Themed collection UN Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

Advanced catalytic strategies for CO₂ to MeOH conversion focus on approaches utilizing noble metals. These methods leverage noble metal catalysts to facilitate CO₂ molecule activation and promote reduction to MeOH under mild conditions.

Chemistry should adopt material stewardship as a central mission in fulfilling its vital role in sustainability for people and planet.

Photocatalysis, waste valorization, hydrogen, and the circular economy.

Chemical looping technology provides an efficient means of sustainable CO₂ conversion to the important chemical intermediate of CO or syngas by changing conventional co-feeding of reactant into alternating feeding.

The image displays various biowastes, important constituents, and possible products of the pretreatment process.

Increased human activity due to the ever-increasing global population has necessitated the urgent need for a sustainable environment, food, and energy.

Noble gas plasma-collisional splitting (NgPCS) is an emerging hydrogen production technology.

Photovoltaics (PVs), the fastest-growing renewable energy source, play a crucial role in decarbonizing global energy systems.

Herein, we have synthesized high-performance, low-cost ionomer biocomposites comprised of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) and softwood Kraft lignin with proton selectivities three- to ten-fold higher than that of neat SPEEK.

Within the study, synthesis of OME in a continuous, liquid phase process at the kg h⁻¹ scale is demonstrated. Catalyst deactivation is observed and further investigated to understand the underlying mechanism and propose further developments.

Biochar offers a sustainable use of cannabis residues. Low temperature biochar can be used for contaminant adsorption and in soil amendment, and high temperature biochar as an electrode material in electrochemical and bioelectrochemical applications.

Cellulose acetate (CA) membranes incorporated with amino acids (AAs) and ionic liquids (ILs) fabricated using phase inversion technique have been proven to be efficient and effective for nanofiltration to treat heavy metal ion solutions.

Weakly sintered flakes have a higher recycling yield than spheres due to a higher sintered porosity of the printed structures.

This study demonstrates SLA 3D printing of Li-ion battery anodes using recycled solar cell waste, achieving 400 mA h g⁻¹ capacity with 89% retention after 200 cycles. This sustainable approach surpasses graphite anodes and supports circular economy.

State-of-the-art machine learning, reaction engineering, and component additivity models for biomass HTL, accurately predicting biocrude yields to optimize reaction conditions for biomass-to-oil yield across diverse feedstocks.

Single atom catalysts (SACs) supported on MXene have emerged as new-generation catalysts that exhibit unique properties and catalytic activity due to their tunable coordination environment and uniform catalytic active sites.

Co-pyrolysis of biomass and plastics is essential to improve the quality and yield of pyrolytic products, optimise energy recovery, and mitigate plastic waste, providing a sustainable approach to waste valorisation.

We present a method for depolymerization of poplar lignin for microbial conversion via sulfonation and Fenton chemistry.

This research compared the filters made of kapok and milkweed fibres, which separated 5 μm and 2 μm droplets from oily wastewater with 5% oil concentration.

An improved process to convert 1-hexanol to hexenes under energy-saving conditions based on re-use of the catalysts Cu(OTf)₂, Hf(OTf)₄ and TfOH over 20 cycles led to an average alkene yield of 71–77%, and an initial lab scale up gave 1.3 kg product.

This study links sorghum biomass characteristics, such as lignocellulosic composition and morphology, to carbon properties like surface area, porosity, and electrochemical performance. Cellulose enrichment resulted in porous graphitic carbons with enhanced capacitance.

Producing pellets, mushrooms, and bioethanol using microbial pretreatment of camelina straw has been proven to be economically feasible.

Introducing long alkyl chains segregates the hydrogen donor groups, thereby increasing the catalyst activity, and the underlying mechanism has been studied.

Towards a greener hydrogen production by photocatalytic treatment of rice industry wastewater.

The redox activity of perovskite materials was tuned by an active cation doping strategy to promote two-step CO₂ splitting for sustainable solar fuel production.

Electrodes for supercapacitors were developed from activated carbon (GAC) derived from glutinous rice husk (GRH).

Long-loop recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries is neither sustainable nor economical at scale.

A comparison of the effect of the preparation methods for CoMn/TiO₂ Fischer–Tropsch synthesis catalysts reveals the prevalence of Mn surface doping leading to enhanced product selectivity towards olefins and alcohols.

We conduct a harmonized lifecycle greenhouse gas assessment to compare the carbon removal efficiency and total energy required for twelve engineered carbon removal technologies.

The establishment of simple and efficient lead recycling pathways from lead–acid batteries for fabricating perovskite solar cells promotes the sustainable utilization of toxic lead compounds and advances the development of perovskite photovoltaics.

Cold plasmas powered by the renewable electricity can facilitate CO₂ desorption for carbon capture materials (CaCO₃) at low temperatures.

ZnO and Co₃O₄ wrapped in carbon nanotubes were synthesized via one-pot pyrolysis of MOF, offering excellent lithium storage, high conductivity, and superior stability as electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

This work introduces a novel methodology to plan and schedule decarbonisation strategies to achieve net-zero emissions. By integrating graphical and mathematical approaches, it provides a user-friendly tool to determine the optimal timing for implementation across investment plans.

5-(Chloromethyl)furfural (CMF) has received enormous interest over the past two decades as a carbohydrate-derived platform chemical for synthesizing organic chemicals of commercial significance.