EES Blog

The latest issue of EES is now online. You can read the full issue here.

The outside front cover features the Perspective article Towards high-performance polymer-based thermoelectric materials by Ming He, Feng Qiu and Zhiqun Lin.

Detection and role of trace impurities in high-performance organic solar cells is the article highlighted on the inside front cover by Maxim P. Nikiforov, Barry Lai, Wei Chen, Si Chen, Richard D. Schaller, Joseph Strzalka, Jörg Maser and Seth B. Darling. 

Issue 5 contains the following Review and Perspective articles:

Graphene and its derivatives for the development of solar cells, photoelectrochemical, and photocatalytic applications
Da Chen, Hao Zhang, Yang Liu and Jinghong Li  

Graphene-based electrodes for electrochemical energy storage
Chaohe Xu, Binghui Xu, Yi Gu, Zhigang Xiong, Jing Sun and X. S. Zhao  

Lactic acid as a platform chemical in the biobased economy: the role of chemocatalysis
Michiel Dusselier, Pieter Van Wouwe, Annelies Dewaele, Ekaterina Makshina and Bert F. Sels  

Highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells: progress and future challenges
Shufang Zhang, Xudong Yang, Youhei Numata and Liyuan Han  

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Solar cells are already beginning to enjoy widespread adoption © Shutterstock

A new way of making semiconducting perovskite-based solar cells could result in photovoltaic devices that are 70% cheaper than current commercial models, say UK scientists.

Although dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) have been leading the charge in cheap-to-process cell designs, semiconducting perovskites have been used in recent years to replace the sensitiser in the DSSC architecture. Whilst this reduces the interfacial energy loss that plagues DSSCs, the metal oxide support layers still need to be sintered at 500°C, which is costly.

Continuing their work on a ‘meso-superstructured’ solar cell, where they simplified the design of semiconducting perovskite solar cells, Henry Snaith and his group at the University of Oxford have used colloidal chemistry to deposit a support layer of aluminium(III) oxide. The highest temperature this method needs is a 150°C drying step, which will not only result in cheaper devices, but could also lead to better designs.

Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

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

The latest issue of EES is now online. You can read the full issue here.

The outside front cover features an article on Flexible graphene–polyaniline composite paper for high-performance supercapacitor by Huai-Ping Cong, Xiao-Chen Ren, Ping Wang and Shu-Hong Yu.

K7[CoIIICoII(H2O)W11O39]: a molecular mixed-valence Keggin polyoxometalate catalyst of high stability and efficiency for visible light-driven water oxidation is the article highlighted on the inside front cover by Fangyuan Song, Yong Ding, Baochun Ma, Changming Wang, Qiang Wang, Xiaoqiang Du, Shao Fu and Jie Song.

Issue 4 contains the following Opinion, Analysis, Review and Perspective articles:

Decarbonization at crossroads: the cessation of the positive historical trend or a temporary detour?
N. Muradov 

Artificial photosynthesis as a frontier technology for energy sustainability
Thomas Faunce, Stenbjorn Styring, Michael R. Wasielewski, Gary W. Brudvig, A. William Rutherford, Johannes Messinger, Adam F. Lee, Craig L. Hill, Huub deGroot, Marc Fontecave, Doug R. MacFarlane, Ben Hankamer, Daniel G. Nocera, David M. Tiede, Holger Dau, Warwick Hillier, Lianzhou Wang and Rose Amal

The role of biofuels in the future energy supply
Luis Caspeta, Nicolaas A. A. Buijs and Jens Nielsen

On the importance of reducing the energetic and material demands of electrical energy storage
Charles J. Barnhart and Sally M. Benson

An optimization-based assessment framework for biomass-to-fuel conversion strategies
Jiyong Kim, S. Murat Sen and Christos T. Maravelias

Use of polypyrrole in catalysts for low temperature fuel cells
Xianxia Yuan, Xin-Long Ding, Chao-Yang Wang and Zi-Feng Ma

Challenges of non-aqueous Li–O2 batteries: electrolytes, catalysts, and anodes
Fujun Li, Tao Zhang and Haoshen Zhou

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TPGs require a heat source, a thermoelectric material that converts heat to electricity, and a power generator. Such devices could be used to recycle heat from power plants or motor vehicles, and could even find use in solar energy conversion. Current research is focused on improving the conversion efficiency of thermoelectric materials but, to date, all proposed designs are either difficult to scale up or uneconomical to produce commercially. Yan Yan and Jonathan Malen at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are aiming to solve these problems and have instead focused on changing the type of heat source used.

© Shutterstock

Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Periodic heating amplifies the efficiency of thermoelectric energy conversion
Yan Yan and Jonathan A. Malen
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013,6, 1267-1273
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE24158K

Energy policies within one country can have significant unforeseen consequences, two UK researchers warn. For example, ambitious renewables targets in western countries could have serious repercussions in developing nations. Their analysis points to a ‘pressing need’ for synchronising policies across the economy as a whole, including assessing consequences overseas.

Oliver Inderwildi of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and David Ward of the Culham Science Centre, used the UK target for renewable energy as an example of how one policy can have dramatic potential impacts, both locally and globally. The UK has been set a target of generating up to 15% of final energy demand by 2020 by the EU.

‘We find that wind, for electricity, and imported biomass, for heat, transport fuel and electricity, almost has to be the way forward for the UK, at least on the short timescale of the 2020 targets,’ says Ward. But the amounts of biomass necessary to meet the target far exceed what the UK can supply itself, so imports will have to increase significantly, leading to local and global impacts.

Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Read the article from EES:

Global and local impacts of UK renewable energy policy
D. J. Ward and O. R. Inderwildi
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE22342B

Clathrate hydrates are a form of clathrate compound in which a guest molecule is trapped inside a crystalline cage of ordered, hydrogen bonded water molecules and can form around a large number of low molecular weight gases, such as methane and CO_­2. Unfortunately, the formation of clathrate hydrates is very slow and requires high pressures to introduce the gas into the water, and low temperatures to form the ice-like structures. This leaves it no more energy efficient than standard methods of gas storage, such as liquefaction and compression into porous sorbents.

Vegetables and fungi were used to accelerate the kinetics of clathrate storage

Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Read the article from EES:

Gas storage in renewable bioclathrates
Weixing Wang ,  Chao Ma ,  Pinzhen Lin ,  Luyi Sun and Andrew I. Cooper
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE23565J

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