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Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells suffer from instability under rapid thermal cycling. Here, Sun et al. investigate the degradation mechanism, showing that temperature-induced structural strain, phase transition, and increased non-radiative defects drive the degradation processes.

Formamidinium lead iodide perovskite films exhibit picosecond-scale quantum transients (~2 ps), with their nanoscale superlattices defining energy levels that yield narrow emission lines and reveal the structure–emission relationship.

Polymer electrolytes are promising candidates as separators in lithium metal batteries. Here, authors reveal the existence of local lithium-based crystallites inside the polymer electrolyte in a lithium symmetric cell. A combination of unique operando wide-angle X-ray scattering with a nano-sized beam and complementary spectroscopic techniques identifies these crystallites as lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and even metallic lithium. It is shown that these crystallites lower the ionic conductivity and the transference number.

The integration of ultraflexible energy harvesters and energy storage devices to form flexible power systems remains a significant challenge. Here, the authors report a system consisting of organic solar cells and zinc-ion batteries, exhibiting high power output for wearable sensors and gadgets.

A new asymmetric non-fullerene acceptor, P2EH-1V, is designed and synthesized for constructing devices demonstrating record-high efficiencies of 26.7% (certified at 26.4%) over an aperture area greater than 1 cm² in perovskite–organic tandem solar cells.

The instability of quantum dot inks hinders the scaling up of colloidal quantum dot electronics. Now, Shi and team stabilize the inks with an iodine-rich environment in a weakly coordinating solvent, achieving 13.4% in small-area solar cells and over 10% in modules.

An artificial nerve that is based on a vertical n-type organic electrochemical transistor with a gradient-intermixed bicontinuous structure can operate at high frequencies and mimic basic conditioned reflex behaviour in animals.

Grazing incidence small-angle neutron scattering (GISANS) allows for the investigation of nanostructures in thin films and at surfaces due to the use of a reflection geometry. Possibilities and challenges of GISANS are reviewed with several different examples of thin nanostructured polymer films. With GISANS buried lateral structures can be probed destruction free using the variable-probed depth as function of the incidence angle. By this, averaged statistical information is detected over the large illuminated sample surface.

Achieving uniform coverage of interfacial layers in perovskite solar cells is challenging, especially over large areas. Li et al. present design guidelines to fabricate these layers with uniform morphology, suppressed defects and improved charge transport.

Amorphous phases of self-assembling molecules employed as a hole-transporting layer in inverted perovskite solar cells contribute to homogeneous perovskite film growth, resulting in a power conversion efficiency of 25.20% (certified 24.35%) for one-square-centimetre area cells.

Triple-junction solar cells with cyanate in ultrawide-bandgap perovskites exhibit enhanced defect formation energy and substantially decreased non-radiative recombination.

Understanding the correlation between moisture degradation and structural features of perovskite films is essential to improve their stability. Here, the authors apply nano-focused wide-angle X-ray scattering to map the heterogeneities over several micrometers across lateral and vertical directions.

Self-assembled perovskite nanoplatelets emit linearly polarized light, enabling the realization of red perovskite light-emitting diodes with a 74.4% degree of linear polarization.

Understanding degradation mechanisms in perovskite solar cells is key to their development. Now, Guo et al. show a greater degradation of the perovskite structure and morphology for devices operated under vacuum than under nitrogen.

Biological systems vital functions are based on non-equilibrium states driven by consumption of chemical fuels. Here the authors show a spatiotemporal control over the formation of hydrophobic colloids, hydrogels or inks through a chemical reaction network of dicarboxylate compounds fuelled by carbodiimide.

Complex phenomena are prevalent during the formation of materials, and they affect the processing structure-function relationship. Here the authors elucidate the stochastic transformation processes happening during the spin coating of perovskite colloidal precursors by multimodal characterization.

All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries are promising energy storage devices owing to their safe use and high energy density, whereby understanding electrode and solid electrolyte interfaces is key for battery development. Here, the authors use spectroscopic ellipsometry, impedance measurements, as well as Monte Carlo simulations to elucidate the formation of charge depletion layers at the electrode/electrolyte interface.