Themed collection 2016 Journal of Materials Chemistry A Most Accessed Manuscripts

The fundamentals of water electrolysis, current popular electrocatalysts developed for cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in liquid electrolyte water electrolysis are reviewed and discussed.

The recent development and perspectives of energy harvesting and storage devices including integration strategies are summarized and discussed.

State-of-the-art development of fabrication methods and surface engineering strategies of 1D TiO₂ nanostructures is reviewed, and an overview given of their potential applications including pollutant degradation/CO₂ photoreduction photocatalysts, water splitting, solar cells, lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors.

Vapor based methods provide a promising alternative way to fabricate organometal halide perovskite solar cells.

We review the use of graphene and graphene-derived nanomaterials in perovskite solar cells, outlining design perspectives, device characterization, and performance.

Silicon-based composites are very promising anode materials not only for boosting the energy density of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) but for realizing Li metal-free new battery systems such as Li–S and Li–O₂.

In this review, we provide an overview of recent progress towards the performance enhancement of polymer/polymer blend solar cells.

Graphene based materials can be effectively modified by doping in order to specifically tailor their properties toward specific applications.

Currently-developed flexible electrodes/supercapacitors are summarized according a hierarchical and detailed classification strategy.

Thin-film photovoltaics based on organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite light absorbers have recently emerged as a promising low-cost solar energy harvesting technology.

Sustainability has become a watchword and guiding principle for modern society, and with it a growing appreciation that anthropogenic ‘waste’, in all its manifold forms, can offer a valuable source of energy, construction materials, chemicals and high value functional products.

This review summarizes the recent progress in preparations, functionalities and applications of composites of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and carbon-based materials.

Carbon onions are a relatively new member of the carbon nanomaterials family. They consist of multiple concentric fullerene-like carbon shells which are highly defective and disordered.

This review especially focuses on the advances in heterogeneous dye-sensitized semiconductors for H₂ production during the past 30 years.

The advances in the preparation of N-doped carbons and their applications in supercapacitors are reviewed.

A comprehensive review of the recent development of electrospun nanofibers as platform materials for advanced secondary batteries is presented.

We propose a reproducible fabrication method to prepare both flat and film-through grain distribution perovskite film by adding a pre-annealing step to strengthen perovskite nucleation, aiming to facilitate the excess CH3NH3I and solvent removal in the sec-butyl alcohol soaking process.

Cobalt nanoparticles embedded in porous N-rich carbon (PNC/Co) can perform as both active cathode and anode materials to drive the overall water splitting in alkaline media for simultaneous electrogeneration of hydrogen and oxygen gases.

Bismuth-based solar absorbers are of interest due to similarities in the chemical properties of bismuth halides and the exceptionally efficient lead halide hybrid perovskites. Here, we computationally screen BiSI and BiSeI and show they possess electronic structures ideal for solar cell applications.

Alkali metal halide additives chelate with Pb²⁺ ions during film formation promoting homogeneous nucleation, which greatly enhances the power conversion efficiency (15.08%) and stability (over 50 days) of planar perovskite solar cells.

A highly efficient PEN/ITO/ZnO/CH₃NH₃PbI₃ perovskite/PTAA/Au flexible planar solar cell with 1.1 V V_oc, 18.7 mA cm⁻²J_sc, 75% FF, and 15.4% η for the forward scan direction and 1.1 V V_oc, 18.7 mA cm⁻²J_sc, 76% FF and 15.6% η for the reverse scan direction under illumination of 1 Sun was demonstrated.

A new capacitive process controlled anode material of graphene-based nitrogen-doped carbon sandwich nanosheets for sodium-ion batteries is reported.

We investigate the influence of solvent drenching in hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite (CH₃NH₃PbX) crystallization process with a non-solvent, toluene, during film fabrication process.

16 crystalline metal oxide nanoparticulate systems are adhered to an electrode surface using a conventional drop-casting method and measured for their activity for the oxygen evolution reaction.

High-performance nitrogen-doped carbon electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction have been synthesized by the rational design of their pore structure.

Mechanochemically synthesized bipyridine based covalent organic framework showing high proton conductivity of 0.014 S cm⁻¹ with improved performance over the solvothermal one giving a stable Open Circuit Voltage (0.93 V at 50 °C) on fabrication in PEM fuel cell.

3D graphene/δ-MnO₂ aerogels demonstrated high removal efficiency, fast adsorption kinetics, excellent regeneration towards heavy metal ions based on the perfect integration of surface adsorption and in-depth bulk uptake.

Transition metal nanoparticles (Fe, Co, and Ni) encapsulated in N-doped carbon nanotube hybrids were prepared, and the catalytic activities of three catalysts are compared and discussed. The optimized Co/N-CNT catalyst exhibits superb bifunctional catalytic activity with a ΔE value of 0.78 V.

Crystals of earth-abundant tin disulfide exhibit high-surface-area platelet formation with ideal photocatalytic properties for water splitting in their ground state.

Perovskite solar cells using highly pure PbI₂ exhibit an efficiency higher than that with low purity PbI₂ by 30–40%.