Themed collection Horizons Community Board Collection: Solar Energy Conversion

A themed collection on solar energy conversion, guest edited by Materials Horizons Community Board members Rebecca Gieseking and Alexandra Ramadan and Nanoscale Horizons Community Board member Jungki Ryu.

The design strategy and synthesis approach impact the physico-chemical properties, catalytic performances and reaction pathways of ODS catalysts.

Here, we review the physics and the technology of the recombination junction in perovskite-based tandem solar cells, with a summary of the most successful works.

This review unravels the interaction of PC and PEC water splitting with interfacial ferroelectric polarization.

Hot hole ejection from the resonance sites of plasmonic nanoparticles on a semiconductor or an electrode enables oxidation at more positive potentials, output of higher voltage, and site-selective photo-oxidation beyond the diffraction limit.

The recent surge of scientific interest for lead halide perovskite semiconductors and optoelectronic devices has seen a mix of materials science sub-fields converge on the same “magical” crystal structure.

A review on the recent developments in controlling the structural, photophysical and electronic properties of conjugated porous polymer (CPP) photocatalysts is presented.

A critical review on how theory-guided materials design can enhance MXene based catalyst discovery and development process.

The latest developments of NIR light-activated upconversion photocatalysts, and the in-depth mechanisms, prospects and remaining challenges with respect to fundamental investigations and solar energy conversion applications are discussed comprehensively.

Low limiting potential, high product selectivity, strong visible light absorbance and satisfactory band edge positions make Cu₂S monolayers a very compelling photocatalyst for CO₂ reduction.

Quantitative cross-correlation of time-resolved spectroscopies in the visible/near-IR and microwave regions provides deeper understanding of photoinduced charge separation across donor/acceptor heterojunctions than either technique alone.

We report the synthesis of Zn-based polyoxometalate (ZnPOM) and its application in photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to CH₄.

A 2D flexible photocatalyst has been designed based on Janus plasmene nanosheets for continuous solar-to-chemical conversion.

Single-crystal rutile TiO₂ nanorod-assembled radial microspheres with surface domain heterojunctions exhibit excellent photocatalytic hydrogen evolution due to the in situ formation of chemisorbed chlorine leading to surface reconfiguration.

The dynamic disorder is known to be one of the crucial parameters limiting the charge carrier transport in molecular semiconductors and a parameter that cannot be easily controlled through known design rules.

This work demonstrates that carbonized polymer dots (CPDs) can efficiently promote the charge separation and photocatalytic performance of metal halide perovskites, highlighting their excellent charge-transfer ability and great potential in developing efficient perovskite-based hybrid photocatalysts.

Divalent cation-containing alkaline earth metal halides BCl₂ (B = Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) are used as additives in precursor solutions, where addition of MgCl₂ improves photovoltaic performance of FAPbI₃ based perovskite solar cell.

The chemical structure of a molecule influences the molecular conformation in the solid-state affecting the crystal packing, which in turn drives the charge carrier transport anisotropy.

Tuning the polarity of green antisolvents (using various ethers) allows high control over the purity of the intermediate phase of triple-cation lead halide perovskite thin films.

An all-weather steam generation system is achieved based on the alternative photo-thermal and electro-thermal conversion of crosslinked MXene aerogels.

Heterojunctions of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers and single-walled carbon nanotubes are promising for photocatalysis and photocurrent generation, with microsecond timescale charge separation and sub-picosecond interfacial charge transfer.

Hybrid flavin–polydopamine nanoparticles combine the activity of an enzyme cofactor with the stabilising and electron-transfering properties of nanostructured poly-dopamine to afford a green and biocompatible catalytic system tuneable by visible light.

First demonstration of a quadruple-band InGaN nanowire photocatalyst for overall water splitting with an STH efficiency >5%.

A photoelectrochemical device based on a TiO₂/QD–MWCNT (0.015 wt%) hybrid photoanode yields 40% higher photocurrent density than the control device.

Combining electronic and structural similarity between organic donors in kernel based machine learning methods allows to predict photovoltaic efficiencies reliably.