Take a look at this week’s selection! This article is available free for a limited time:
Spin caloritronics
Stephen R. Boona, Roberto C. Myers and Joseph P. Heremans
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43299H, Review Article
This week’s HOT article
10 Feb 2014
EES Issue 2 of 2014 out now!
04 Feb 2014
The outside front cover features the paper Exciton diffusion in organic photovoltaic cells by S. Matthew Menke and Russell J. Holmes.
Lead candidates for high-performance organic photovoltaics from high-throughput quantum chemistry – the Harvard Clean Energy Project is the paper highlighted on the inside front cover by Johannes Hachmann, Roberto Olivares-Amaya, Adrian Jinich, Anthony L. Appleton, Martin A. Blood-Forsythe, László R. Seress, Carolina Román-Salgado, Kai Trepte, Sule Atahan-Evrenk, Süleyman Er, Supriya Shrestha, Rajib Mondal, Anatoliy Sokolov, Zhenan Bao and Alán Aspuru-Guzik.
Issue 2 contains a number of excellent Analysis, Review and Perspective articles:
Energy demand and emissions of the non-energy sector
Vassilis Daioglou, Andre P. C. Faaij, Deger Saygin, Martin K. Patel, Birka Wicke and Detlef P. van Vuuren
Lithium metal anodes for rechargeable batteries
Wu Xu, Jiulin Wang, Fei Ding, Xilin Chen, Eduard Nasybulin, Yaohui Zhang and Ji-Guang Zhang
Recent progress on flexible lithium rechargeable batteries
Hyeokjo Gwon, Jihyun Hong, Haegyeom Kim, Dong-Hwa Seo, Seokwoo Jeon and Kisuk Kang
Enhancing SOFC cathode performance by surface modification through infiltration
Dong Ding, Xiaxi Li, Samson Yuxiu Lai, Kirk Gerdes and Meilin Liu
Heterogeneous nanocarbon materials for oxygen reduction reaction
Da-Wei Wang and Dangsheng Su
Directing the film structure of organic semiconductors via post-deposition processing for transistor and solar cell applications
Anna M. Hiszpanski and Yueh-Lin Loo
Efficient recovery justifies silver’s use in solar cells – EES article in Chemistry World
04 Feb 2014
Silver is a scarce raw material but the first real scale study of recycling polymer solar cells reveals that its use can be sustainable.
Putting up huge nubers of solar panels every day could help address the world’s energy crisis. ‘If you want to solve big problems, then the scale of whatever you are doing is also likely to be big, and so is any waste you generate,’ explains Frederik Krebs who led the study at the Technical University of Denmark. ‘This should therefore be part of your thinking when you are developing something.’
Silver is needed for solar cell electrodes but it is also a precious metal, cutting into both the cost of production and energy payback time of mass-produced solar cells. Now, Krebs’ team has demonstrated that 95% of the silver electrodes in polymer solar cell modules can be reclaimed as silver chloride after simply shredding the modules and soaking them in nitric acid. This yield would diminish the overall energy payback time of the solar cells from 139 days to 128 days, a decrease of 8%.
Interested to know more? Read the full news article by Jennifer Newton on Chemistry World here…
Read the article by R R Søndergaard et al. in EES:
Efficient decommissioning and recycling of polymer solar cells: justification for use of silver
Roar R. Søndergaard, Nieves Espinosa, Mikkel Jørgensen and Frederik C. Krebs
Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43746A, Communication
This week’s HOT article
04 Feb 2014
Take a look at this week’s selection! This article is available free for a limited time:
Light harvesting vesicular donor–acceptor scaffold limits the rate of charge recombination in the presence of an electron donor
Rijo T. Cheriya, Ajith R. Mallia and Mahesh Hariharan
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43293A, Paper
This week’s HOT articles
27 Jan 2014
Take a look at this week’s selection! These articles are available free for a limited time:
Efficient decommissioning and recycling of polymer solar cells: justification for use of silver
Roar R. Søndergaard, Nieves Espinosa, Mikkel Jørgensen and Frederik C. Krebs
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43746A, Communication
Large scale deployment of polymer solar cells on land, on sea and in the air
Nieves Espinosa, Markus Hösel, Mikkel Jørgensen and Frederik C. Krebs
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43212B, Analysis
Towards sustainable wastewater treatment by using microbial fuel cells-centered technologies
Wen-Wei Li, Han-Qing Yu and Zhen He
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43106A, Perspective
Visible light driven photocatalysis mediated via ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT): an alternative approach to solar activation of titania
Guan Zhang, Gonu Kim and Wonyong Choi
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43147A, Minireview
From lab to fab: how must the polymer solar cell materials design change? – an industrial perspective
Riccardo Po, Andrea Bernardi, Anna Calabrese, Chiara Carbonera, Gianni Corso and Andrea Pellegrino
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43460E, Perspective
Poster prize winners at SPACECS, Brazil
23 Jan 2014
The São Paulo School of Advanced Sciences on Electrochemistry, Energy Conversion and Storage took place between 7th-14th December last year at the Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo. A special edition of the institute’s annual School of Electrochemistry, this eight day course combined intensive theoretical and lab-based electrochemistry workshops with conferences on lithium-ion batteries, lithium-air batteries, fuel cells and electrochemical capacitors.
The school was attended by particpants from all over the world, and invited speakers included Edson Ticianelli (IQSC-USP), Bryan McCloskey (IBM Research), Jean-Marie Tarascon (University of Picardie), Peter Hall (University of Sheffield) and Phil Bartlett (University of Southampton).
Congratulations to Angel Topalov and Leonardo Vieira da Silva, who were awarded Energy and Environmental Science poster prizes at the student poster session!
Angel Toparov with invited speaker Prof. Bartlett
Leonardo Vieira da Silva with Prof. Bartlett
Readers with an interest in electrochemistry might want to take a look at these Energy and Environmental Science articles…
Electrical energy storage for transportation—approaching the limits of, and going beyond, lithium-ion batteries
Michael M. Thackeray, Christopher Wolverton and Eric D. Isaacs
Energy Environ. Sci., 2012, 5, 7854-7863 DOI: 10.1039/C2EE21892E
Electrochemical energy storage in a sustainable modern society
John B. Goodenough
Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, 7, 14-18 DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42613K
Heterogeneous nanocarbon materials for oxygen reduction reaction
Da-Wei Wang and Dangsheng Su
Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, 7, 576-591 DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43463J
Human hair-derived carbon flakes for electrochemical supercapacitors
Wenjing Qian, Fengxia Sun, Yanhui Xu, Lihua Qiu, Changhai Liu, Suidong Wang and Feng Yan
Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, 7, 379-386 DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43111H
… and the following web collection
This week’s HOT article
20 Jan 2014
Take a look at this week’s selection! This article is available free for a limited time:
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
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43822H, Communication
Multi-shelled hematite microspheres: high-performance anode materials for the Li-ion battery
16 Jan 2014
Researchers from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, China, have developed a novel technique for the fabrication of multi-shelled α-Fe2O3 microspheres. The spheres, when tested as anode materials for Li-ion batteries (LIB), give ultra-high specific capacity values of up to 1702 mAhg-1, which is about 5 times higher than that of graphite (372 mAhg-1) – the currently employed material for LIB anodes.
The performance of the current generation of LIBs is fundamentally limited by the properties of their material components. The charge stored per gram, or specific capacity, of the anode is one such limiting factor; with graphite restricted to a maximum capacity of 372 mAhg-1. Numerous other materials are capable of exceeding this value, however they typically suffer from poor rechargeability (or cycle stability) owing to the fact they expand/contract considerably upon charge/discharge cycling – which causes the electrodes to crumble.
One such material is α-Fe2O3, or hematite, which, as well as being low-cost, abundant and non-toxic, has a high theoretical capacity of 1000 mAhg-1, however it suffers from a destructive volume change of about 90 % upon cycling. A group led by Dan Wang has managed to overcome this problem by preparing α-Fe2O3 as hollow, thin-shelled, concentric microspheres, which are capable of buffering the mechanical stresses upon cycling and therefore prevent crumbling.
In their paper, they reported stable reversible capacities as high as 1702 mAhg-1, which is record-breaking performance for additive-free α-Fe2O3 – and even beats the maximum theoretical capacity of 1000 mAhg-1. What’s more, the materials also display excellent high-current performance; maintaining a high capacity of about 1100 mAhg-1 at a current rate of 1 Ag-1. The authors attributed this excellent performance to the novel concentric shell structure of the hollow microspheres, which is capable of buffering mechanical stresses whilst providing a high surface area for rapid Li-ion transfer kinetics.
So could Dan Wong’s α-Fe2O3 spheres the next big thing for Li-ion batteries? He-matite just be on to something…
Interested? Read the full article here:
Simeng Xu, Colin M. Hessel, Hao Ren, Ranbo Yu, Quan Jin, Mei Yang, Huijun Zhao and Dan Wang
Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43319F
Faraday Discussion 176: Next-Generation Materials for Energy Chemistry – Oral abstract deadline 3rd February!
16 Jan 2014
The deadline for submitting oral abstracts for Next Generation Materials for Energy Chemistry – Faraday Discussion 176 is approaching fast! Taking place in Xiamen, China from 27-29th October 2014, the meeting will include the following topics:
- Optimized design of energy materials using system integration from atomic, molecular, nano to meso scale
- Design of material systems to optimize the energy enrichment of renewable sources
- How interfacial chemistry takes place in energy-related processes
- New materials and innovations for energy applications
Submit your abstract by 3rd February 2014 for the opportunity to take an active part in the first Faraday Discussion meeting to take place in Asia, and to present your work alongside a host of distinguished speakers.
To mark this meeting, we have made the following articles free to access* for a limited period. These are some of the articles relating to next-generation energy materials that have recently been published in Energy & Environmental Science and Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
Recent advances in solution-processed interfacial materials for efficient and stable polymer solar cells
Hin-Lap Yip and Alex K.-Y. Jen
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE02806A
Chemical transformations of nanomaterials for energy applications
M. Fayette and R. D. Robinson
DOI: 10.1039/C3TA13982D
Liquid-phase chemical hydrogen storage materials
Mahendra Yadav and Qiang Xu
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE22937D
3D carbon based nanostructures for advanced supercapacitors
Hao Jiang, Pooi See Lee and Chunzhong Li
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE23284G
Ti-based compounds as anode materials for Li-based batteries
Guan-Nan Zhu, Yong-Gang Wang and Yong-Yao Xia
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE03410G
Graphene quantum dots: an emerging material for energy-related applications and beyond
Zhipan Zhang, Jing Zhang, Nan Chen and Liangti Qu
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE22982J
Conjugated donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymers in inverted organic solar cells – a combined experimental and modelling study
Venla Manninen, Mika Niskanen, Terttu I. Hukka, Felix Pasker, Simon Claus, Sigurd Höger, Jinseok Baek, Tomokazu Umeyama, Hiroshi Imahori and Helge Lemmetyinen
DOI: 10.1039/C3TA10686A
We hope you enjoy the free content and that you can make it to Next Generation Materials for Energy Chemistry – Faraday Discussion 176!
*Free access to individuals is provided through a RSC Publishing personal account. Registration is quick, free and simple.
This week’s HOT articles
13 Jan 2014
Take a look at this week’s selection! These articles are available free for a limited time:
Photoelectrochemistry of core–shell tandem junction n–p+-Si/n-WO3 microwire array photoelectrodes
Matthew R. Shaner, Katherine T. Fountaine, Shane Ardo, Rob H. Coridan, Harry A. Atwater and Nathan S. Lewis
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43048K, Paper
Graphene oxide derivatives as hole- and electron-extraction layers for high-performance polymer solar cells
Jun Liu, Michael Durstock and Liming Dai
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42963F, Review Article
α-Fe2O3 multi-shelled hollow microspheres for lithium ion battery anodes with superior capacity and charge retention
Simeng Xu, Colin M. Hessel, Hao Ren, Ranbo Yu, Quan Jin, Mei Yang, Huijun Zhao and Dan Wang
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43319F, Communication
Ultra-long anatase TiO2 nanowire arrays with multi-layered configuration on FTO glass for high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells
Wu-Qiang Wu, Yang-Fan Xu, Cheng-Yong Su and Dai-Bin Kuang
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42167H, Communication
Energy demand and emissions of the non-energy sector
Vassilis Daioglou, Andre P. C. Faaij, Deger Saygin, Martin K. Patel, Birka Wicke and Detlef P. van Vuuren
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42667J, Analysis
π-Extended low bandgap polymer based on isoindigo and thienylvinylene for high performance polymer solar cells
Eui Hyuk Jung and Won Ho Jo
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42297F, Communication
High performance silicon-based anodes in solid-state lithium batteries
Rinlee B. Cervera, Naoki Suzuki, Tsuyoshi Ohnishi, Minoru Osada, Kazutaka Mitsuishi, Takayoshi Kambara and Kazunori Takada
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43306D, Communication
Metal–organic frameworks as solid magnesium electrolytes
M. L. Aubrey, R. Ameloot, B. M. Wiers and J. R. Long
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43143F, Communication
Enhancing SOFC cathode performance by surface modification through infiltration
Dong Ding, Xiaxi Li, Samson Yuxiu Lai, Kirk Gerdes and Meilin Liu
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42926A, Review Article
Towards optimisation of photocurrent from fullerene excitons in organic solar cells
Stoichko D. Dimitrov, Zhenggang Huang, Florent Deledalle, Christian B. Nielsen, Bob C. Schroeder, Raja Shahid Ashraf, Safa Shoaee, Iain McCulloch and James R. Durrant
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42607F, Paper
Self-supported Li4Ti5O12 nanosheet arrays for lithium ion batteries with excellent rate capability and ultralong cycle life
Shuai Chen, Yuelong Xin, Yiyang Zhou, Yurong Ma, Henghui Zhou and Limin Qi
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42646G, Paper