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Exquisitely Selective CO2 Reduction on Silver

Researchers electrochemically reduced CO2 to CO with nearly perfect selectivity over other products by adding an organic compound to the surface of a silver electrode. With theoretical analyses and ALS data, the work revealed the key role of the microenvironment in promoting the conversion of CO2, a greenhouse gas, into useful products. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

High-Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics using Eutectic Acceptor Fibrils to Achieve Current Amplification

Researchers report the fabrication of ternary organic solar cells, achieving a significant JSC boost, by virtue of their optimized crystalline feature, with the formation of eutectic crystalline fibrils. The optimal morphology suppresses energetic disorder and nongeminate recombination, and increases charge transfer and transport, yielding a high efficiency of 17.84% with significant current amplification. Read more »

A Properly Tailored Tail Boosts Solar-Cell Efficiency

With the help of structural insights from the ALS, researchers optimized the fit between organic and inorganic ions in a perovskite solar-cell material. The work increased the material’s power-conversion efficiency and stability and opens up a new avenue for improving the current-carrier dynamics of a promising class of materials. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

To Design Truly Compostable Plastic, Scientists Take Cues From Nature

Researchers have designed an enzyme-activated compostable plastic that could diminish microplastics pollution and holds great promise for plastics upcycling. The material can be broken down to its building blocks—small individual molecules called monomers—and then reformed into a new compostable plastic product. Read more »

Designing Selective Membranes for Batteries Using a Drug Discovery Toolbox

Researchers designed a polymer membrane with molecular cages built into its pores that hold positively charged ions from a lithium salt. These “solvation cages” increased lithium-ion flow by an order of magnitude and could allow high-voltage battery cells to operate at higher power and more efficiently, important for both electric vehicles and aircraft. Read more »

Probing Composite Materials to Make Better Batteries

Researchers found that when an ion-conducting polymer composite is placed in an electric field, it forms ion-rich hotspots that continue to grow for hours after the field is removed. The study opens a new path to understanding the dynamic structure of composite materials for smaller, lighter batteries. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Stacking the Deck for Custom-Built Hybrid Materials

Researchers fabricated an electronically coupled heterostructure from a novel semiconducting 2D polymer and a 2D transition metal dichalcogenide. Dramatic optical and electronic changes emerged as polymer thickness decreased, underscoring the potential for the discovery of emergent phenomena in studies of hybrid heterostructures. Read more »