EES Blog

The following HOT articles have been highlighted by the reviewers of the articles as being particularly interesting or significant pieces of research. These are all free to access until 28th February 2015. The order they appear in the list has no meaning or ranking.

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Microbial electrochemistry and technology: terminology and classification
Uwe Schröder, Falk Harnisch and Largus T. Angenent  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03359K, Perspective

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A silole copolymer containing a ladder-type heptacylic arene and naphthobisoxadiazole moieties for highly efficient polymer solar cells
Zhiyun Zhang, Francis Lin, Hsieh-Chih Chen, Hung-Chin Wu, Chin-Lung Chung, Chien Lu, Shih-Hung Liu, Shih-Huang Tung, Wen-Chang Chen, Ken-Tsung Wong and Pi-Tai Chou  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03642E, Communication

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Material descriptors for predicting thermoelectric performance
Jun Yan, Prashun Gorai, Brenden Ortiz, Sam Miller, Scott A. Barnett, Thomas Mason, Vladan Stevanović and Eric S. Toberer  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03157A, Paper

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Understanding the rate-dependent J–V hysteresis, slow time component, and aging in CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells: the role of a compensated electric field
W. Tress, N. Marinova, T. Moehl, S. M. Zakeeruddin, Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin and M. Grätzel  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03664F, Paper

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Polyoxometalate-functionalized nanocarbon materials for energy conversion, energy storage and sensor systems
Yuanchun Ji, Lujiang Huang, Jun Hu, Carsten Streb and Yu-Fei Song  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03749A, Review Article

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Power-to-What? – Environmental assessment of energy storage systems
André Sternberg and André Bardow  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03051F, Analysis

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Flexible graphene devices related to energy conversion and storage
Xiluan Wang and Gaoquan Shi  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03685A, Review Article

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Light management in thin film silicon solar cells
F.-J. Haug and C. Ballif  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03346A, Review Article

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1,2,4-Triazolium perfluorobutanesulfonate as an archetypal pure protic organic ionic plastic crystal electrolyte for all-solid-state fuel cells
Jiangshui Luo, Annemette H. Jensen, Neil R. Brooks, Jeroen Sniekers, Martin Knipper, David Aili, Qingfeng Li, Bram Vanroy, Michael Wübbenhorst, Feng Yan, Luc Van Meervelt, Zhigang Shao, Jianhua Fang, Zheng-Hong Luo, Dirk E. De Vos, Koen Binnemans and Jan Fransaer  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE02280G, Paper

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The materials genome in action: identifying the performance limits for methane storage
Cory M. Simon, Jihan Kim, Diego A. Gomez-Gualdron, Jeffrey S. Camp, Yongchul G. Chung, Richard L. Martin, Rocio Mercado, Michael W. Deem, Dan Gunter, Maciej Haranczyk, David S. Sholl, Randall Q. Snurr and Berend Smit  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03515A, Perspective

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Bioelectrodes modified with chitosan for long-term energy supply from the body
S. El Ichi, A. Zebda, J.-P. Alcaraz, A. Laaroussi, F. Boucher, J. Boutonnat, N. Reverdy-Bruas, D. Chaussy, M. N. Belgacem, P. Cinquin and D. K. Martin  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03430A, Paper

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A sustainable method to synthesise platform chemical lactic acid from waste glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel production, has emerged from research in Switzerland.

Collaboration between the advanced catalysis engineering and the safety and environmental technology groups at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, headed by Javier Pérez-Ramírez and Konrad Hungerbuehler, respectively, gave way to the new cascade process. Glycerol is first oxidised to give dihydroxyacetone through an established enzymatic process. Dihydroxyacetone is then isomerised over a tin-containing zeolite catalyst, which was designed by ETH Zurich team, to give lactic acid.

Interested to know more?

Take a look at the full Chemistry World article by Geri Kitley online now.

For further information also see the original research article:

Environmental and economic assessment of lactic acid production from glycerol using cascade bio- and chemocatalysis
Merten Morales, Pierre Y. Dapsens, Isabella Giovinazzo, Julia Witte, Cecilia Mondelli, Stavros Papadokonstantakis, Konrad Hungerbühler and Javier Pérez-Ramírez
Energ. Environ. Sci., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03352C

Scientists in Canada have created a hybrid sodium ion capacitor (NIC) from peanut shells in a pioneering study bridging the gap between conventional ion batteries and supercapacitors.

Interested to know more?

Take a look at the full Chemistry World article by Dannielle Whittaker online now.

For further details there’s also the original research paper:

Peanut shell hybrid sodium ion capacitor with extreme energy–power rivals lithium ion capacitors
Jia Ding, Huanlei Wang, Zhi Li, Kai Cui, Dimitre Karpuzov, Xuehai Tan, Alireza Kohandehghan and David Mitlin 
Energy Environ. Sci., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C4EE02986K

These articles are available free for a limited time:

Combining experimental and theoretical methods to learn about the reactivity of gas-processing metalloenzymes
Claudio Greco, Vincent Fourmond, Carole Baffert, Po-hung Wang, Sébastien Dementin, Patrick Bertrand, Maurizio Bruschi, Jochen Blumberger, Luca de Gioia and Christophe Léger  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE01848F, Review Article

Measuring thermoelectric transport properties of materials
Kasper A. Borup, Johannes de Boor, Heng Wang, Fivos Drymiotis, Franck Gascoin, Xun Shi, Lidong Chen, Mikhail I. Fedorov, Eckhard Müller, Bo B. Iversen and G. Jeffrey Snyder  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE01320D, Review Article

Pt–Ru catalyzed hydrogen oxidation in alkaline media: oxophilic effect or electronic effect?
Ying Wang, Gongwei Wang, Guangwei Li, Bing Huang, Jing Pan, Qiong Liu, Juanjuan Han, Li Xiao, Juntao Lu and Lin Zhuang  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE02564D, Communication

A general framework for the assessment of solar fuel technologies
Jeffrey A. Herron, Jiyong Kim, Aniruddha A. Upadhye, George W. Huber and Christos T. Maravelias  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE01958J, Analysis

Nickel oxide encapsulated nitrogen-rich carbon hollow spheres with multiporosity for high-performance pseudocapacitors having extremely robust cycle life
Se Yun Kim, Hyung Mo Jeong, Jun Ho Kwon, Il Woo Ock, Won Hyuk Suh, Galen D. Stucky and Jeung Ku Kang  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE02897J, Communication

Shale gas-to-syngas chemical looping process for stable shale gas conversion to high purity syngas with a H2:CO ratio of 2:1
Siwei Luo, Liang Zeng, Dikai Xu, Mandar Kathe, Elena Chung, Niranjani Deshpande, Lang Qin, Ankita Majumder, Tien-Lin Hsieh, Andrew Tong, Zhenchao Sun and Liang-Shih Fan  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE02892A, Paper

Evaluating different classes of porous materials for carbon capture
Johanna M. Huck, Li-Chiang Lin, Adam H. Berger, Mahdi Niknam Shahrak, Richard L. Martin, Abhoyjit S. Bhown, Maciej Haranczyk, Karsten Reuter and Berend Smit  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE02636E, Paper

Stabilization of Si microwire arrays for solar-driven H2O oxidation to O2(g) in 1.0 M KOH(aq) using conformal coatings of amorphous TiO2
Matthew R. Shaner, Shu Hu, Ke Sun and Nathan S. Lewis  
DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03012E, Communication

A new way for converting cellulose into liquid straight-chain alkanes may provide a viable alternative route to chemicals traditionally sourced from crude oil. With the demand for fossil-derived chemicals and fuels ever-increasing, making chemical building blocks using cellulose from the vast amounts of cheap, waste non-food plant biomass produced worldwide in combination with existing oil refinery infrastructure, could be an invaluable bridge to sustainable chemicals and fuels.

Read the full news article on the work from Bert Sels et al. online at Chemistry World.

The original research article is also free to access for a limited time – download it here:

Direct catalytic conversion of cellulose to liquid straight-chain alkanes
Beau Op de Beeck, Michiel Dusselier, Jan Geboers, Jensen Holsbeek, Eline Morré, Steffen Oswald, Lars Giebeler and Bert F. Sels
Energy. Environ. Sci., 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C4EE01523A

By using 3D printing researchers in the UK have cut the cost of manufacturing devices that produce hydrogen fuel by splitting water. The 3D printed plastic components developed by Lee Cronin and co-workers at the University of Glasgow, UK, allow for the construction of light weight and low-cost electrolysers that could make the currently expensive devices available to a wider audience. Hardware hackers in the scientific community are also encouraged to use the new manufacturing approach in open source developments.

Interested to find out more? For the full article visit Chemistry World.

Read the original article in Energy and Environmental Science – free to access until August 15th!

3D Printed Flow Plates for the Electrolysis of Water: an Economic and Adaptable Approach to Device Manufacture

A new type of blue energy harvesting device may offer a practical method of continuous coastal electricity generation.

In 2011, Stanford researchers described a new form of energy harvesting device coined as a “mixing entropy battery” in Nano Letters¹. Their device capitalized on the chemical energy available in a system where an ion concentration gradient is present; in this case where low salinity wastewater or river water was mixed with ~0.6 M NaCl rich seawater. It is estimated that during this mixing process, there is a free energy reduction of 2.2 kJ per liter of freshwater.

In this interesting and informative article, M. Sevilla and R. Mokaya review state-of-the-art synthesis methods for the preparation of activated carbons and their application in energy storage systems. Specifically, the authors detail recent developments in the control of properties such as pore size distribution, surface area and structural and chemical characteristics – and how such properties relate to performance in hydrogen storage and supercapacitors.

Activated carbons have a number of desirable features that make them attractive for use in advanced energy-storage systems. As well as being relatively light-weight, low-cost and chemically inert, they also have very large surface areas (> 1000 m²/g) and high micropore volumes in which to interact with other species. This makes activated carbons particularly useful as supercapacitor electrodes and hydrogen storage materials – where performance is strongly related to surface area and pore characteristics.

In this review, recent developments in the fabrication of activated carbons are discussed, focusing particularly on methods which allow the control of features, such as pore size distribution, surface area and physical and chemical characteristics such as texture, morphology and heteroatom-doping. The relationship between these properties and the performance of these materials as supercapacitor electrodes and their use in hydrogen storage is also looked at in detail, providing a guide for the direction of future research in this very active field.

Interested? Read the full article here:

Energy storage applications of activated carbons: supercapacitors and hydrogen storage

Marta Sevilla and Roberts Mokaya

Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, 7, 1250–1280