Author Archive

RSC Books on energy and environmental science

Books in the RSC Energy and Environment Series provide up-to-date and critical perspectives reflecting the wealth of chemical ideas and concepts that have the potential to make an important impact in mankind’s search for a sustainable energy future. Books in the Series have covered energy crops, photoelectron chemical water splitting, solid oxide fuel cells and biomass conversion.

Spanning a broad range of research interests and experiences in this field, the international Series Board comprises:

Laurie Peter, University of Bath, UK, Editor-in-Chief

Heinz Frei, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, Series Editor

Roberto Rinaldi, Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Germany, Series Editor

Tim S. Zhao, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, Series Editor

Recent publications:

Materials Challenges: Inorganic Photovoltaic Solar Energy, edited by Stuart J C Irvine – an authoritative reference on the various aspects of materials science that will impact the next generation of photovoltaic module technology.

Catalytic Hydrogenation for Biomass Valorization, edited by Roberto Rinaldi – as the biorefinery industry expands to meet the latest discoveries in biomass conversion, this book provides a thorough grounding in the subject.

Advanced Concepts in Photovoltaics, edited by Arthur J. Nozik, Gavin Conibeer, Matthew C Beard – describing the diverse range of materials and fabrication methods now available to take photovoltaic systems into the third generation.

Titles you may have missed:

Solar Energy Conversion, edited by Piotr Piotrowiak – a state-of-the art review on experimental and theoretical approaches to the study of interfacial electron and excitation transfer processes which are so crucial to solar energy conversion.

Biological Conversion of Biomass for Fuels and Chemicals, edited by Jianzhong Sun, Shi-You Ding, Joy D Peterson – covers biomass modification to facilitate the industrial degradation processing and and new technologies for the conversion of lignocelluloses into biofuels and other products.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, edited by Meng Ni, Tim S. Zhao – an overview of the SOFC technology with a focus on the recent developments in new technologies and new ideas for addressing the key issues of SOFC development.

You can now keep up-to-date with the latest books published from the Royal Society of Chemistry with our eBook Table of Content Email Alerts. Sign up today by selecting RSC eBook Collection in the Book Alerts section on the Email Alerts Service Form.

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Battery Buffer: Layered oxide that shrinks when ions intercalated

Battery electrodes are typically made from layered oxide materials. However, these layered oxides often undergo a positive ‘strain effect’ or expansion when ions are incorporated into their structure. This can leads to inferior long-term cycling stability and reduced battery safety. However, scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have synthesised a negative strain layered oxide, Na0.5NbO2, which exhibits high stability, a long cycling life and an impressive rate performance. This material shrinks on intercalation of sodium ions which is thought to be a result of enhanced interlayer Na–O interactions and weakened Nb–Nb and Nb–O bonding. The researchers have also found that the material is suitable as an independent electrode material and as a buffer in composite electrodes, yet the high cost of niobium and the difficulty of synthesis may limit its future application. The lattice shrinks upon intercalation of sodium ions

Want to know more?

Read the full article in Chemistry World by Laura Fisher.

Or, take a look at the original article which is free to access until 9th September 2015:

Anti-P2 structured Na0.5NbO2 and its negative strain effect” by X. Wang et al.DOI:10.1039/C5EE01745A

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Water splitting using a single catalyst

Electrochemical water splitting typically requires two catalysts, one to evolve oxygen and one for hydrogen. However, scientists lead by Xile Hu at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have discovered that nickel phosphide can act as a catalyst, evolving both hydrogen oxygen from water simultaneously. Nickel phosphide was loaded onto a carbon electrode in an alkaline electrolyser which lead to the material adopting a core-shell structure, with a nickel phosphide core and an active nickel oxide species on the outside. The team observed successful water splitting, with the evolution of both hydrogen and oxygen and a current density of 10mA/cm2 at a low water splitting potential of 1.63V.

Want to know more?

Read the full article in Chemistry World by Osman Mohamed.

Or, take a look at the original article which is free to access until 7th August 2015:

Ni2P as a Janus catalyst for water splitting: the oxygen evolution activity of Ni2P nanoparticles” by L-A. Stern et al., DOI: 10.1039/C5EE01155H

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EES 2015 Readers’ Choice Lectureship

EES was delighted to present the 2015 Energy & Environmental Science Readers’ Choice Lectureship to Dr Miguel A. Modestino of EPFL, Switzerland, at the International Symposium on Energy Conversion and Storage that took place between 31 May-1st June at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IPE-CAS), Beijing, China.

Dr Modestino was awarded the lectureship as his Energy & Environmental Science publication, ‘Design and cost considerations for practical solar-hydrogen generators‘, was one of the most downloaded articles in 2014. Dr Modestino gave a presentation entitled ‘Unconventional water splitting approaches towards scalable solar-hydrogen generators’ which followed on from the work outlined in this article.

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EES Poster Prizes at the International Symposium on Energy Conversion and Storage

We recently awarded a number of Energy & Environmental Science poster prizes at the International Symposium on Energy Conversion and Storage that took place between 31 May-1st June at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IPE-CAS), Beijing, China. The symposium was organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry and was hosted by  Energy & Environmental Science Advisory Board member Dan Wang and attended by Executive Editor Anna Simpson.

The winners:

Yu Xin Zhang, Chongqing University, China

Hao Ren, IPE-CAS, China

Jiangyan Wang, IPE-CAS, China

Mingyuan Ma, University of Science and Technology in Beijing, China

Ruiqin Wang, China University of Petroleum (East China), China

Junqiang Zhang, China University of Petroleum (East China), China

Rui Zhang, Humboldt-Universität zu Berli, Germany

Yue Lu, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Haonan Si, University of Science and Technology in Beijing, China

Hongjie Tang, University of Science and Technology in Beijing, China

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Electricity harvested from magnetic noise

In Korea, Jungho Ryu and colleagues at the Korea Institute of Materials Science, have designed a magneto–mechano–electric generator that harvests magnetic energy from the environment.  It is made from a magnetostrictive single crystal composite that elongates and contracts in a low frequency magnetic field. The strain induced in this material outputs a voltage and Ryu’s team have demonstrated that their device can harvest energy from a vacuum pump cable to power 35 light emitting diodes. They are conducting further studies to improve its power density and the materials science community is excited about how this technology could be utilised in the future.

Want to know more?

Read the full article in Chemistry World by Heather Powell.

Or, take a look at the original article which is free to access until 15th June 2015:

Ubiquitous magneto-mechano-electric generator” by J. Ryu et al., DOI:10.1039/C5EE00414D

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Professor Henry Snaith elected Fellow of the Royal Society

Credit: University of Oxford

We are pleased to announce that Professor Henry Snaith, of the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford University and Energy and Environmental Science Advisory Board member, has been elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Fellows of the Royal Society are elected for life through a peer review process on the basis of excellence in science and we would like to congratulate Henry on this achievement.

As head of the Photovolatic and Optoelectronic Device Group, Henry leads an interdisciplinary research team which focusses on optoelectronic materials synthesis, device development and characterisation with the primary focus of developing low cost photovoltaic concepts. Henry has pioneered the development of hybrid materials for energy and photovoltaics and the recent discovery of highly efficient perovskite solar cells has received much attention by the academic community and by industry as a low-cost alternative to silicon photovoltaics.

Read a selection of Henry’s papers – free to access until 15th June 2015:

Low-temperature processed meso-superstructured to thin-film perovskite solar cells, James M. Ball, Michael M. Lee, Andrew Hey and Henry J. Snaith, Energy Environ. Sci., 2013,6, 1739-1743, DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40810H

Formamidinium lead trihalide: a broadly tunable perovskite for efficient planar heterojunction solar cells, Giles E. Eperon, Samuel D. Stranks, Christopher Menelaou, Michael B. Johnston, Laura M. Herz and Henry J. Snaith, Energy Environ. Sci., 2014,7, 982-988, DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43822H

Sub-150 °C processed meso-superstructured perovskite solar cells with enhanced efficiency, Konrad Wojciechowski, Michael Saliba, Tomas Leijtens, Antonio Abate and Henry J. Snaith, Energy Environ. Sci., 2014,7, 1142-1147, DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43707H

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Membrane-less water splitting device

A water splitting electrolyser typically contains an ion-conducting membrane which separates the electrodes and keeps the oxygen and hydrogen apart, preventing explosion. However, these membranes are expensive and thus the development of a membrane-less electrolyser is an exciting advance. Researchers at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, led by Demetri Psaltis, have developed such a device by exploiting the Segré–Silberberg effect. The oxygen and hydrogen are kept separate as the distance between the two electrodes is less than a few hundred micrometres and they do not mix because lift forces in the narrow passage push them towards the wall they evolved from.This is a microfluidic device that provides promising proof-of-concept and the group are now attempting to scale up.

Want to know more?

Read the full article in Chemistry World by Isobel Marr.

Or, take a look at the original article which is free to access untill 1st June 2015:

A membrane-less electrolyzer for hydrogen production across the pH scale” by S. Mohammad H. Hashemi,  Miguel A. Modestino and Demetri Psaltis, DOI:10.1039/C5EE00083A

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Ultrasound test echos with battery charge

Measuring the charge within a battery can often involve the use of expensive equipment such as synchrotron light sources, which are not accessible to all researchers. However, scientists at Princeton University lead by Dr Daniel Steingart have developed a method of using ultrasound echoes to measure charge within a battery at different times, giving physical insight into a battery’s state. This ultrasomic imaging of what is happening inside a cell could prove to be useful commercially.

Want to know more?

Read the full article in Chemistry World by Osman Mohamed.

Or, take a look at the original article which is free to access untill 2nd June 2015:

Electrochemical-acoustic time of flight: in operando correlation of physical dynamics with battery charge and health by A. G. Hsieh, S. Bhadra, B. J. Hertzberg,  P. J. Gjeltema, A. Goy,  J. W. Fleischer and  D. A. Steingart, DOI: 10.1039/C5EE00111K.

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