August 2011 – EES Blog

Archive for August, 2011

Fall ACS Update: climate change and chemistry

31 Aug 2011

Today, EES author, Mark Jacobson gave an exciting press conference at the ACS in Denver on his latest research into climate change.

Jacobson answered questions about new research investigating the link between black carbon pollutants and its effect on climate change and global warming. You can read some of his exciting research from EES, including the popular review on solutions to global warming:

Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security
Mark Z. Jacobson
DOI: 10.1039/B809990C

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Fall ACS Update: photocatalysis

31 Aug 2011

There’s been lots of talks this week at the ACS about photocatalysis and water-splitting, across many different divisions and symposia – it seems to be a very ‘hot’ topic right now!

One highlight for me was a talk by Ryu Abe, who discussed his work on visible-light responsive photocatalysis for solar hydrogen production. He also covered his research about PEC water-splitting, using co-catalysts to improve stability.

Read Ryu Abe’s latest research in EES:

Fabrication of efficient TaON and Ta3N5 photoanodes for water splitting under visible light irradiation
Masanobu Higashi, Kazunari Domen and Ryu Abe
DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01878G

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Fall ACS Update: Alternative energy research

28 Aug 2011

The Fall ACS meeting in Denver, USA is all about air, space and water – with a strong emphasis on alternative energy.

I saw two great talks this afternoon by EES Advisory Board member Dirk Guldi and Francisco Zaera about just that; artificial photosynthesis and TiO2 catalysis to be more precise!

The Carbon leaves: Artificial photosynthesis based on low dimensional carbons
Dirk M. Guldi
Yolk@Shell nanoarchitecture for Au/TiO2 catalysts
Ilkeun Lee, Ji Bong Joo, Yadong Yin, Francisco Zaera

Browse the EES themed issue on carbon nanostructures for energy published earlier this year which was Guest edited by Dirk Guldi: Carbon nanostructures

Professor Zaera discussed his research on TiO2 catalysts and highlighted his PCCP Perspective review article on nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts:

New nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts with increased selectivity and stability
Ilkeun Lee, Manuel A. Albiter, Qiao Zhang, Jianping Ge, Yadong Yin and Francisco Zaera
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01688H

This review was featured in the 2011 PCCP themed issue on Controlled nanostructures for applications in catalysis – take a look today!

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Tailored solid oxide fuel cells

26 Aug 2011

HOT EES Communication

Solid oxide fuel cells have the potential to be used to generate energy from hydrocarbon fuels. However, they currently require very high operating temperatures, for example to allow oxygen reduction at the SOFC cathode to take place.

Designing a catalyst which can allow this reaction to proceed at much lower temperature is a key goal of SOFC research. Now Dane Morgan and co-workers have identified parameters – the bulk oxygen p-band or the bulk
oxygen vacancy formation energy – which are key to the activity of such catalysts.

They suggest that these descriptors could be used to design SOFCs with optimised properties in the future.

Read this exciting Energy and Environmental Science research:

Prediction of solid oxide fuel cell cathode activity with first-principles descriptors
Yueh-Lin Lee, Jesper Kleis, Jan Rossmeisl, Yang Shao-Horn and Dane Morgan
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/C1EE02032C

graph

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Mixing up green energy from salty water

25 Aug 2011

Controlled mixing of streams of seawater and river water could be a potential source of energy in the future. Energy is released by this process due to the salt concentration gradient produced.

But obtaining control of the mixing is not straightforward. Much effort has been invested in optimizing semi-permeable membranes which control the transport of water or ions across them.

Hoek and coworkers present a review of current progress in this field and make suggestions for potential future developments based on their findings.

Read their Energy and Environmental Science Perspective at:

Membrane-based production of salinity-gradient power
Guy Z. Ramon, Benjamin J. Feinberg and Eric M. V. Hoek
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01913A

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Read new solar energy articles for FREE

25 Aug 2011

We have already published some excellent solar energy research this year. For a limited period we would like to share these exciting new articles with you for free!

Read the collection of 22 high-impact reviews, communications and papers on solar research from the best scientists in the field on our website.

With an Impact Factor of 9.45 and ranked #1 in its field, Energy & Environmental Science is the ideal place to publish your research.

We invite you to submit your best solar energy research to EES.

The articles below are just a taster of the exciting solar energy research published in EES in 2011:

Organic solar cells: A new look at traditional models
Jonathan D. Servaites, Mark A. Ratner and Tobin J. Marks
DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01663F

Stretchable, elastic materials and devices for solar energy conversion
Darren J. Lipomi and Zhenan Bao
DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01881G

Tandem polymer photovoltaic cells—current status, challenges and future outlook
Srinivas Sista, Ziruo Hong, Li-Min Chen and Yang Yang
DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00754D

***Due to popular demand, the submission deadline for ChemComm’s Artificial Photosynthesis web theme has been extended until 30th September 2011. Click here for more details***

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Splitting seawater

25 Aug 2011

An electrode to split seawater molecules to get hydrogen has been made by researchers in China.

Splitting seawater molecules is difficult, but as it’s more abundant than freshwater, it is desirable to do so. The BiVO₄ photoanode splits the water at much higher photocurrent densities than previous methods (2.16 mAcm^-2compared to 1.0 mAcm^-2) and at a low potential.

Read this ‘HOT’ Energy & Environmental Science paper today:

Solar hydrogen generation from seawater with a modified BiVO4 photoanode
Z Li, et al, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1ee01812d

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Inexpensive thermoelectric materials show excellent thermal conductivity

23 Aug 2011

Thermoelectric materials can be used to convert thermal energy to electrical energy. Chen and coworkers have discovered that doping the well known thermoelectric material Mo₃Sb₇ with tellurium produces an inexpensive material with properties comparable to the state-of-the-art in this field.

Read the full Energy and Environmental Science paper at:

Optimized thermoelectric properties of Mo₃Sb_7−xTe_x with significant phonon scattering by electrons
Xiaoya Shi, Yanzhong Pei, G. Jeffrey Snyder and Lidong Chen
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01406D

graph

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Solar powered water splitting moves a step closer

18 Aug 2011

Fabrication scheme In order to carry out water splitting using solar energy, the materials used should absorb visible light and have appropriate conduction band levels to allow the production of H₂.

Abe and coworkers have made TaON and Ta₃N₅ photoanodes displaying high photocurrent which represent an exciting step towards this goal.

Read the Energy and Environmental Science paper at:

Fabrication of efficient TaON and Ta₃N₅ photoanodes for water splitting under visible light irradiation
Masanobu Higashi, Kazunari Domen and Ryu Abe
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01878G

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High performance thermoelectric PbTe alloy semiconductors

18 Aug 2011

PbTe is one of the most studied thermoelectric semiconductors because its alloys have the highest energy conversion efficiency.

The ‘HOT’ article from Energy & Environmental Science combines alloy scattering of phonons and resonant electronic levels to reach a high thermoelectric figure of merit in PbTeSe and PbTeS alloys. It is thought that thallium triggers formation of resonant electronic states in PbTe alloys’ valence bands that enhance the thermoelectric figure of merit.

Read the article in full:

Combining alloy scattering of phonons and resonant electronic levels to reach a high thermoelectric figure of merit in PbTeSe and PbTeS alloys
Christopher M. Jaworski, Bartlomiej Wiendlocha, Vladimir Jovovic and Joseph P. Heremans
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01895G

PbTe alloys

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EES Blog

Archive for August, 2011

Fall ACS Update: climate change and chemistry

Fall ACS Update: photocatalysis

Fall ACS Update: Alternative energy research

Tailored solid oxide fuel cells

Mixing up green energy from salty water

Read new solar energy articles for FREE

Splitting seawater

Inexpensive thermoelectric materials show excellent thermal conductivity

Solar powered water splitting moves a step closer

High performance thermoelectric PbTe alloy semiconductors

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