Themed collection Energy & Environmental Science Recent HOT Articles, 2025

The development of high-capacity anodes is of paramount importance to address the rapidly increasing demand for high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).

A comprehensive framework for interfacial solar vapor generation (ISVG) is proposed, integrating fundamental scientific principles and regulation-centered strategies across solar absorption, mass transfer, anti-fouling and practical applications.

Material, process, and computational developments for polymeric membrane-assisted decarbonization.

This review consolidates the latest advancements in stretchable organic photovoltaic (s-OPV) materials, providing a comprehensive overview of the field's progress.

A review highlights recent advances in intermediate-temperature P-SOCs, focusing on perovskite air electrodes, their triple-conducting mechanisms, material design via AI and theory, and prospects for industrial applications.

This review highlights the potential of emerging inorganic chalcogenide–silicon tandem solar cells, which address efficiency and stability limitations of single-junction devices and offer a less-toxic, more stable alternative for tandem applications.

This review thoroughly discusses the corrosion behaviors of various metallic anodes in aqueous metal batteries. It also provides a comprehensive overview of corrosion prevention tactics and characterization methods.

The acidic CO₂RR is an alternative to the alkaline/neutral CO₂RR, mitigating carbonate formation and carbon crossover. This review covers its history, evaluation, advances and challenges, focusing on catalyst–electrolyte interface engineering.

To introduce the potential for tuneability of the cathode in lithium mediated ammonia synthesis, we report a carbon cathode which produces ammonia at a Faradaic efficiency of 37%.

The local PO microenvironment activates the adjacent C atom to modulate the oxygen adsorption through the Yeager model, thereby enhancing the ORR kinetics even in hostile environments with low temperatures and proton concentrations.

A vacancy catalysis sustainer using directly grown graphene mitigates the detrimental coverage on active sites and promotes the preferential decomposition of anions, thereby achieving long-life Li–S batteries.

Guided by phase-field simulations, a pre-coated 2D perovskite layer enables the growth of void-free perovskite layers over one-micron-thick, achieving high-efficiency, fully printed solar cells.

Integrating dye-sensitized solar cells with polyviologen-based supercapacitors enables efficient ambient light harvesting and storage, achieving 30% power conversion efficiency under indoor lighting conditions to power edge computing IoT networks.

The spontaneous cascade optimization strategy facilitates the maximization of TFSI⁻ anion decomposition by enhancing both anion and charge enrichment.

Herein, we demonstrate that the battery intrinsic electric field drives the specific adsorption of a weakly solvated co-solvent, DTS, to replace conventional DME in the IHP, enabling the desirable CEI chemistry on the 4.6 V LiCoO₂ cathode.

A multifunctional additive 5ATCl is explored to passivate the undesirable defects of perovskites, which enables high-quality perovskite films and thus demonstrates impressive V_OC × FF value for both rigid and flexible inverted perovskite solar cells.

Using an operando optical scattering technique, we identify markedly asymmetric Li-ion flux in aged single crystalline NMC cathodes, primarily caused by an uneven growth of rocksalt phase across the particle surface.

Acrylonitrile–methyl acrylate is added to the perovskite precursor to retard the crystallization of inorganic perovskites, yielding a record efficiency of 21.7% for inverted inorganic PSCs, together with substantially improved operational stability.

Both the crystalization and 2D phases of 2D/3D tin perovskite films are regulated by introducing additives that affect the intermediate adduct and PEA adsorption, which effectively boost the PCE of tin perovskite solar cells up to 15.02%.

The modulation of platinum valence states facilitates an industrially viable production of formate from methanol e-refinery, achieving a 50% reduction in CO₂ emissions.

A buried and bulk synergistic strategy was developed to improve perovskite film quality. Optimizing the buried interface using FuMACl and bulk using (DFP)₂PbI₄ seeds led to a champion photovoltaic efficiency of 26.03% and a fill factor of 86.79%.

Thermal evaporation enables the scalable production of 10 cm² perovskite-BiVO₄ artificial leaves for unassisted syngas synthesis. A 10 × 10 device array has been demonstrated outdoors in a 0.35 m² reactor for the EIC Horizon Prize “Fuel from the Sun”.

Defective 1T-VS₂ with fibonacci pattern designed with a multi-scale strategy for high mass-loading and self-charging cathodes in aqueous zinc-ion batteries.

Very simple Ah-level aqueous batteries are realized by employing an X electrolyte which can fundamentally inhibit the polyiodide shuttle effect and zinc dendrite growth.

Polyamide (PA, Nylon), a classical polymer featuring oxidation-resistant amide linkages, has been reengineered as high-voltage polymer electrolytes compatible with Li-metal batteries.

Iron clusters coupled with single atom sites have been developed as bifunctional oxygen reaction electrocatalysts for constructing ultra-stable, flexible zinc–air batteries operable in a temperature range from +40 °C to −40 °C.

This work provides a comprehensive understanding of the Sr segregation from the bulk Sr deficiencies and surface Sr segregates, and their impacts on oxygen vacancy formation, oxygen ion mobility, and the rate of electrode reactions.

Reduced latent heat of water in solar evaporating materials cannot explain superthermal rates due to the full energy balance and vapor kinetic limitations. New mechanistic studies need to be pursued to understand superthermal solar evaporation.

A solvent-free molten salt electrolyte with enhanced Li⁺-transport kinetics was reported for high-temperature lithium batteries. The cation–cation concerted effect and inorganic CEI/SEI interphases endow fast-cycling and long-cycling abilities.