EES Blog

We are delighted to welcome our newest members to the Energy & Environmental Science Advisory Board!

Introducing Profs. Annamaria Petrozza, Evelyn Wang, Li-Zhu Wu, Yan Yu, Hong Jin Fan, Laura Herz, Pooi See Lee, Yi-Chun Lu and Shelley Minteer. We are so happy to be working with you all.

The Energy & Environmental Science Advisory Board is comprised of leading researchers from across the breadth of energy science, who support the journal as reviewers and authors, providing strategic feedback and acting as advocates in the community. Meet our full Editorial and Advisory Boards on our webpage: https://rsc.li/ees and find out a bit more about our newest Advisory Board members below, alongside examples of their research.

Pictured left to right: Annamaria Petrozza, Evelyn Wang, Li-Zhu Wu and Yan Yu

Pictured left to right:  Profs. Hong Jin Fan, Laura Herz, Pooi See Lee, Yi-Chun Lu, Shelley Minteer

Prof. Annamaria Petrozza works at the Istituto Italiano di Technologia, Italy. Her research aims to shed light on interfacial optoelectronic mechanisms with the goal of improving efficiency and stability of solution processable semiconductors and devices, with special emphasis on highly efficient third-generation solar cells.

Read some of Petrozza’s work in Energy & Environmental Science: 17.6% stabilized efficiency in low-temperature processed planar perovskite solar cells

Prof. Evelyn Wang is the director of the Device Research Laboratory and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research interests include heat and mass transfer, energy efficient systems, water harvesting, purification and conservation and micro/nano devices.

Read some of Wang’s work in Energy & Environmental Science: Ultrahigh-efficiency desalination via a thermally-localized multistage solar still and Passive, high-efficiency thermally-localized solar desalination

Prof. Li-Zhu Wu is the Director of the Lab of Supramolecular Photochemistry at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The group works on photochemical conversion, including artificial photosynthesis for hydrogen and oxygen evolution as well as carbon dioxide reduction; Visible light catalysis for efficient organic transformation, particularly for activation of inert chemical bonds using photochemical strategies; and photoinduced electron transfer, energy transfer, and chemical reactions in supramolecular systems.

Read some of Wu’s work in Energy & Environmental Science: Graphdiyne for crucial gas involved catalytic reactions in energy conversion applications

Prof. Yan Yu at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), works on the design of novel nanomaterials for clean energy, with a particular focus on batteries and the fundamental science of energy-storage systems.

Read some of Yu’s work in Energy & Environmental Science: Ionogel-based sodium ion micro-batteries with a 3D Na-ion diffusion mechanism enable ultrahigh rate capability

Prof. Hong Jin Fan works at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). His research interests focus on exploring new energy materials and understanding their functions in energy conversion and storage processes, including catalysis for hydrogen generation, new redox batteries, and flexible energy devices.

Read some of Fan’s work in Energy & Environmental Science: Tubular TiC fibre nanostructures as supercapacitor electrode materials with stable cycling life and wide-temperature performance

Prof Laura Herz directs the Semiconductors Group at the Clarendon Laboratory and is the Associate Head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division for research at the University of Oxford. The Herz group explores the fundamental science and applications of semiconducting materials and nanostructures ranging from hybrid systems such as sensitized metal oxides and organic-inorganic perovskites to organic molecules and solids, III-V inorganic semiconductors, and nanostructures.

Read some of Herz’s work in Energy & Environmental Science: Preventing phase segregation in mixed-halide perovskites: a perspective

Prof. Pooi See Lee, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), is interested in synthesizing innovative nanomaterials and harnessing their multi-functionality through understanding the structural-property characteristics. She has developed high-energy capacitors, energy-saving electrochromic coatings, novel transparent conductors, flexible and stretchable devices.

Read some of Lee’s work in Energy & Environmental Science: 3D carbon based nanostructures for advanced supercapacitors

Prof. Yi-Chun Lu, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, leads the Electrochemical Energy & Interfaces Laboratory. Lu’s research group looks at redox flow batteries, Li-air batteries, Li-sulphur batteries, and energy storage systems for electric vehicles.

Read some of Lu’s work in Energy & Environmental Science: High-areal-capacity conversion type iron-based hybrid redox flow batteries

Prof. Shelley Minteer is a group leader at the University of Utah. The Minteer Group is focused on improving the abiotic-biotic interface between biocatalysts and electrode surfaces for enhanced bioelectrocatalysis. These biocatalysts include microbial cells, organelles (mitochondria and thylakoid membranes), redox proteins, and oxidoreductase enzymes. They design electrode structures for enhanced flux at electrode surfaces for biosensor and biofuel cell applications.

Read some of Minteer’s work in Energy & Environmental Science: Nitrogenase bioelectrocatalysis: heterogeneous ammonia and hydrogen production by MoFe protein

The Editorial team extends a warm welcome to all our new Advisory Board members, we are very much looking forward to working with everyone.

EES Editorial Board members Joseph Hupp (Editorial Board Chair), Xinhe Bao, Linda Nazar, Jenny Nelson, and Jens Nørskov have been recognised as 2021 Clarivate^TM Highly Cited Researchers.

Joseph Hupp

Professor Joseph Hupp is a Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University and a Senior Science Fellow in the Materials Science Division at nearby Argonne National Laboratory. He is the Deputy Director of the Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center (ICDC), the team lead for “Redox Catalysts for Energy-Demanding Reactions” thrust within the Center for Light Energy Activated Redox Processes (LEAP), a DOE-sponsored EFRC and successor of the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research (ANSER) Center. Joe’s research centers on energy- and defense-relevant materials chemistry, including materials for chemical separations, chemical catalysis, light-to-electrical energy conversion, catalytic water oxidation, high-capacity storage and release of molecular hydrogen, and capture and destruction of chemical warfare agents.

Read his work in EES:

Evaluating topologically diverse metal–organic frameworks for cryo-adsorbed hydrogen storage

Energy Environ. Sci., 2016, 9, 3279-3289

https://doi.org/10.1039/C6EE02104B

A thermodynamic tank model for studying the effect of higher hydrocarbons on natural gas storage in metal–organic frameworks

Energy Environ. Sci., 2015, 8, 1501-1510

https://doi.org/10.1039/C5EE00808E

Xinhe Bao

Professor Xinhe Bao received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Fudan University in 1987 and then worked as a Fellow of Alexander von Humboldt in Frize-Haber institute of Max-Planck Society in Berlin/Germany. He became a full Professor of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP, CAS) in China in 1995 and the group leader of Nano & Interface Catalysis at the State Key Laboratory of Catalysis later. He held the position of the institute director from 2000 to 2007, and was appointed the President of Shenyang Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009. Bao is the member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) and the fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK). He is currently the vice President of Chemistry Society of China and the President of Chinese Society of Catalysis.

Read his work in EES:

Ionogel-based sodium ion micro-batteries with a 3D Na-ion diffusion mechanism enable ultrahigh rate capability

Energy Environ. Sci., 2020,13, 821-829

https://doi.org/10.1039/C9EE03219C

Highly efficient H₂ production from H₂S via a robust graphene-encapsulated metal catalyst

Energy Environ. Sci., 2020,13, 119-126

https://doi.org/10.1039/C9EE03231B

Linda Nazar

Professor Linda Nazar was educated at UBC and the University of Toronto where she received her Ph.D. degree in materials chemistry. She moved to Exxon Corporate Research to take up a Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 1987 she joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Waterloo, where she initiated her independent academic career. She was promoted to full professor in 2000 and established the Laboratory for Electrochemical Energy Materials.  She has been an invited professor at the IMN/Université de Nantes, the Materials Science department in UCLA, the CNRS in Grenoble, France; and at Caltech as a Moore Distinguished Scholar (Dept of Materials Science) in 2010. Dr. Nazar has achieved international recognition as a leader in the areas of solid state chemistry, electrochemistry, energy storage and materials science.

Read her work in EES:

Coulombically-stabilized oxygen hole polarons enable fully reversible oxygen redox

Energy Environ. Sci., 2021,14, 4858-4867

https://doi.org/10.1039/D1EE01037A

A new halospinel superionic conductor for high-voltage all solid state lithium batteries

Energy Environ. Sci., 2020,13, 2056-2063

https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EE01017K

Jenny Nelson

Professor Jenny Nelson is a Professor of Physics at Imperial College London, where she has researched novel varieties of material for use in solar cells since 1989. Her current research is focussed on understanding the properties of molecular semiconductor materials and their application to organic solar cells. This work combines fundamental electrical, spectroscopic and structural studies of molecular electronic materials with numerical modelling and device studies, with the aim of optimising the performance of solar cells based on molecular and hybrid materials. Since 2010 she has been working together with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change to explore the mitigation potential of photovoltaic, and other renewable, technologies. She has published over 200 articles in peer reviewed journals, several book chapters and a book on the physics of solar cells.

Read her work in EES:

Side-chain tuning in conjugated polymer photocatalysts for improved hydrogen production from water [OPEN ACCESS]

Energy Environ. Sci., 2020,13, 1843-1855

https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EE01213K

Design and evaluation of conjugated polymers with polar side chains as electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage in aqueous electrolytes [OPEN ACCESS]

Energy Environ. Sci., 2019,12, 1349-1357

https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE03518K

Jens Nørskov

Professor Jens Nørskov is a Villum Kann Rasmussen Professor at Technical University of Denmark. He earned his PhD in theoretical physics from Aarhus University in Denmark in 1979, and is well known for his work on the theoretical description of surfaces, catalysis, materials and nanostructures. Nørskov’s research aims at developing theoretical methods and concepts to understand and predict properties of materials. The aim is to understand which surface properties determine their chemical activity and to use that insight, in combination with large-scale computations, to design new catalytic surfaces and nano-structures. Applications are primarily in energy transformations, including (photo-) electrochemical water splitting, CO2 reduction, nitrogen reduction and syngas reactions.

Read his work in EES:

Increasing stability, efficiency, and fundamental understanding of lithium-mediated electrochemical nitrogen reduction

Energy Environ. Sci., 2020,13, 4291-4300

https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EE02246B

Rapid flame doping of Co to WS₂ for efficient hydrogen evolution

Energy Environ. Sci., 2018,11, 2270-2277

https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE01111G

Energy & Environmental Science were delighted to sponsor a poster prize at the Faraday Discussion on CO2 utilisation, which took place last month from 7th – 9th April 2021.

The EES Poster Prize was awarded to Laura Barberis (Utrecht University) for her poster titled ‘Particle size effects for Copper-catalysed CO2 hydrogenation to methanol’.

A Poster Prize was also awarded to Davide Salusso on behalf of the Faraday Division, for his poster entitled ‘Unveiling oxygen vacancy contribution to CO2 fixation to Dimethyl Carbonate over CeO2’

Congratulations Laura and Davide!

Announcing new energy-focused additions to the RSC Desktop Seminar Lectureship Series

The RSC is proud to recognise exceptional scientists through our series of journal lectureships. Typically, our winners are given the opportunity to present their award-winning work at international conferences or meetings, which has not been possible this year due to the disruption to in-person events caused by the global pandemic.

As a result, we are currently running the inaugural RSC Desktop Seminar Lectureship Series, featuring free online talks by our recent journal lectureship award recipients. RSC Desktop Seminar Lectureships provide an exciting opportunity for exceptional scientists to share their award-winning research virtually and for you to ask questions. Each session will feature talks from a journal board member and the journal lectureship award recipient, spanning many topic areas and regions around the world. Further information about all sessions will be available at rsc.li/lectureship-series

Upcoming energy-focused Desktop Seminar Lectureships: Hosted by EES, Journal of Materials Chemistry, PCCP and Chemical Society Reviews

Save the dates and join us for these FREE virtual events:

EES 2019 Lectureship seminar

18 March, 14:00 GMT / 10:00 EDT

 Register here

Journal of Materials Chemistry 2019 Lectureship seminar

11 March, 9:00 GMT / 17:00 CST / 18:00 KST

Register here

PCCP 2019 Lectureship Seminar

23 March, 10:00 GMT / 11:00 CET

Register here

EES 2020 Lectureship seminars:

31 March, 15:00 BST

Professor Joseph Hupp 
Northwestern University, USA
EES Editorial Board Chair

Professor Yana Vaynzof
Technical University of Dresden, Germany
Joint 2020 EES Lectureship award recipient
Reproducibility in Perovskite Photovoltaics

Register here

27 April, 10:00 BST

Professor Kyung Byung Yoon
Sogang University, South Korea
EES Advisory Board member

Professor Wooyul Kim
Sookmyung Women’s University, South Korea
Joint 2020 EES Lectureship award recipient
Time-resolved attenuated total reflection surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (ATR-SERIAS) as a powerful tool in electrocatalysis: What is happening at the interface in real-time?

Register here

Other upcoming Energy-focused RSC Desktop Seminar Lectureships:

Journal of Materials Chemistry 2020 Lectureship seminar:

25 March, 9:00 EDT / 13:00 GMT / 14:00 CET

Professor Yana Vaynzof
Technical University of Dresden, Germany
JMC C and Materials Advances Associate Editor
Small Grains as Recombination Hot Spots in Perovskite Solar Cells

Professor Giulia Grancini
University of Pavia, Italy
2020 Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship award recipient
Engineering Low-Dimensional Perovskite Interfaces for State of the art Perovskite Solar Cells: interface structure and processes therein

 Register here 

ChemSocRev 2020 Pioneering Investigator Lectureship seminar:

21 April, 14:00 CDT / 12:00 PDT / 20:00 GMT

Professor Shirley Meng
University of California San Diego, USA
Advisory Board member, Chemical Society Reviews

Dr Jun Lu
Argonne National Laboratory, USA
2020 ChemSocRev Pioneering Investigator Lectureship award recipient

Register here

Please visit rsc.li/lectureship-series for the latest updates and registration links. If you think these events would interest someone you know, please do share this message. We hope you can join us at an upcoming event, and in the event that you are interested in these seminars but cannot make the date, register online before the scheduled event and you will be sent a link to the recording afterwards.

We are delighted to announce that the 2020 EES Lectureship has been jointly awarded to Professor Yana Vaynzof and Dr Wooyul Kim!

Established in 2019, the Lectureship recognises and supports those at an early stage of their independent career within the fields of energy and environmental sciences, and is a platform for early career researchers to showcase their research to the wider scientific community.

The recipients will each receive a £500 honorarium, will be given the opportunity to attend and present their research at a leading international online conference, and will be invited to contribute a Review-type article to EES.

Yana is an Associate Professor at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. Since 2019, she has been the Chair for Emerging Electronic Technologies at the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden, and the Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2011, and was previously a junior professor at the University of Heidelberg, Germany (2014-2018).

Her research interests focus on emerging photovoltaics based on organic, colloidal quantum dot and perovskite materials. Her work aims to address the challenges of stability and reproducibility of emerging photovoltaic devices by identifying the causes and developing strategies for the mitigation of these challenges. To achieve this, Yana not only utilizes a broad range of experimental methods, but also develops new spectroscopic techniques and methodologies for the study of material physics of novel semiconductors.

Find out more about her research on her website https://cfaed.tu-dresden.de/cfeet-about and on twitter: @vaynzof

She was the only female recipient of an ERC Starting Grant in the panel PE3 Condensed Matter Physics in 2016, and was also the recipient of the 2018 Walter Kalkhof-Rose Memorial Award for outstanding young researchers in the natural sciences as well as the Fulbright-Cottrell Award for innovation in research and teaching.

Read her latest work in Royal Society of Chemistry journals:

Fractional deviations in precursor stoichiometry dictate the properties, performance and stability of perovskite photovoltaic devices
Paul Fassl, Vincent Lami, Alexandra Bausch, Zhiping Wang, Matthew T. Klug, Henry J. Snaith and Yana Vaynzof*
Energy Environ. Sci., 2018, 11, 3380-3391. DOI: 10.1039/C8EE01136B

Thermally evaporated methylammonium-free perovskite solar cells
Ran Ji, Zongbao Zhang, Changsoon Cho, Qingzhi An, Fabian Paulus, Martin Kroll, Markus Löffler, Frederik Nehm, Bernd Rellinghaus, Karl Leo* and Yana Vaynzof*
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020,8, 7725-7733 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D0TC01550D

Wooyul has been an Assistant Professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, South Korea, working in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering since 2016. He received his PhD from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in 2012, and went on to carry out postdoctoral research at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, USA (2012-2016).

His recent research focuses on using time-resolved operando spectroscopy to investigate photo- (and electro-) catalytic mechanisms, including revealing key reaction intermediates, analysing samples used for water reduction and oxidation, and gaining a microscopic perspective of electrode surfaces in photoelectrochemical cells.

Find out more on his website http://sealab.or.kr/

Read his latest work in Energy & Environmental Science:
HOT article: Time-resolved observation of C–C coupling intermediates on Cu electrodes for selective electrochemical CO2 reduction
Younghye Kim,‡   Sojung Park, Seung-Jae Shin, Woong Choi, Byoung Koun Min, Hyungjun Kim, Wooyul Kim* and Yun Jeong Hwang*
Energy Environ. Sci., 2020, 13, 4301-4311. DOI: 10.1039/D0EE01690J

A highly active, robust photocatalyst heterogenized in discrete cages of metal–organic polyhedra for CO2 reduction
Featured on the inside front cover of the journal
Hyeon Shin Lee, Seohyeon Jee, Raekyung Kim, Hoang-Tran Bui, Bupmo Kim, Jung-Keun Kim, Kyo Sung Park, Wonyong Choi, Wooyul Kim* and Kyung Min Choi*
Energy Environ. Sci., 2020, 13, 519-526. DOI: 10.1039/C9EE02619C

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To celebrate, we have put together collections of Yana and Wooyul’s publications in Royal Society of Chemistry journals:

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Energy & Environmental Science in 2019, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Alexis Bell, UC Berkley, ORCID: 0000-0002-5738-4645
Ioannis Deretzis, National Research Council of Italy, ORCID: 0000-0001-7252-1831
Felix Donat, ETH Zurich, ORCID: 0000-0002-3940-9183
Betar Gallant, MIT, ORCID: 0000-0002-4586-2769
Jung-Ho Lee, Hanyang Unviersity, ORCID: 0000-0002-6731-3111
Joan Ramón Morante, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), ORCID: 0000-0002-4981-4633
Satishchandra Ogale, IISER Pune, ORCID: 0000-0001-5593-9339
Marcel Risch, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, ORCID: 0000-0003-2820-700
Alexandr Simonov, Monash University, ORCID: 0000-0003-3063-6539
Emily Warren, NREL, ORCID: 0000-0001-8568-7881

We would also like to thank the Energy & Environmental Science board and the energy and environment community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé.  You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre