Nate Lewis and colleagues describe an electronically/ionically conducting membrane that possesses attractive performance characteristics for artificial photosynthesis applications.
Read this article today:
Designing electronic/ionic conducting membranes for artificial photosynthesis
Shaune L. McFarlane, Brittney A. Day, Kevin McEleney, Michael S. Freund and Nathan S. Lewis
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00384K
Cost-effective utilization of lignocellulosic biomass (e.g., corn stover, switchgrass) for production of fuels and chemicals is critical to the development of a bio-based economy. However, current thermochemical pretreatments are expensive and inefficient due to the recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass towards its deconstruction to reactive biofuels or biochemical precursors.
Examining the nano-scale architecture of pretreated lignocellulosic cell walls in tandem with chemical, biochemical and genetic characterization would provide insight into mechanisms that contribute to cell wall recalcitrance.
In this work, ammonia (i.e., Ammonia Fiber Expansion or AFEX) pretreated cell walls are examined using several imaging and characterization techniques to develop multi-dimensional architectural models. These models provide insight into the subtle physicochemical modifications that take place within plant cell walls during low-severity pretreatments and ultimately influence their enzymatic digestibility.
Multi-scale visualization and characterization of lignocellulosic plant cell wall deconstruction during thermochemical pretreatment
Shishir P. S. Chundawat, Bryon S. Donohoe, Leonardo da Costa Sousa, Thomas Elder, Umesh P. Agarwal, Fachuang Lu, John Ralph, Michael E. Himmel, Venkatesh Balan and Bruce E. Dale
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00574F
‘HOT’ Communication article – photovoltaics with >17% efficiency potential
Cu-catalyzed vapor–liquid–solid growth and surface passivation techniques produce crystalline Si microwires of sufficient material quality for high-performance photovoltaics with high efficiency potential.
High-performance Si microwire photovoltaics
Michael D. Kelzenberg, Daniel B. Turner-Evans, Morgan C. Putnam, Shannon W. Boettcher, Ryan M. Briggs, Jae Yeon Baek, Nathan S. Lewis and Harry A. Atwater
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00549E
Throughout the growth of the photovoltaics (PV) industry, crystalline silicon wafer-based solar cells have remained the predominant worldwide technology due in part to high module efficiencies and the tremendous scale at which they are manufactured. However, producing silicon wafers is costly and energy-intensive, which has enabled lower-cost, less-efficient thin-film PV technologies such as CdTe to gain significant market share in recent years.
Technologies that combine the high efficiency, abundance, and non-toxicity of crystalline Si with the low cost and light weight of thin-film PV have the potential to significantly accelerate the adoption of PV energy.
Now, scientists from the US have investigated crystalline silicon microwires as an alternative to wafers. They made the wires by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process, a thin-film vapour deposition technique and found that they possess remarkably high material quality, potentially enabling silicon microwire-array solar cells to reach efficiencies that rival those of many wafer-based crystalline technologies.
‘HOT’ Perspective – read it hot off the press!
This feature review discusses the various ways to improve the light-harvesting performance of the dye-sensitized solar cell.
However, higher conversion efficiencies must be achieved, and therefore the sensitizer needs to absorb as much sunlight as possible – this Perspective overviews how this could be achieved in the future.
Panchromatic engineering for dye-sensitized solar cells
Jun-Ho Yum, Etienne Baranoff, Sophie Wenger, Md. K. Nazeeruddin and Michael Grätzel
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00536C
Welcome to the first issue of Energy & Environmental Science in 2011.
Please take a look at our New Year Editorial in this issue, which evaluates the progress the journal has made since launch, and looks forward to new developments over the year ahead.
We hope you enjoy reading all of the excellent articles in this issue, some highlights include:
Analysis article
Ionic liquids in the biorefinery: a critical assessment of their potential
Annegret Stark
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 19
Perspective
Catalytic routes for the conversion of biomass into liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuels
Juan Carlos Serrano-Ruiz and James A. Dumesic
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 83
Research paper
Increasing the efficiency of zinc-phthalocyanine based solar cells through modification of the anchoring ligand
Miguel García-Iglesias, Juan-José Cid, Jun-Ho Yum, Amparo Forneli, Purificación Vázquez, Mohammad K. Nazeeruddin, Emilio Palomares, Michael Grätzel and Tomás Torres
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 189
And much, much more!!
We invite you to submit some of your best work for publication in Energy & Environmental Science in the coming year.
This mini-review by Neil Rees and Richard Compton discusses the current state-of-the-art in electrochemical capture and transformation of carbon dioxide into useful organic feedstocks.
Minireview
Electrochemical CO2 sequestration in ionic liquids: a perspective
Neil V. Rees and Richard G. Compton
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011,
DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00580K
Analysis article – comparing hydrogen, ethanol, butanol, fatty acid ethyl esters
This high-profile analysis suggests that it may be difficult to produce some advanced biofuels economically through aerobic fermentations due to low energy efficiency, as compared to ethanol, butanol, and hydrogen.
Evaluation of energy-retaining efficiency from sugar to the desired biofuels is prerequisite to its R&D and technoeconomical analysis, read this insightful article now:
Analysis of biofuels production from sugar based on three criteria: Thermodynamics, bioenergetics, and product separation
Wei-Dong Huang and Y.-H. Percival Zhang
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00069H
Energy & Environmental Science issue 12 covers:
Outside front cover
Commercially viable porphyrinoid dyes for solar cells
Ivana Radivojevic, Alessandro Varotto, Christopher Farley and Charles Michael Drain
Energy Environ. Sci., 2010, 3, 1897-1909
The commercialization of solar cells using organic dyes will depend on self-organization, new modes of binding to surfaces, and dye systems that can be synthesized economically on a large scale.
Inside front cover
Separator-free fuel cell stacks operating in a mixture of hydrogen and air
Masahiro Nagao, Motohiro Takahashi and Takashi Hibino
Energy Environ. Sci., 2010, 3, 1934-1940
The separator-free fuel cell stack shows high potential for a significant reduction of the cost of fuel cell systems.
‘HOT’ paper – carbon riveted Pt/TiO2–C exhibits excellent stability
The significantly enhanced stability for carbon riveted Pt/TiO2–C catalyst is ascribed to:
(1) the excellent stability of anatase TiO2
(2) the strong metal-support interaction between Pt and TiO2
(3) the anchoring effect of the carbon layers formed during the carbon riveting process
Ultrahigh stable carbon riveted Pt/TiO2–C catalyst prepared by in situ carbonized glucose for proton exchange membrane fuel cell
Zheng-Zhi Jiang, Zhen-Bo Wang, Yuan-Yuan Chu, Da-Ming Gu and Ge-Ping Yin
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00475H
CO2 is regenerated from aqueous capture solutions using bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPMED), demonstrating energy consumption as low as 100 kJ mol-1(CO2).
CO2 separation using bipolar membrane electrodialysis
Matthew D. Eisaman, Luis Alvarado, Daniel Larner, Peng Wang, Bhaskar Garg and Karl A. Littau
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00303D
Matthew Eisaman and colleagues have performed a comprehensive experimental investigation of CO2 gas regeneration from aqueous potassium carbonate and bicarbonate solutions using bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPMED). This system allows the regeneration of pure CO2 gas, suitable for subsequent sequestration or reaction to synthetic hydrocarbons and their products.
