EES Blog

HOT Communication – read it first!

In this work, the authors calcualte how sheet resistance impacts the power conversion efficiency in solar cells.

The transparent conductor (TC) layer in thin film solar cell modules has a significant impact on power conversion efficiency – reflection, absorption, resistive losses and lost active area all need to be taken into account.

Read more…

Transparent electrode requirements for thin film solar cell modules
Michael W. Rowell and Michael D. McGehee
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00373E

HOT Communication – continuous carbide-derived carbon film

Monolithic porous carbon film has a great potential for integrated supercapacitors due to no polymer binder, reduced macropore volume, and good adhesion between current collector and active material.

It is demonstrated that continuous carbide-derived carbon (CDC) films can be synthesized on various substrates and show high volumetric capacitance.

Continuous carbide-derived carbon films with high volumetric capacitance
Min Heon, Samuel Lofland, James Applegate, Robert Nolte, Emma Cortes, Jeffrey D. Hettinger, Pierre-Louis Taberna, Patrice Simon, Peihua Huang, Magali Brunet and Yury Gogotsi
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00404A

‘HOT’ EES paper – read it now

This work has demonstrated that the electrocatalytic activity of the solid oxide fuel cell cathode can be improved by tailoring the surface crystal facet of micro-crystals. The knowledge obtained will facilitate the goal to improve energy efficiency and to reduce emissions.

Single crystalline La0.5Sr0.5MnO3 microcubes as cathode of solid oxide fuel cell
Mingjia Zhi, Guangwen Zhou, Zhanglian Hong, Jin Wang, Randall Gemmen, Kirk Gerdes, Ayyakkannu Manivannan, Dongling Ma and Nianqiang Wu
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00300J

Energy & Environmental Science November covers

The outside front cover of issue 11 features the Perspective article by F. W. Lee et al. where they discuss if smokeless biomass pyrolysis is a possible arsenal for global carbon capture and sequestration at the gigaton scale.

Sustainability: the capacity of smokeless biomass pyrolysis for energy production, global carbon capture and sequestration
James Weifu Lee, Bob Hawkins, Danny M. Day and Donald C. Reicosky
Energy Environ. Sci., 2010, 3, 1695-1705

The inside front cover highlights Juan Carlos Ruiz-Morales and colleagues article where they review cost-effective methods of microstructural control of materials for energy and environmental applications – from an “eye-scale” down to the micrometre scale.

Engineering of materials for solid oxide fuel cells and other energy and environmental applications
Juan Carlos Ruiz-Morales, David Marrero-López, María Gálvez-Sánchez, Jesús Canales-Vázquez, Cristian Savaniu and Stanislav N. Savvin
Energy Environ. Sci., 2010, 3, 1670-1681

HOT Review article – read it now

Improving hydrogenase O₂ tolerance is a major contemporary challenge to allow the implementation of a sustainable hydrogen economy, as hydrogenases catalyze the conversion between 2H⁺ + 2e^– and H₂.

In this Review Christophe Léger and colleagues explore different methods to improve the O₂-tolerance of the O₂-sensitive [Ni–Fe] hydrogenase.

Towards engineering O₂-tolerance in [Ni–Fe] hydrogenases
Pierre-Pol Liebgott, Sébastien Dementin, Christophe Léger and Marc Rousset
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00093K

George Huber at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and colleagues have shown that waste feedstocks from biomass power plants can be turned into jet and diesel fuel in an integrated and economical process.

View the Chemistry World article and Green Chemistry paper today

Or view more articles by George Huber in Energy & Environmental Science:

Perspective feature article
The critical role of heterogeneous catalysis in lignocellulosic biomass conversion
Energy Environ. Sci., 2009, 2, 68-80

Depolymerization of lignocellulosic biomass to fuel precursors: maximizing carbon efficiency by combining hydrolysis with pyrolysis
Energy Environ. Sci., 2010, 3, 358-365