for absorption materials.

    • Yueting Sun
    • , Sven M. J. Rogge
    •  & Jin-Chong Tan

  • Why it Matters |

    Olga Malinkiewicz, founder of Saule Technologies, discusses her transition from academia to industry.

    • Olga Malinkiewicz

  • Article |

    Although the photogeneration yield spectrum is a key property for photoabsorbers in photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells, its characterization remains challenging. An empirical method to extract this parameter through quantum efficiency measurements of ultrathin films is proposed.

    • Daniel A. Grave
    • , David S. Ellis
    •  & Avner Rothschild

  • Perspective |

    Highly ordered crystalline porous solids are useful for many applications. This Perspective explores the evolution of these systems from the ordered state to the glassy and liquid states, discusses the different types of porous liquid and considers possible applications of these disordered systems.

    • Thomas D. Bennett
    • , François-Xavier Coudert
    •  & Andrew I. Cooper

  • Article |

    Pseudocapacitors exhibit charge-storage mechanisms leading to high-capacity and rapidly cycling devices. An organic system designed via molecular contortion is now shown to exhibit unprecedented electrochemical performance and stability.

    • Jake C. Russell
    • , Victoria A. Posey
    •  & Samuel R. Peurifoy

  • Article |

    Although bulk defects can influence the performance of electrocatalysts used for energy conversion, their structural origins are still unclear. The effects of bulk defects on CO2 electroreduction and H2 evolution activity on Au electrodes are now elucidated.

    • Ruperto G. Mariano
    • , Minkyung Kang
    •  & Matthew W. Kanan

  • Article |

    Although layered oxides electrodes in lithium-ion batteries are designed under conditions avoiding phase transitions, phase separation during delithiation has been observed. This apparent phase separation is shown to be a dynamical artefact occurring in a many-particle system driven by autocatalytic electrochemical reactions.

    • Jungjin Park
    • , Hongbo Zhao
    •  & William C. Chueh

  • Obituary |

    Sir John Meurig Thomas, who was one of the leading materials and catalytic scientists of his generation, sadly died in November 2020, aged 87.

    • Richard Catlow
    •  & Graham Hutchings

  • News & Views |

    Linking π-conjugated, electron-deficient ligands into atomically precise large single crystals of conducting 2D metal–organic frameworks can allow the determination of intrinsic electrical conductivity and charge transport mechanism.

    • Renhao Dong
    •  & Xinliang Feng

  • Article |

    Metal-fluoride-based lithium-ion battery cathodes are typically classified as conversion materials because reconstructive phase transitions are presumed to occur upon lithiation. Metal fluoride lithiation is now shown to be dominated instead by diffusion-controlled displacement mechanisms.

    • Xiao Hua
    • , Alexander S. Eggeman
    •  & Clare P. Grey

  • News & Views |

    Hybrid materials constructed from the assembly of inorganic building blocks and organic linkers have shown unique properties and applications. Superstructures of semiconductor magic-sized nanoclusters linked by diamines now join this class of materials.

    • Raffaella Buonsanti

  • News & Views |

    A multifunctional device produces a much-improved thermoelectric-driven transverse voltage by exploiting a thermoelectric current to drive an anomalous Hall effect in a ferromagnet.

    • Andrew F. May
    •  & Brian C. Sales

  • Letter |

    Transverse thermeoelectrics can simplify devices as the electric field and heat gradient are perpendicular, but the power output is much less than in standard devices. Here, by forming a closed circuit of thermoelectric and magnetic materials, a much larger transverse thermopower is generated.

    • Weinan Zhou
    • , Kaoru Yamamoto
    •  & Yuya Sakuraba

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