Search

Despite significant advancements in fundamental understanding and technical applications, much remains to be explored to fully harness solar energy for addressing water, energy, and resource challenges. We asked experts in the field to share their insights on opportunities and challenges in pushing solar technology to better serve society's increasing demands for water and achieve sustainability in water-related domains.

Vapour-phase methods are promising for nanomaterial synthesis but the vaporization of different precursors for the synthesis of a broad nanomaterial space is challenging. Here electrified vapour deposition generates ultrahigh-temperature, high-flux atomic vapour at atmospheric pressure to rapidly vaporize diverse precursors, enabling the synthesis of multi-elemental nanomaterials with uniform compositions and tunable structures.

A pore-modulated pyrolysis reactor that enables catalyst-free and energy-efficient upcycling of plastic waste is demonstrated. The graded-pore structure imposes molecular-weight-dependent transport barriers, establishing a gating effect that enhances product selectivity and yields aviation fuel precursor (C₈–C₁₈) with high efficiency.

Despite the advantages of using heterogeneous catalysts, most successful rhodium hydrogenations are carried out with homogeneous catalysts. Here the authors report a supported single atom rhodium catalyst providing high activities and selectivities for propene hydroformylation.

Materials popular for insulation and noise reduction are typically derived from petroleum or minerals or have other environmental costs. This study reports a scalable material for thermal insulation and noise reduction derived from treated wood.

Neighbouring Pt monomers work in synergy, leading to a distinct CO₂ hydrogenation pathway and enhanced activity.

A wide range of zero-dimensional powders can be converted into versatile, high-performance one-dimensional micro-/nanofibres by using two-dimensional cellulose sheets as a mediator, preserving the particles’ nanostructural features and acting as building blocks for complex geometric shapes to satisfy application requirements.

Hydrogenation of CO₂ over heterogeneous catalysts can produce useful energy vectors such as methanol and formic acid. Here the authors show that the activity of unsupported cobalt catalysts can be markedly enhanced through incorporation of nitrogen atoms into the structure.

In this work, authors propose a flash Joule heating-based process for meat preservation, enabled by the formation of a thin, microbe-inactivated, and dehydrated layer on the surface. The method is energetically efficient and shown to significantly extend the food shelf life while maintaining food freshness.

At the molecular level, biological activities involve the transport of ions in a system. Here the authors demonstrate an ‘electron battery’ by inverting the configuration of a traditional Li-ion battery to generate an ionic current to interact with a biosystem for potential biomedical applications.

Alloys are important materials for catalysis but are usually limited by miscibility gaps present in their phase diagrams. Here the authors break this limitation by developing high-entropy alloy catalysts made of five earth-abundant elements and demonstrate great catalytic enhancements for ammonia decomposition.

A repeated on–off high-temperature shockwave is shown to be a generalizable way of efficiently synthesizing and stabilizing single atoms at high temperatures.

Multi-principal element alloy (MPEA) 3D printing is challenging due to the tradeoff between achieving high-temperature and sufficient heating zone. Here, the authors report an ultrahigh-temperature melt printing method that can achieve rapid melting and uniform elemental mixing for MPEA fabrication.

Nanoparticles of non-noble metals are useful for many applications but can be prone to sintering or surface oxidation. Here, the authors use a rapid heating-cooling approach to synthesize uniformly distributed nanoparticles in a reduced graphene oxide matrix, and test them as switchable energetic materials.

A simple procedure allows for the fabrication of highly conducting and highly flexible nanostructured electrodes.

By using a programmable electric current to allow rapid pulsed heating and quenching, a non-equilibrium, continuous synthesis technique shows improved performance in thermochemical reactions, as well as lower energy costs.

By coordinating copper ions with the oxygen-containing groups of cellulose nanofibrils, the molecular spacing in the nanofibrils is increased, allowing fast transport of lithium ions and offering hopes for solid-state batteries.

Synthetic fibres derive from petrochemicals that are not renewable and cannot be recycled. Here, the authors show a top-down synthetic strategy that allows for the production of high-performance natural macrofibres from bamboo.

Multi-element oxide catalysts can feature superior properties compared with their single-element analogues but obtaining such complex structures remains a challenge. Here, a method is reported to access single-phase denary nanoparticles as stable and efficient catalysts for the combustion of methane.

A plasma set-up consisting of a pair of carbon-fibre-tip-enhanced electrodes enables the generation of a uniform, ultra-high temperature and stable plasma (up to 8,000  K) at atmospheric pressure using a combination of vertically oriented long and short carbon fibres.

The Carnot efficiency and the power output of thermoelectric power generation increase with temperature but current thermoelectrics are characterized up to 1,500 K. Here, Li et al. develop reduced graphene oxide films that can convert heat up to 3,000 K with high power factors, opening the door for novel applications.

A depolymerization method is described that uses electrified spatiotemporal heating to selectively generate monomers from the commodity plastics polypropylene and poly(ethylene terephthalate), allowing control over the pyrolysis of plastic waste and reducing the formation of side products.

An antiviral and antibacterial cotton textile based on a fundamentally different principle of incorporating copper ions into the cotton structure at the atomic level is fabricated with excellent air/water retainability and superior mechanical stability.

Developing non-noble-metal heterogeneous catalysts with high efficiency in HCOOH dehydrogenation is significant for the acquisition of hydrogen, but remains a great challenge. Here, the authors modulate oxygen coverage of Ti₃C₂T_x MXenes to boost the catalytic activity toward HCOOH dehydrogenation.

Garnet-type electrolytes are attractive for lithium metal batteries due to their high ionic conductivity. A strategy to decrease interfacial impedance between a lithium metal anode and garnet electrolyte is found promising for all-solid-state batteries.

Product-selective switching of CO₂ hydrogenation is a huge challenge. Here, the authors report an approach to manipulating Fe-Co sites with three-dimensional graphene fences that achieves integrated synthesis of different products.

Optimized agricultural managements enhance wheat yields by 7−14% in China under future climate scenarios without expanding current cultivation areas, according to a 3-year field experiment at 22 sites and crop model simulations.

The commercialization of electronic textile (e-textile) products requires balanced sustainability considerations. Here the authors propose an e-textile design framework involving repair, recycle, replacement and reduction that can unify environmental friendliness, market viability, supply-chain resilience and user experience quality.

For the first time, we investigate the synergistic effect of one-dimensional nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) and two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO) to facilitate low-cost, mechanically strong hybrid microfibers. Both experimental and molecular dynamics simulations were carried out. Such GO-NFC hybrid microfibers show an elastic modulus of 34.1 GPa, an ultimate tensile strength of 442.4 MPa and a toughness of 4.9 MJ m⁻³, which outperform among the best GO fibers in literature. This study promotes a new design strategy to create high-performance microfibers for a range of applications.