Research articles

The expansion of China’s waste-to-energy combustion capacity offers great carbon and energy benefits over landfills but remains a carbon-intensive process due to plastic waste and low efficiency. Enhanced waste sorting and the adoption of high-efficiency devices could decarbonize the power generated by these facilities to match that generated by natural gas by 2060.

Preparing suitable lithium anodes is crucial for high-performance solid-state batteries. This study evaluates methods for producing thin lithium films, emphasizing thermal evaporation as a cost-effective approach while estimating associated pack costs.

Lithium-ion batteries degrade in complex ways. This study shows that cycling under realistic electric vehicle driving profiles enhances battery lifetime by up to 38% compared with constant current cycling, underscoring the need for realistic loads to capture ageing mechanisms.

The mechanical stability of interfaces in perovskite solar cells is not well understood. Chen, Wang, Wang et al. investigate the strength of the bonds between layers and the corresponding effects on the chemical and mechanical stability of perovskite solar cells.

Developing heat-resistant dielectric polymers for electrification is challenging due to the inverse relationship between thermal stability and electrical insulation. Using a machine learning-driven approach, the researchers identify and validate high-performance polymers that demonstrate promising thermal resilience and energy density for high-temperature applications.

The solvent choice for processing organic solar cells impacts layer morphology and ultimately device performance. By controlling the molecular interactions, Zhang et al. realize a solvent-independent morphology that leads to high device efficiency.

Electrochemical pumps can effectively purify and compress hydrogen for subsequent use in energy and industrial applications but struggle with low hydrogen concentrations. Here the authors present an electrochemical pump based on an ion-pair membrane that can produce high-purity hydrogen from a 10% blend in methane.

The unclear understanding of the interphase has limited advancements in battery performance. To address this, the authors designed sulfoximide salts with distinctive interphasial chemistry, enabling high-performance lithium metal batteries even under extreme conditions.

Reducing the energy demands of chemical separations could help to decarbonize industry. Based on data-driven and first-principles modelling, here the authors report an approach to holistically compare and select optimal technologies for chemical separation.

Oxygen evolution is a key reaction in electrolysers and involves a spin-dependent, multi-electron transfer process. Here the authors use topological semimetals with intrinsic chirality as a means to control spin in oxygen evolution catalysts, and explore the role of spin–orbit coupling in determining activity.

The sustainable fabrication of perovskite solar cells is critical. Duan et al. present a more environmentally friendly solvent system to process wide-bandgap perovskite films that can also be used for industrial-scale manufacturing in ambient air.

Achieving uniform coverage of interfacial layers in perovskite solar cells is challenging, especially over large areas. Li et al. present design guidelines to fabricate these layers with uniform morphology, suppressed defects and improved charge transport.

Nuclear small modular reactors could help decarbonize industrial heat processes in the United States, but widespread deployment (of up to a thousand reactors) hinges on factory learning, extended tax credits and avoiding cost escalations.

Conventional microscopy is unable to correlate nanoscale properties of metal halide perovskites with the performance of solar cells. Frohna et al. present a multimodal operando microscopy toolkit as a diagnostic tool to address the issue.

Renewable energy sources (RESs) are weather sensitive, raising questions about the vulnerability of high-penetration weather-dependent RES grids during extreme weather events. Here the authors find that blackout intensities and extreme weather vulnerability are mitigated in high-penetration weather-dependent RES grids.

Battery electric shipping could contribute to US GHG emissions reductions goals. This study finds that electrifying 6,323 ships under 1,000 gross tonnage could cut U.S. maritime sector emissions up to 73% by 2035.

New work highlights the importance of basing US Inflation Reduction Act tax credits for low-carbon hydrogen production on life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions intensity assessments that are project- and supply-chain specific and informed by direct measurements of methane emissions.

Carbon capture technologies often consume substantial amounts of heat and require multiple steps to release CO₂ and regenerate the absorbent. Here the authors report one-step electrochemical regeneration of CO₂ and alkaline absorbent from (bi)carbonate solutions using a porous solid electrolyte reactor.

The Inflation Reduction Act increases the competitiveness of US electric vehicle battery manufacturing and incentivizes supply chain diversification, but reducing vulnerabilities will depend on automaker choices in battery design and navigating regulations.

Fair finance in the energy sector is modelled in five climate–energy–economy models. The results show that convergence costs of capital could improve energy availability, affordability and sustainability in developing countries, thereby increasing the international equity of the energy transition.