Fluoride ions show promise as charge carriers in batteries but have limited cyclability. Here we show the reversible and homogeneous topochemical insertion/deinsertion and bulk diffusion of F ions within the one-dimensional tunnels of submicrometer-sized FeSb2O4 particles at room temperature. Read more »
A Closer Look at Water-Splitting’s Solar Fuel Potential
Although bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) is a theoretically attractive material for electrodes in photoelectric chemical cells (PECs) used for artificial photosynthesis, it hasn’t lived up to its potential. Researchers used a multimodal approach to gain new insight into what might be happening at the nanoscale to hold BiVO4 back. Read more »
2020 Shirley Award to Honor Miquel Salmeron
By taking surface studies from ultrahigh vacuum to near-ambient pressure, Miquel Salmeron’s work at the ALS has had deep impact on a broad range of scientific questions, revealing the chemical, electronic, and mechanical properties of surfaces and interfaces on the nanometer (and often atomic) scale. Read more »
COSMIC Probes Evolution of Single-Atom Platinum Catalyst
Researchers synthesized a single-atom platinum catalyst that outperformed, by a factor of 15, conventional platinum-based catalysts, which are used for fuel cells and automotive emissions control. Operando x-ray spectromicroscopy at the ALS’s COSMIC beamline revealed how electronic interactions affect the material’s morphology. Read more »
Battery Breakthrough Gives Boost to Electric Flight and Long-Range Electric Cars
While lithium metal extends an EV’s driving range, it also shortens the battery’s useful life due to lithium dendrites that can cause short circuits. Researchers report a new class of soft, solid electrolytes—made from both polymers and ceramics—that suppress dendrites, before they can propagate and cause the battery to fail. Read more »
Long Chains Stabilize Higher-Efficiency Solar Cells
Perovskite thin films have many attractive properties for use in photovoltaics, but their assembly into practical devices has led to trade-offs between efficiency and stability. The addition of surfactant-type molecules with hydrophobic chains helped produce perovskite solar cells that are both efficient and stable. Read more »
Energetics and Energy Loss in 2D Ruddlesden–Popper Perovskite Solar Cells
Qinye Bao and co‐workers systematically investigate the energetics and energy loss in 2D Ruddlesden‐Popper perovskite (RPP) solar cells. The crucial scenario found at the 2D RPP/electron transport layer interface is that the potential gradient across ligands promotes separation of the photogenerated carrier, with electrons transferring from the perovskite crystal to the electron transport layer. Read more »
The Bottleneck Step of a Complex Catalytic Reaction
The rate-limiting step in catalysis involving oxygen uptake was identified through analysis of the reaction pathways and observations performed under operating conditions. The work lays the foundation for improving the efficiency of energy conversion and storage devices such as fuel cells, catalytic reactors, and batteries. Read more »
Efficient Organic Solar Cell with 16.88% Efficiency Enabled by Refined Acceptor Crystallization and Morphology with Improved Charge Transfer and Transport Properties
Feng Liu and co‐workers report a detailed structure‐performance relationship to help understand the success of Y6 non‐fullerene acceptors. Through the analysis of the single crystal structure of Y6, it is found that Y6 forms a polymer‐like conjugated backbone through its banana‐shaped structure and π‐π interactions between molecules, and forms a 2D electron transport network under the ordered arrangement of the lattice. Read more »
Coordination Engineering of Single-Crystal Precursor for Phase Control in Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskite Solar Cells
Chaochao Qin, Alex K.-Y. Jen, Kai Yao and co-workers describe a generic guideline for fine tuning colloidal properties of 2D perovskites via coordination engineering of the single-crystal precursor solution. In nonpolar co-solvent media, the derived colloidal templates prefer to grow along the vertical direction with a narrow phase variation, elucidating the critical role of colloidal chemistry in low-dimensional perovskite solar cells. Read more »
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