Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-07-16DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01817-6
Cheng Liu, Yi Yang, Jared D. Fletcher, Ao Liu, Isaiah W. Gilley, Charles Bruce Musgrave III, Zaiwei Wang, Huihui Zhu, Hao Chen, Robert P. Reynolds, Bin Ding, Yong Ding, Xianfu Zhang, Raminta Skackauskaite, Haoyue Wan, Lewei Zeng, Abdulaziz S. R. Bati, Naoyuki Shibayama, Vytautas Getautis, Bin Chen, Kasparas Rakstys, Paul J. Dyson, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, Edward H. Sargent, Mohammad K. Nazeeruddin
{"title":"Cation interdiffusion control for 2D/3D heterostructure formation and stabilization in inorganic perovskite solar modules","authors":"Cheng Liu, Yi Yang, Jared D. Fletcher, Ao Liu, Isaiah W. Gilley, Charles Bruce Musgrave III, Zaiwei Wang, Huihui Zhu, Hao Chen, Robert P. Reynolds, Bin Ding, Yong Ding, Xianfu Zhang, Raminta Skackauskaite, Haoyue Wan, Lewei Zeng, Abdulaziz S. R. Bati, Naoyuki Shibayama, Vytautas Getautis, Bin Chen, Kasparas Rakstys, Paul J. Dyson, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, Edward H. Sargent, Mohammad K. Nazeeruddin","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01817-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01817-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Inorganic perovskite solar cells could benefit from surface passivation using 2D/3D perovskite heterostructures. However, conventional spacer cations fail to exchange with the tightly bonded Cs cation in the inorganic perovskite to form 2D layers atop; or, when they do enable formation of a 2D layer, they migrate under heat, degrading device performance. Here we investigate the mechanisms behind 2D/3D heterostructure formation and stabilization. We find that 2D/3D heterostructure formation is driven by interactions between ammonium groups and [PbI<sub>6</sub>]<sup>4−</sup> octahedra. We thus incorporate electron-withdrawing fluorine to enhance inorganic–organic cation interdiffusion and promote heterostructure formation. We note that stability relies on interactions between the entire spacer cations and [PbI<sub>6</sub>]<sup>4−</sup> octahedra. We therefore introduce anchoring groups that double cation desorption energies, preventing cation migration at elevated temperatures. CsPbI<sub>3</sub>/(perfluoro-1,4-phenylene)dimethanammonium lead iodide heterostructures enable an efficiency of 21.6% and a maximum power point operating stability at 85 °C of 950 h. We demonstrate 16-cm<sup>2</sup> modules with an efficiency of 19.8%.</p>","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144639948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-07-16DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01812-x
Darcy Simondson, Marc F. Tesch, Ioannis Spanos, Travis E. Jones, Jining Guo, Brittany V. Kerr, Manjunath Chatti, Shannon A. Bonke, Ronny Golnak, Bernt Johannessen, Jie Xiao, Douglas R. MacFarlane, Rosalie K. Hocking, Alexandr N. Simonov
{"title":"Decoupling the catalytic and degradation mechanisms of cobalt active sites during acidic water oxidation","authors":"Darcy Simondson, Marc F. Tesch, Ioannis Spanos, Travis E. Jones, Jining Guo, Brittany V. Kerr, Manjunath Chatti, Shannon A. Bonke, Ronny Golnak, Bernt Johannessen, Jie Xiao, Douglas R. MacFarlane, Rosalie K. Hocking, Alexandr N. Simonov","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01812-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01812-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Advancement of iridium-free catalysts for the low-pH oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is required to enable multi-gigawatt-scale proton-exchange water electrolysis. Cobalt-based materials might address this requirement, but little is known about the mechanism of operation of these OER catalysts at low pH. Here we investigate the nature and evolution of the active cobalt sites along with charge- and mass-transfer processes that support their catalytic function within a cobalt–iron–lead oxide material using in situ spectroscopic, gravimetric and electrochemical techniques. We demonstrate that corrosion of the cobalt sites and their reformation through electrooxidation of dissolved Co<sup>2+</sup> do not affect the catalytic mechanism and are decoupled from the OER. The OER-coupled charge transfer is supported by Co<sup>(3+δ)+</sup>-oxo-species, which are structurally different from those reported for alkaline/near-neutral conditions and are formed on a relatively slow timescale of minutes. These mechanistic insights might assist in developing genuinely practical catalysts for this vital technology.</p>","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"666 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144639939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-07-14DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01804-x
Hongbin Xu, Yang Jeong Park, Zhichu Ren, Daniel J. Zheng, Davide Menga, Haojun Jia, Chenru Duan, Guanzhou Zhu, Yuriy Román-Leshkov, Yang Shao-Horn, Ju Li
{"title":"An actor–critic algorithm to maximize the power delivered from direct methanol fuel cells","authors":"Hongbin Xu, Yang Jeong Park, Zhichu Ren, Daniel J. Zheng, Davide Menga, Haojun Jia, Chenru Duan, Guanzhou Zhu, Yuriy Román-Leshkov, Yang Shao-Horn, Ju Li","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01804-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01804-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Optimizing nonlinear time-dependent control in complex energy systems such as direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) is a crucial engineering challenge. The long-term power delivery of DMFCs deteriorates as the electrocatalytic surfaces become fouled. Dynamic voltage adjustment can clean the surface and recover the activity of catalysts; however, manually identifying optimal control strategies considering multiple mechanisms is challenging. Here we demonstrated a nonlinear policy model (Alpha-Fuel-Cell) inspired by actor–critic reinforcement learning, which learns directly from real-world current–time trajectories to infer the state of catalysts during operation and generates a suitable action for the next timestep automatically. Moreover, the model can provide protocols to achieve the required power while significantly slowing the degradation of catalysts. Benefiting from this model, the time-averaged power delivered is 153% compared to constant potential operation for DMFCs over 12 hours. Our framework may be generalized to other energy device applications requiring long-time-horizon decision-making in the real world.</p>","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144622300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-07-14DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01805-w
{"title":"Leveraging AI to enhance performance in direct methanol fuel cells","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01805-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01805-w","url":null,"abstract":"A method inspired by actor–critic reinforcement learning — Alpha-Fuel-Cell — has been developed to control and maximize the mean output electrical power of direct methanol fuel cells. This model monitors fuel cell states in real time and autonomously selects optimal actions to increase the efficiency and catalyst longevity.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144622343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-07-10DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01813-w
Jingwen Weng, Andreas Jossen, Anna Stefanopoulou, Ju Li, Xuning Feng, Gregory Offer
{"title":"Fast-charging lithium-ion batteries require a systems engineering approach","authors":"Jingwen Weng, Andreas Jossen, Anna Stefanopoulou, Ju Li, Xuning Feng, Gregory Offer","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01813-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01813-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Fast charging has emerged as a key enabler for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles and portable electronics<sup>1</sup>. However, achieving fast charging without compromising battery lifespan, safety, or energy density remains a complex challenge<sup>2</sup>. At the core of this difficulty is the inherently multi-scale, multi-physics nature of battery behaviour, which spans materials<sup>3</sup>, electrochemical kinetics<sup>4</sup>, thermal management<sup>5</sup>, and mechanical stability. A battery is inherently an active, non-equilibrium device, meaning that heterogeneity is an inevitable and even necessary consequence of its normal operation. Yet, these same heterogeneities can cause significant problems if they become too severe, either causing reductions in performance, shortened cycle life, or resulting in dangerous failure modes. In dealing with these, adopting a holistic systems engineering approach becomes necessary for advancing battery design.</p><p>Battery research is often conducted through a reductionist lens, with individual disciplines focusing on isolated components — most notably through a materials-centric approach aimed at maximizing local performance. However, a narrowly scoped optimization frequently overlooks critical system-level interactions and constraints. As a result, solutions that perform exceptionally well in controlled environments may offer limited value at the cell, module, or pack level — especially under demanding conditions such as fast charging. While industry tends to adopt a more product-oriented approach, aiming to deliver integrated solutions that balance performance, cost, and safety, this integration also has limitations. Departmental silos exist even in industry, and the few integrated industrial tools and models remain proprietary and inaccessible to the broader research community because they are considered extremely valuable. We believe that both academia and industry can accelerate battery development by breaking down disciplinary boundaries, sharing more openly, and embracing a systems engineering approach that aims to balance the different heterogeneities that emerge during operation.</p>","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144594071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A catalytic cycle that enables crude hydrogen separation, storage and transportation","authors":"Yue Chen, Xiao Kong, Chengsheng Yang, Yuhe Liao, Ge Gao, Rui Ma, Mi Peng, Weipeng Shao, Heng Zheng, Hui Zhang, Xin Pan, Fan Yang, Yulei Zhu, Zhi Liu, Yong Cao, Ding Ma, Xinhe Bao, Yifeng Zhu","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01806-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01806-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Industrially, hydrogen production often relies on carbon-based resources, necessitating the separation of hydrogen from impurities such as CO, CO<sub>2</sub>, hydrocarbons and N<sub>2</sub>. Traditional purification methods involve complicated and energy-intensive sequential conversion and removal of these impurities. Here we introduce a reversible catalytic cycle based on the interconversion between γ-butyrolactone and 1,4-butanediol over an inverse Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>/Cu catalyst, enabling efficient hydrogen separation and storage from crude hydrogen feeds. This process could transform crude hydrogen feeds containing over 50% impurities into pure hydrogen at low temperature. The low impurity affinity and high dispersion of inverse Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>/Cu facilitate catalytic crude and waste hydrogen separations previously considered unachievable. This approach avoids the need for expensive pressure swing adsorption or membrane systems in liquid organic hydrogen carriers, showing great potential for large-scale applications in crude hydrogen or industrial tail gas utilization processes. By providing a low-risk, energy-efficient alternative, this strategy supports the global transition from grey/blue hydrogen to green hydrogen.</p>","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144594072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-07-07DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01807-8
Kieran O’Regan
{"title":"The reality of battery commercialization","authors":"Kieran O’Regan","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01807-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01807-8","url":null,"abstract":"Bringing advanced battery research into real-world applications remains one of the most difficult challenges, requiring a three-stage, overlapping development process, argues Kieran O’Regan.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"195 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144568370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-07-04DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01802-z
{"title":"Dynamically expanding the electrochemical stability window during charging","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01802-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01802-z","url":null,"abstract":"Self-adaptive electrolytes have been developed that harness salt concentration-induced phase separation during charging to spatially enrich reduction- and oxidation-resistant solvents at opposite electrodes. This dynamic segregation expands the electrochemical stability window, enabling stable operation of zinc-metal and lithium-metal batteries beyond the limits of conventional aqueous and non-aqueous electrolytes.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144566558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-07-04DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01801-0
Chang-Xin Zhao, Zheng Li, Bin Chen, Fu Chen, Chunsheng Wang
{"title":"Self-adaptive electrolytes for fast-charging batteries","authors":"Chang-Xin Zhao, Zheng Li, Bin Chen, Fu Chen, Chunsheng Wang","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01801-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01801-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Fast charging of high-energy batteries is critical for transportation electrification but remains challenging because the rapid rise in cell overpotential easily exceeds electrolytes’ fixed electrochemical stability window. Here we design a self-adaptive electrolyte with a dynamically expanding electrochemical stability window that increases in real time during charging, outpacing the rise in overpotential as the charging current intensifies. The self-adaptive electrolyte is a single-phase solution of salt and complementary oxidation- and reduction-resistant solvents at the cloud point composition but can undergo solvent separation to dynamically redistribute solvent components during charging. The oxidation-resistant solvents concentrate at the positive electrode and reduction-resistant solvents accumulate at the negative electrode, broadening the electrolyte stability window in real time during charging. Proof-of-concept experiments validate the versatility of this design in both aqueous zinc-metal and non-aqueous lithium-metal batteries, achieving high Coulombic efficiencies of negative electrodes and enhanced oxidative stability for positive electrodes.</p>","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144566472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01795-9
Ryan O’Hayre
{"title":"Full steam ahead","authors":"Ryan O’Hayre","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01795-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01795-9","url":null,"abstract":"Protonic-ceramic-based fuel cells and electrolysers are promising technologies for reversible energy storage and green hydrogen production from steam. However, they have poor longevity because they are chemically unstable in high-steam environments. Using a solution-deposited conformal coating to protect the electrode, researchers now reduce cell degradation rates by 100–1,000 fold.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":56.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144520525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}