A crystal defect design enables β-Li₃N, a ‘hexagonal warrior’ solid-state electrolyte for all-solid-state lithium metal batteries with a long cycle life.

Maritime transportation is often considered a ‘hard to abate’ sector, meaning it is difficult to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Using high-resolution data on ship activity, a techno-economic analysis indicates that electrifying US domestic ships of lower than 1,000 gross tonnage to reduce emissions could become cost effective, if a small percentage of long trips are excluded.

Electrochemical engineering offers a route to renewably powered CO₂ capture. Now, fluorescence spectroscopy diagnostics provides a means to probe the fundamental mechanisms within these otherwise opaque systems.

Mn-doped UO₂ is a promising nuclear fuel, and is predicted to undergo favourable grain growth during service. This study uses diffraction, spectroscopy and ab initio calculations to study the effect of redox and structure, finding that grain growth may in fact be suppressed.

A stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is of great importance for battery electrodes for charging/discharging purposes, but the mechanism of SEI formation is not fully understood. Here, the authors study the formation and long-term evolution of the SEI near open circuit conditions in symmetric silicon cells containing different electrolyte chemistries.

This Perspective argues that early assessments of technology-market fit, as well as how the physics governing system performance evolves with scale, can de-risk technology development and accelerate deployment. The authors highlight tools and processes that can be used to assess both these factors at an early stage.

A crystal defect design enables β-Li₃N, a ‘hexagonal warrior’ solid-state electrolyte for all-solid-state lithium metal batteries with a long cycle life.

Maritime transportation is often considered a ‘hard to abate’ sector, meaning it is difficult to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Using high-resolution data on ship activity, a techno-economic analysis indicates that electrifying US domestic ships of lower than 1,000 gross tonnage to reduce emissions could become cost effective, if a small percentage of long trips are excluded.

Electrochemical engineering offers a route to renewably powered CO₂ capture. Now, fluorescence spectroscopy diagnostics provides a means to probe the fundamental mechanisms within these otherwise opaque systems.

Exploration of the coordination chemistry and electronic structure of the actinides is fundamental to understanding factors that govern their reactivity during chemical processing and their behaviour in the environment. Here, we show the recent progress in how X-ray spectroscopy has allowed us to look more closely to these properties.

A tandem electrochemical hydrogen pump system achieves high efficiency in purifying hydrogen from dilute sources. With nearly 100% Faradaic efficiency at high current densities, this technology can produce ultrapure hydrogen (>99.999%) from a 10% feed, potentially reducing capital costs by 95% and energy consumption by 65% compared with conventional methods.

An article in Communications Engineering presents a method for recovering 99% of valuable metals (Li, Ni, Co, and Mn) from LiNi_xCo_yMn_zO₂ battery cathodes using synergistic pyrolysis.