Sustainable Energy & Fuels Emerging Investigators Series

A collection highlighting the rising stars of energy research

Sustainable Energy & Fuels is proud to present our Emerging Investigators Series, highlighting the very best work from researchers in the early stages of their independent careers. The collection showcases research from early career energy scientists who are working to make energy technologies more sustainable, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 and the scope of Sustainable Energy & Fuels. Many congratulations to all the featured researchers on their important work so far in the field!

Read the collection

We hope you enjoy reading these articles. The collection is ongoing so if you meet our requirements and would like to contribute, please do get in touch.

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Themed collection on Hybrid, Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics Stability is open for submissions

Our themed collection highlighting Hybrid, Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics Stability is guest edited by Profs. Francesca Brunetti, Vida Engmann, Morten Madsen and David M. Tanenbaum.

This collection will showcase recent progress and challenges in the field of stability for hybrid, organic and perovskite photovoltaics. The scope of the collection is broad, and we welcome all submissions on photovoltaics stability which provide insights regarding future directions towards more stable and sustainable technologies. All manuscripts must also fall within the scope of the journal and meet the journal’s usual quality criteria as outlined on our webpage.

For more information on the collection, which closes for submissions on the 1st July 2023, see our open call for papers.

All articles included in the collection will be made free to access for one month after publication and benefit from promotion via our social media channels.

When you publish with Sustainable Energy & Fuels, you can:

  • Put your trust in both our rigorous peer review process and fast times to publication – with a medium time to first decision for peer reviewed manuscripts of 28 days
  • Benefit from Open Access publishing options
  • Be confident of the global energy audience for your work when publishing in the RSC’s energy journal family which includes Energy & Environmental Science and EES Catalysis.

Article publication online and in issues will occur without delay to ensure the timely dissemination of the work. The articles will then be assembled on the RSC Publishing platform and promoted as a web-based thematic collection, to permit readers to consult and download individual contributions from the entire series.

If you’re interested, submit your research today, mentioning that the work is a contribution to the Hybrid, Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics Stability collection when submitting your manuscript.

 

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Introducing our newest Advisory Board members

We are delighted to welcome nine new members to the Sustainable Energy & Fuels Advisory Board!

Introducing Dr Jessica Allen, (University of Newcastle, Australia), Dr Susan Habas (NREL, USA), Dr Lieve Laurens (NREL, USA), Prof. Annamma Anil Odaneth (ICT Mumbai, India), Dr Jude Onwudili (Aston University, UK), Prof. Martin Oschatz (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany), Dr Wendy Shaw (PNNL, USA), Prof. Adalgisa Sinicropi, (University of Siena, Italy) and Prof. Yan Yao, (University of Houston, USA) our latest Advisory Board members.

The Sustainable Energy & Fuels 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/energy-fuels and find out a bit more about our newest Advisory Board members below, alongside examples of their research.

Pictured left to right: Dr Jessica Allen, Dr Susan Habas, Dr Lieve Laurens, Prof. Annamma Anil Odaneth and Dr Jude Onwudili. 

 

Pictured left to right: Prof. Martin Oschatz, Dr Wendy Shaw, Prof. Adalgisa Sinicropi, and Prof. Yan Yao

 

Dr Jessica Allen, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, Australia, combines expertise in electrochemistry and engineering with interests spanning low emission energy technologies as well as renewable energy, carbon capture and utilisation and energy storage (both thermal and electrochemical).

Read some of Jessica’s work in Sustainable Energy & Fuels: The impact of carbonate salts on char formation and gas evolution during the slow pyrolysis of biomass, cellulose, and lignin

Dr Susan Habas, Senior Scientist in the Catalytic Carbon Transformation and Scale-up Center at NREL, works in nanoscience and materials chemistry, looking at the design, synthesis, and characterization of nanostructured catalysts, surface chemistry for selective chemical transformations, scalable methods for solution-phase nanomaterials synthesis and the production of premium fuels and chemicals from biomass.

Read some of Susan’s work: An investigation into support cooperativity for the deoxygenation of guaiacol over nanoparticle Ni and Rh2P

Dr Lieve Laurens is a group leader and senior scientist at NREL, researching bioenergy-relevant biomass. In particular, she works in algal biomass, with a focus on analytical biochemistry, biomass composition, conversion and valorization.

Read some of Lieve’s work in Sustainable Energy & Fuels: Bioproducts from high-protein algal biomass: an economic and environmental sustainability review and risk analysis

Prof. Annamma Anil Odaneth works at the Center of Energy Biosciences at ICT Mumbai. Her research looks at product development through biocatalytic processes, and biocatalysts for valorisation of wastes and processed wastes.

Dr Jude Onwudili leads a Sustainable Chemicals laboratory at Aston University. His work touches upon hydrothermal processing of biomass and organic wastes; catalysis & applied catalysis for fuel & chemicals; thermochemical (pyrolysis, liquefaction and gasification ) conversion of biomass, algae and plastic waste and more.

Read some of Jude’s work: Catalytic depolymerization of alkali lignin in subcritical water: influence of formic acid and Pd/C catalyst on the yields of liquid monomeric aromatic products

Prof. Martin Oschatz of Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany, researches the chemistry of materials for energy applications. His group works across porous materials and interfacial phenomena, electrochemical energy storage and electrocatalysis.

Read some of Martin’s work in Sustainable Energy & Fuels: Controlling the strength of interaction between carbon dioxide and nitrogen-rich carbon materials by molecular design

Dr Wendy Shaw, Chief Science and Technology Officer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA, designs catalysts for renewable energy which mimic features of enzymes.

Read some of Wendy’s work in Sustainable Energy & Fuels: Chicken fat for catalysis: a scaffold is as important for molecular complexes for energy transformations as it is for enzymes in catalytic function

Prof. Adalgisa Sinicropi, University of Siena, is a computational chemist focused on the design and characterization by means of computational methods and life cycle analysis of innovative materials for the production of new generation photovoltaics characterized by high efficiency, stability and with high environmental added value.

Read some of Adalgisa’s work in Sustainable Energy & Fuels: D–A–π–A organic dyes with tailored green light absorption for potential application in greenhouse-integrated dye-sensitized solar cells

Prof. Yan Yao at the University of Houston, works on the design and synthesis of materials and architectures to address new challenges arising in the applications of energy storage and conversion. Their group studies a broad range of materials including two-dimensional materials, inorganic nanostructures, organic crystals, polymers, and organic/inorganic hybrid materials.

Read some of Yan’s work: Benchmarks of the density functional tight-binding method for redox, protonation and electronic properties of quinones

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

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Announcing new Associate Editor: Carsten Streb

We are delighted to announce that Professor Carsten Streb has joined the Sustainable Energy & Fuels Editorial Board as an Associate Editor.

Carsten Streb is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Ulm University and Group Leader at Helmholtz Institute Ulm as well as management board member of the Collaborative Research Center TRR 234 CataLight. He received his undergraduate degree from TU Kaiserslautern, undertook a PhD at the University of Glasgow before starting his independent career at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuernberg. Carsten is an inorganic supramolecular chemist with a broad interest in materials design for energy conversion and storage. His research is focused on developing chemical solutions to urgent global challenges. In this context, his group designs technologically relevant materials for solar energy conversion, (photo-)electrocatalysis and battery materials.

Read his recent work in Sustainable Energy & Fuels:

Polymeric carbon nitride coupled with a molecular thiomolybdate catalyst: exciton and charge dynamics in light-driven hydrogen evolution
Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2020,4, 6085-6095

Organic linkage controls the photophysical properties of covalent photosensitizer–polyoxometalate hydrogen evolution dyads
Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2020,4, 4688-4693

 

 

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Sustainable Energy & Fuels Editorial Board members recognized as 2021 Highly Cited Researchers

Sustainable Energy & Fuels Editorial Board members David Mitlin and Xinchen Wang have been recognized as 2021 ClarivateTM Highly Cited Researchers.

David Mitlin

Dr David Mitlin is a David Allen Cockrell Endowed Professor at the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to that, he was a Professor and General Electric Chair at Clarkson University, and an Assistant, Associate and full Professor at the University of Alberta. Dr. Mitlin has published about 150 peer-reviewed journal articles on various aspects of energy storage and conversion materials. This work is cited at near 2000 times per year. Dr. Mitlin holds 5 granted U.S. patents and 9 more pending full applications, with all of them licensed currently or in the past. He has presented 125 invited, keynote and plenary talks at various international conferences. Dr. Mitlin is an Associate Editor for Sustainable Energy and Fuels, a Royal Society of Chemistry Journal focused on renewables. Dave received a Doctorate in Materials Science from U.C. Berkeley in 2000, M.S. from Penn State in 1996, and B.S. from RPI in 1995. He grew up in upstate NY and in southern CT.

Read his recent research:

Selenium infiltrated hierarchical hollow carbon spheres display rapid kinetics and extended cycling as lithium metal battery (LMB) cathodes

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2021,9, 18582-18593

https://doi.org/10.1039/D1TA04705A

Lithium-activated SnS–graphene alternating nanolayers enable dendrite-free cycling of thin sodium metal anodes in carbonate electrolyte

Energy Environ. Sci., 2021,14, 382-395

https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EE02423F

 

Xinchen Wang

Professor Xinchen Wang obtained his BSc and MSc at Fuzhou University and acquired his PhD at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.  He began his Professorship at Fuzhou University at 2005 and in 2006 moved to The University of Tokyo as a JSPS Postdoctoral fellow. Professor Wang later attended the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow, where he held the role of group leader between 2008 and 2012. He is currently the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment and the Dean of the College of Chemistry at Fuzhou University, China. Professor Wang has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers in the fields of catalysis and photocatalysis.

 

Read his recent research:

H2 and CH4 production from bio-alcohols using condensed poly(heptazine imide) with visible light

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2021, Advance Article

https://doi.org/10.1039/D1TA08578F

Boron carbonitride photocatalysts for direct decarboxylation: the construction of C(sp3)–N or C(sp3)–C(sp2) bonds with visible light

Green Chem., 2021,23, 3945-3949

https://doi.org/10.1039/D1GC00922B

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Sustainable Energy & Fuels are supporting HOPE-PV 2021

Sustainable Energy & Fuels are glad to support the 3rd International School on Hybrid, Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics, taking place in Chernogolovka, Russia and online from 22nd – 25th November 2021.

Register before the 20th November deadline

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International Solar Fuels Conference 2021

We are delighted to support the International Solar Fuels conference 2021, organized by the Royal Society of Chemistry in conjunction with the University of Grenoble and Uppsala University. This conference will take place online from the 26th – 29th July 2021.

The main conference will be preceded by the Young conference, which aims to give as many young researchers as possible the opportunity to present. This will also include keynote talks from mentoring experts, and careers advice from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The programme will explore all aspects of direct solar fuel production, combining biological, molecular and solid state approaches. The main themes include:

  • Multi-electron/multi-proton catalysis (homogeneous, heterogeneous, enzymatic and bioinspired processes)
  • Light-harvesting and light-driven processes
  • Photoelectrochemistry
  • Photobiological approaches
  • Metabolic engineering
  • Devices and demonstration: robustness, sustainability and upscale

Submit your oral abstract to the mainconference or the Young conference before 06 April 2021

Submit your poster abstract to the main conference or the Young conference by 7 June 2021

Find out more and register here

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Announcing the new Editor-in-Chief of Sustainable Energy & Fuels – Garry Rumbles

Announcing Garry Rumbles as Sustainable Energy & Fuels Editor-in-ChiefGarry Rumbles is a Senior Research Fellow in the Chemistry and Nanoscience Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and an adjoint Professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder. More widely, he is the Associate Director for Research in the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), a joint energy institute between NREL and the University, and holds a visiting Professorial Chair at Imperial College, London. Garry is a photochemist and physical chemist whose research focusses on the harvesting of solar energy for the production of electricity, fuels and chemicals in molecular and polymeric systems.

“With a view to increasing the diversity of editors, contributors, advisory board, and readers, I’m excited to work to further build the reputation of Sustainable Energy & Fuels in the energy and chemistry space” – Garry Rumbles

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our previous, and founding, Editor-in-Chief, Professor James Durrant, for his service to the journal. James says: “As Editor-in-Chief I am proud to have overseen the establishment and growth of Sustainable Energy & Fuels since its launch four years ago and am delighted that Garry Rumbles is now taking over the role. I very much look forward to seeing the journal develop further under his excellent leadership.”

Garry has selected some of his favourite research from the past year to share with you. Read these papers now for free until the end of March 2021:

Sustainable Energy & FuelsInterfacial analysis of a PEM electrolyzer using X-ray computed tomography
Emily Leonard, Andrew D. Shum, Nemanja Danilovic, Christopher Capuano, Katherine E. Ayers, Lalit M. Pant, Adam Z. Weber, Xianghui Xiao, Dilworth Y. Parkinson and Iryna V. Zenyuk*

How one-photon can induce water splitting into hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen by aluminum porphyrins. Rationale of the thermodynamics
Fazalurahman Kuttassery, Siby Mathew, Hiroshi Tachibanaa and Haruo Inoue*

Determining the sequence and backbone structure of “semi-statistical” copolymers as donor–acceptor polymers in organic solar cells
Samuel S. Lawton, Daniel Warr, Luís M. A. Perdigão, Yujing Chang, Agnieszka Pron, Giovanni Costantini ORCID and David M. Haddleton*

Effect of synthesis pH and EDTA on iron hexacyanoferrate for sodium-ion batteries
Zachary G. Neale, Chaofeng Liu and Guozhong Cao*

Recent advances of nonprecious and bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting
Xiao Shang, Jian-Hong Tang, Bin Dong* and Yujie Sun*

From non-innocent to guilty: on the role of redox-active ligands in the electro-assisted reduction of CO2 mediated by a cobalt(ii)-polypyridyl complex
N. Queyriaux,* K. Abel, J. Fize, J. Pécaut, M. Orio* and L. Hammarström*

Theoretical insights into the factors affecting the electrochemical reduction of CO2
Azeem Mustafa, Bachirou Guene Lougou,* Yong Shuai,* Zhijiang Wang, Samia Razzaq, Jiupeng Zhao and  Heping Tana

Mechanisms of photoredox catalysts: the role of optical spectroscopy
Noufal Kandoth,* Javier Pérez Hernández, Emilio Palomares and Julio Lloret-Fillol*

We hope that you enjoy reading these papers, and please join us in welcoming Garry as he leads Sustainable Energy & Fuels to continued success.

Submit to SEF

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New Themed Issue – Organic Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage

We are delighted to highlight the latest Sustainable Energy & Fuels themed issue on Organic Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage.

Guest Edited by Emilio Palomares (ICIQ and ICREA) and Juan Luis Delgado (Ikerbasque and Polymat), this issue showcases studies on the recent progress and challenges in the field of organic, inorganic and hybrid materials for energy conversion. This includes advances in photovoltaics, solar to fuels conversion, and catalysis for sustainable energy applications. You can read our Editorial introducing this issue here.

In addition to the Open Access articles in this issue, all articles are free to access until 28th February.

Below is a small selection of some of the articles featured in the issue:

A low temperature aqueous formate fuel cell using cobalt hexacyanoferrate as a non-noble metal oxidation catalyst

Lijuan Han, Jesús González-Cobos, Irene Sánchez-Molina, Stefano Giancola, Scott J. Folkman, S. Giménez, A. Vidal-Ferran and José Ramón Galán-Mascarós*

Proton trap effect on catechol–pyridine redox polymer nanoparticles as organic electrodes for lithium batteries

Antonela Gallastegui, Daniela Minudri, Nerea Casado, Nicolas Goujon, Fernando Ruipérez, Nagaraj Patil, Christophe Detrembleur, Rebeca Marcilla and David Mecerreyes*

Benzothiadiazole-based photosensitizers for efficient and stable dye-sensitized solar cells and 8.7% efficiency semi-transparent mini-modules

Maxime Godfroy, Johan Liotier, Valid M. Mwalukuku, Damien Joly, Quentin Huaulmé, Lydia Cabau, Cyril Aumaitre, Yann Kervella, Stéphanie Narbey, Frédéric Oswald, Emilio Palomares, Carlos A. González Flores, Gerko Oskam and  Renaud Demadrille*

The Effect of bulky electron-donating thioether substituents on the performances of Phthalocyanine based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Mine Ince*, Ren Kuboi, Tuncay Ince, Kuon Yoshimura, Daiki Motoyoshi, Masahiro Sonobe, Ryota Kudo, Shogo Mori*, Mutsumi Kimura* and Tomás Torres*

Molecularly engineered thienyl-triphenylamine substituted zinc phthalocyanine as dopant free hole transporting materials in perovskite solar cells

Peng Huang, Adrián Hernández, Samrana Kazim, Javier Ortiz, Ángela Sastre-Santos* and Shahzada Ahmad*

Mechanisms of photoredox catalysts: the role of optical spectroscopy

Noufal Kandoth*,   Javier Pérez Hernández, Emilio Palomares and Julio Lloret-Fillol*

 

We hope that you enjoy reading the great research featured in this issue!Emilio Palomares and Juan Luis Delgado

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HOPE-PV20 – Sustainable Energy & Fuels Prize Winners

Sustainable Energy & Fuels (SEF) was delighted to sponsor prizes at the nanoGe 2nd School on Hybrid, Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics (HOPE-PV20), which took place online from the 3rd – 5th November 2020.

The SEF Best Oral Presentation Prize was awarded to Aleksandra Boldyreva (Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology) for her presentation on ‘Exploring the radiation stability of perovskite solar cells’.

The SEF ePoster prize was awarded to Maria Mikheeva (D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia) for her work on ‘Effect of Partial Pb2+ Substitution with Ca2+ on the Stability and Photovoltaic Performance of All-inorganic CsPbI3 Perovskite’.

Congratulations, Aleksandra and Maria!

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