Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-06-04DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01781-1
Gabkyung Seo, Jason J. Yoo, Seongsik Nam, Da Seul Lee, Shanshan Gao, Bo Kyung Kim, Sae Jin Sung, Bong Joo Kang, Dane W. deQuilettes, Junho Park, Ji-Sang Park, In Sun Cho, Fabian Rotermund, Sang Il Seok, Seong Sik Shin
{"title":"Efficient and luminescent perovskite solar cells using defect-suppressed SnO2 via excess ligand strategy","authors":"Gabkyung Seo, Jason J. Yoo, Seongsik Nam, Da Seul Lee, Shanshan Gao, Bo Kyung Kim, Sae Jin Sung, Bong Joo Kang, Dane W. deQuilettes, Junho Park, Ji-Sang Park, In Sun Cho, Fabian Rotermund, Sang Il Seok, Seong Sik Shin","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01781-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-025-01781-1","url":null,"abstract":"The deposition of electron-transport layers using chemical bath deposition (CBD) enables high efficiency in perovskite solar cells. However, the conventional CBD methods require time to achieve uniform films on large substrates and often fail to deposit high-quality films due to incomplete surface coverage and oxidation. Here we show an excess ligand strategy based on the CBD of tin oxide (SnO2), suppressing the cluster-by-cluster pathway while facilitating the ion-by-ion pathway to create uniform films. Our approach enables rapid synthesis of high-quality SnO2 electron-transport layers with reduced defect densities. The resulting SnO2 thin films exhibit superior optoelectronic properties, including a low surface-recombination velocity (5.5 cm s−1) and a high electroluminescence efficiency of 24.8%. These improvements result in a high power-conversion efficiency of 26.4% for perovskite solar cells, an efficiency of 23% for perovskite modules and an efficiency of 23.1% for carbon-based perovskite cells. This highlights its potential for the low-cost, large-scale production of efficient solar devices. Seo et al. present an approach to regulate the formation and optoelectronic quality of the SnO2 electrodes, improving electroluminescence and efficiency in perovskite solar cells.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"10 6","pages":"774-784"},"PeriodicalIF":60.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144211616","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 : 2025-06-03DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01784-y
{"title":"Easing liquidity constraints might be insufficient for exclusive clean cooking fuel use","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01784-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-025-01784-y","url":null,"abstract":"Clean cooking fuels can be unaffordable. A year-long randomized control trial in Tanzania finds that a lockbox with savings nudges modestly increases participants’ liquified petroleum gas (LPG) use but does not result in exclusive use. Easing liquidity constraints is insufficient to foster exclusive clean fuel use when women save alone and must choose between LPG and other household needs.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"10 7","pages":"802-803"},"PeriodicalIF":60.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144202094","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 : 2025-06-03DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01778-w
Annelise Gill-Wiehl, Isha Ray, Robert Katikiro, Daniel M. Kammen, Alan Hubbard
{"title":"Deconstructing the (un)affordability of clean cooking fuels through a randomized trial in rural Tanzania","authors":"Annelise Gill-Wiehl, Isha Ray, Robert Katikiro, Daniel M. Kammen, Alan Hubbard","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01778-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-025-01778-w","url":null,"abstract":"Low-income users struggle to save for clean cooking fuel costs. We test whether a lockbox intervention paired with micro-saving nudges could alleviate the unaffordability of clean fuels. In a year-long stepped-wedge randomized control trial in Tanzania (n = 511), we find that compared to savings nudges only, a lockbox and savings nudges increased annual refills of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by 1.4 (0.054 per 2 weeks ([95% confidence interval: 0.043, 0.066], P < 0.0001)) and minimally decreased firewood use but had no effect on lags between LPG refills or the frequency of LPG and charcoal use. We find that easing liquidity constraints is insufficient for exclusive LPG use when LPG is the financial responsibility of only women, who ration LPG purchases to meet other household needs and social expectations. The financial and gendered realities of low-income consumers demand clean energy policies beyond easing liquidity constraints or targeted subsidies. Clean cooking fuels can be unaffordable. A year-long randomized control trial in Tanzania finds that a lockbox intervention along with behavioural nudging to encourage savings modestly increased liquefied petroleum gas use but did not lead to exclusive adoption, and that gendered financial constraints explain these results.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"10 7","pages":"836-846"},"PeriodicalIF":60.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144201750","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":"Mapping the cost competitiveness of African green hydrogen imports to Europe","authors":"Florian Egli, Flurina Schneider, Alycia Leonard, Claire Halloran, Nicolas Salmon, Tobias Schmidt, Stephanie Hirmer","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01768-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-025-01768-y","url":null,"abstract":"Governments in many European countries have high hopes for cheap green hydrogen (H2) from Africa to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. Using geospatial levelized cost models, this study evaluates the economic feasibility of exporting green H2 in the form of ammonia from Africa to Europe under four realistic financing scenarios by 2030. Our findings suggest that without European policy interventions, green H2 from Africa remains prohibitively expensive with least costs from €4.2 kgH2−1 to €4.9 kgH2−1 depending on the interest rate environment. Using de-risking policy, we identify 214 locations in six African countries that may be competitive in the current interest rate environment, yet many of these face a challenging security situation casting doubt on long-term investments. Under optimal policy and interest rate scenarios, we find a least cost of €3.2 kgH2−1 in Mauritania by 2030. Overall, de-risking and strategic location selection are key to make African green H2 exports competitive on the global stage. A geospatial levelized cost model shows that green hydrogen imports from Africa to Europe remain uncompetitive without major policy support. De-risking policies and strategic site selection are key, but major risks remain.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"10 6","pages":"750-761"},"PeriodicalIF":60.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-025-01768-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144193104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-05-27DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01788-8
James Gallagher
{"title":"Na and Ti share roles","authors":"James Gallagher","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01788-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-025-01788-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"10 5","pages":"539-539"},"PeriodicalIF":60.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144145977","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 : 2025-05-23DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01783-z
Shuwen Wang, Fernando Vallejos-Burgos, Ayumi Furuse, Hayato Otsuka, Miu Nagae, Yuma Kawamata, Tomonori Ohba, Hirofumi Kanoh, Koki Urita, Hiroo Notohara, Isamu Moriguchi, Hideki Tanaka, Juan P. Marco-Lozar, Joaquín Silvestre-Albero, Takuya Hayashi, Katsumi Kaneko
{"title":"Ambient pressure storage of high-density methane in nanoporous carbon coated with graphene","authors":"Shuwen Wang, Fernando Vallejos-Burgos, Ayumi Furuse, Hayato Otsuka, Miu Nagae, Yuma Kawamata, Tomonori Ohba, Hirofumi Kanoh, Koki Urita, Hiroo Notohara, Isamu Moriguchi, Hideki Tanaka, Juan P. Marco-Lozar, Joaquín Silvestre-Albero, Takuya Hayashi, Katsumi Kaneko","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01783-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-025-01783-z","url":null,"abstract":"Storage and transportation of methane (CH4) remains challenging as it cannot be liquefied at ambient temperature and instead must be stored as compressed gas at high pressures (approximately 25 MPa). Alternatively, it can be stored within nanoporous materials at moderate pressures (for example, 3.5 MPa) but this ‘adsorbed natural gas’ approach can suffer from substantial desorption with only minor temperature increases. Both methods therefore necessitate additional safety measures. Here we report graphene-coated porous carbon materials that can be charged with CH4 at high pressure and retain it at ambient pressure and temperature (below 318 K), thereby enhancing storage safety. Our data suggest that graphene serves as a thermally controllable lock that obstructs or activates pores to trap or release CH4, enabling a pressure-equivalent loading of 19.9 MPa at 298 K, and release upon heating to 473 K. The resulting reversible CH4 volumetric capacity reaches 142 v/v, exceeding that of various adsorbed natural gas materials at 3.5 MPa and 298 K when considering container space utilization. High-density methane storage typically requires high pressures and/or low temperatures, which can pose operational challenges. Here the authors report graphene-coated carbons that, after high-pressure charging, can store methane at high densities even at ambient external pressure.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"10 7","pages":"847-856"},"PeriodicalIF":60.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144122764","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 : 2025-05-19DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01799-5
Anthony L. Cheng, Erica R. H. Fuchs, Jeremy J. Michalek
{"title":"Author Correction: US industrial policy may reduce electric vehicle battery supply chain vulnerabilities and influence technology choice","authors":"Anthony L. Cheng, Erica R. H. Fuchs, Jeremy J. Michalek","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01799-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-025-01799-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"10 6","pages":"785-785"},"PeriodicalIF":60.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-025-01799-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144088240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature EnergyPub Date : 2025-05-14DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01767-z
Zhuojun Huang, Hao Lyu, Louisa C. Greenburg, Yi Cui, Zhenan Bao
{"title":"Stabilizing lithium-metal electrodes with polymer coatings","authors":"Zhuojun Huang, Hao Lyu, Louisa C. Greenburg, Yi Cui, Zhenan Bao","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01767-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-025-01767-z","url":null,"abstract":"Increasing the energy density of batteries can accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles, expand the utilization of renewable energy and, in turn, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Different from commercially available lithium-ion batteries, high-energy-density lithium-metal batteries use metallic lithium instead of graphite as the negative electrode. The commercialization of lithium-metal batteries is hindered by the electrochemical instability of lithium metal. Polymer coatings have shown promise in addressing issues related to each step of heterogeneous lithium deposition. Here we summarize the current understanding of key design principles and highlight relevant coating compositions. Moreover, we discuss high-performing coating–electrolyte pairs and provide an outlook on interface design for novel electrolytes. The instability of lithium metal hinders the commercialization of lithium-metal batteries. This Review explores polymer coatings as a promising solution, summarizing key design principles, effective coatings and future interface strategies.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"10 7","pages":"811-823"},"PeriodicalIF":60.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143946071","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 : 2025-05-12DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01776-y
Palani Balaya
{"title":"Small-battery calorimetry for enhanced safety","authors":"Palani Balaya","doi":"10.1038/s41560-025-01776-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-025-01776-y","url":null,"abstract":"The increasing energy density and size requirements for batteries demand better safety technologies, but size limits and high costs hinder effective testing. Now, accelerated rate calorimetry tests on small batteries with an optimal thermal runaway factor enable rapid screening and provide early-stage feedback for improving safety features.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":"10 6","pages":"671-672"},"PeriodicalIF":60.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143933242","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}