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23 junio In Agenda, Portafolio energía by Coordinación Editorial

Nature Energy, June 2021

Volume 6 Issue 6, June 2021

Volume 6 Issue 6

Heavy-duty charging

The electrification of trucks is an important step towards transport decarbonization. Borlaug et al. use real-world drive-cycle data from short-haul trucking operations to simulate different fleet charging strategies and then assess their infrastructure needs, estimating that most substations can currently support charging without upgrades.

See Borlaug et al.

Image: Jorg Greuel / Getty Images. Cover Design: Thomas Phillips.

Editorial

Editorial | 21 June 2021

Ambitious emission reduction targets from governments and businesses revive hope in a political solution to climate change, but need to be examined rigorously.

Comment & Opinion

Comment | 03 June 2021

Stopping climate change requires revolutionary transformations in industry and agriculture. Ahead of several major climate meetings this year, policymakers struggling to measure progress on climate change should focus less on global emissions, which will be slow to change, and more on technological advances in pioneering niches.

  • Ryan Hanna
  • David G. Victor

News & Views

News & Views | 14 June 2021

Oxygen loss is an elusive phenomenon that accompanies oxygen redox in lithium-rich layered oxides in batteries. Now, multi-length-scale characterization reveals that oxygen originating from the oxide bulk is eventually released after prolonged cycling.

  • Xiqian Yu

News & Views | 17 June 2021

Anode-free lithium metal batteries with liquid electrolytes could become a drop-in solution for making higher energy density and lower cost batteries with existing production facilities. Now, a synergistic approach is brought forward that bolsters the anode-free cells’ limited lithium inventory extending the cells’ cyclability.

  • A. J. Louli
  • M. Metzger

News & Views | 17 May 2021

The performance of electrocatalysts depends on material properties that may differ spatially even within a single particle. Now, a combination of operando microscopy techniques is used to correlate morphology and metal oxidation state with local activity of an oxygen evolution catalyst, which may help to guide future catalyst design.

  • Marcel Risch

News & Views | 03 June 2021

The efficiency and stability of perovskite photovoltaic modules lag far behind those of small-area devices. By carefully engineering the composition of the perovskite layer to suppress defect formation, researchers now demonstrate mini-modules that are nearly as efficient as small-area cells with 1,000-hour stability under operation.

  • Yana Vaynzof

News & Views | 21 June 2021

Electrification of truck fleets has been perceived as costly both in terms of vehicle and charging infrastructure investments. A new study shows that, with the right charging strategy, electrification of a short-haul delivery fleet does not require major investments in the electric grid substations.

  • Heikki Liimatainen

Reviews

Perspective | 11 February 2021

Performance assessments of redox flow batteries (RFBs) can be challenging due to inconsistency in testing methods and conditions. Here the authors summarize major performance metrics of RFBs, analyse their degradation mechanisms and propose testing protocols for benchmarking.

  • Yanxin Yao
  • Jiafeng Lei
  • Yi-Chun Lu

Research

Matters Arising | 25 May 2021

  • Philip Calado
  • Piers R. F. Barnes

Article | 12 April 2021

Zinc–air batteries are viewed as a sustainable storage technology, but their commercialization requires a genuine performance leap forwards from the laboratory scale. Here the authors report a cell-level design and demonstrate an ampere-hour pouch cell with exceptionally high energy density and cycle lifespan.

  • Sambhaji S. Shinde
  • Jin Young Jung
  • Jung-Ho Lee

Article | 10 May 2021

Molecular design of acceptor and donor molecules has enabled major progress in organic photovoltaics. Li et al. show that branched alkyl chains in non-fullerene acceptors allow favourable morphology in the active layer, enabling a certified device efficiency of 17.9%.

  • Chao Li
  • Jiadong Zhou
  • Yanming Sun

Article | 20 May 2021

Atomically dispersed platinum electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction promise minimized platinum usage, but catalytic activity and selectivity are often low due to unfavourable O2 adsorption. To circumvent this issue, Gao and colleagues load platinum onto α-Fe2O3, making a highly active and stable catalyst with dispersed Pt–Fe pair sites.

  • Ruijie Gao
  • Jian Wang
  • Ji-Jun Zou

Article | 14 June 2021

The role of intragrain planar defects in halide perovskite solar cell devices remains elusive. Now, Li et al. tune the composition of the perovskite layer to minimize the planar defect density and observe an improvement in the device performance.

  • Wei Li
  • Mathias Uller Rothmann
  • Joanne Etheridge

Article | 20 May 2021

Methylammonium-free perovskite solar cells have achieved promising efficiency and thermal stability yet iodide migration limits their operational stability. Deng and colleagues show that an excess of formamidinium or caesium iodide precursor suppresses iodide vacancies preventing ion migration and eventually the generation of hole traps during device operation.

  • Yehao Deng
  • Shuang Xu
  • Jinsong Huang

Article | 14 June 2021

Oxygen release in Li-rich layered oxides is of both fundamental and practical interest in batteries, but a varied mechanistic understanding exists. Here the authors evaluate the extent of oxygen release over extended cycles and present a comprehensive picture of the phenomenon that unifies the current explanations.

  • Peter M. Csernica
  • Samanbir S. Kalirai
  • William C. Chueh

Article | 17 June 2021

Anode-free batteries offer high-energy prospects but suffer from poor cycling stability due to limited lithium sources. Here, the authors preload lithium oxide onto a high-energy cathode in initial-anode-free cells, which substantially improves the cyclability while maintaining high energy density.

  • Yu Qiao
  • Huijun Yang
  • Haoshen Zhou

Article | 03 June 2021

There have been objections to onshore wind turbines for aesthetic reasons, although a quantitative methodology to provide some assessment of the risk of such public objections has been missing. McKenna et al. develop a method to use geotagged photographs of landscapes to assess potential future public acceptance of projects.

  • R. McKenna
  • J. M. Weinand
  • H. S. Moat

Article | 21 June 2021

Increasing attention is being paid to the electrification of trucks, in particular for short-haul operations. Borlaug et al. simulate depot charging load profiles based on real-world operating schedules to explore future charging requirements and assess the likely distribution substation upgrades needed to support them.

  • Brennan Borlaug
  • Matteo Muratori
  • Charlie McQueen

Tales of Invention

Tales of Invention | 21 June 2021

Li4Ti5O12 spinel was initially investigated as a cathode material for a rechargeable lithium battery. It was later successfully exploited as an anode by the lithium-ion battery industry to provide safe, high power but low energy density cells relative to those with graphite/carbon anodes.

  • Michael M. Thackeray
  • Khalil Amine

Amendments & Corrections

Author Correction | 12 March 2021

  • Stephen Hall
  • Jillian Anable
  • Yvonne Matthews

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