Promoting sustainable agriculture through circular hydrogen production, storage and utilization.

Macroscale solid superlubricity from the perspective of tribochemistry.

Advancements and applications of novel waterless and contactless cleaning technologies for solar panels

From energy crisis of the pandemic to opportunity: Valuable lesson learned on technology innovations, energy sources, environmental sustainability, and economic implications

Temperature-dependent pathogenicity of Vibrio alginolyticus in Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis "Baotou" disease.

The current energy crisis is increasing the production of sustainable energy, such as biogas, a fuel generated by the anaerobic digestion of organic waste. The use of oat, an agricultural waste, makes the anaerobic digestion more sustainable. Antarctic microbial communities can utilize a wide range of substrates and adapt to different temperatures. Thus, this study evaluated methane production through an innovative approach, using microbial enrichment, and assessed archaeal diversity through metagenomic techniques in Antarctic soils, Deception Island, Maritime Antarctica. Metagenomic analyses showed low archaeal diversity and abundance. The Euryarchaeota (95.2%) and Methanobrevibacter were the most abundant and frequent phylum and genus, respectively. The average biogas production values ​​were 595 LN kg VS⁻1 and 561 LN kg VS⁻1 in tests with individual oat (IO) and oat with enriched mixed culture (O + MC), respectively. However, O + MC showed a higher methane production, 4% (319 LN kg VS⁻1) more than the results from the IO test with inoculum. Soils from Deception Island may represent a promising source of methanogenic communities capable of producing methane using agricultural waste as an alternative for energy production. Future studies are needed to understand the methane production using soil samples from cold environments.

Photocatalytic hydrogen production offers a promising solution to the global energy crisis, but the design of efficient photocatalysts remains challenging. Although two-dimensional (2D) metal selenides (MSe) show great potential, their controlled synthesis is limited by difficulties in tuning the composition and morphology. Herein, we present a cation exchange (CE) strategy for the synthesis of a diverse range of 2D MSe nanoplates utilizing Cu2-xSe nanoplates as a sacrificial template. By leveraging CE, we successfully converted Cu2-xSe nanoplates into 11 distinct MSe compounds, including ZnSe, CdSe, Co9Se8, Ni3Se4, PbSe, Ag2Se, ZnxCd1-xSe, CuAgSe, CuInSe2, Cu2SnSe3, and CuFeSe2, while preserving their 2D morphology. Taking ZnxCd1-xSe nanoplates as an example, they exhibit strong visible-light absorption and superior solar-to-hydrogen conversion performance, attaining a rate of up to 14.52 mmol h-1 g-1. This work establishes a scalable and tunable approach for the synthesis of 2D MSe nanostructures, paving the way for advanced photocatalysts in solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion.

Hydrogen energy, as a new, clean and renewable energy, has great potential to address the global energy crisis and environmental pollution. This study presents a ZnCo2S4/ZnIn2S4 (ZCS/ZIS) heterojunction photocatalyst, where the charge transfer mechanism ingeniously transforms the role of ZnCo2S4. While individually photocatalytically inactive, ZnCo2S4 becomes crucial in the ZCS/ZIS composite. Driven by a built-in electric field arising from their difference in Fermi level, a direct Z-scheme charge flow is established. This flow not only facilitates the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes at the interface but also, more importantly, activates ZnCo2S4 as a primary electron aggregation site. Consequently, strongly reductive electrons are efficiently enriched on ZnCo2S4 for the hydrogen evolution reaction. The optimized ZCS/ZIS composite achieves an exceptional H2 production rate of 6.60 mmol g-1 h-1 under visible light, which is 9.3 times that of ZnIn2S4, with an apparent quantum yield of 7.96% at 400 nm. This work highlights the strategic design of charge dynamics to unlock the latent functionality of components within a Z-scheme system.

ABSTRACT Rare earth elements are strategic and critical materials for addressing the global energy crisis and advancing sustainable development goals. Coal fly ash, a major byproduct of coal-fired power plants, has emerged as a promising secondary source of REEs. However, conventional extraction methods suffer from low efficiency, high acid consumption, and significant environmental concerns. This study developed a microwave-assisted deep eutectic solvents leaching process for efficient and selective REE recovery from coal fly ash. Three DESs were synthesized using choline chloride as the hydrogen bond acceptor with p-toluenesulfonic acid, lactic acid, or formic acid as hydrogen bond donors. Among these, the ChCl–PTSA DES exhibited superior leaching performance due to its stronger acidity and higher ionization degree. Under optimized conditions, a REEs leaching efficiency of 89.16% was achieved. FT-IR and ¹H NMR analyses confirmed that DES formation is driven by hydrogen-bonding interactions, while the leaching mechanism involves synergistic protonation of the aluminosilicate matrix and coordination of liberated REE3+ ions with DES functional groups. This work establishes microwave-assisted DES leaching as a highly efficient, rapid, and sustainable strategy for REEs recovery from coal fly ash, offering a promising alternative to conventional hydrometallurgical processes.

To address the global energy crisis, supercapacitors─as highly efficient energy storage devices─are emerging as a key technology for solving energy storage and rapid discharge challenges. Porous carbon materials, owing to their high specific surface area and excellent electrochemical stability, have become an ideal choice for supercapacitor electrode materials. However, traditional porous carbon materials are predominantly powder-based, limiting their application in flexible energy storage devices. To address this challenge, electrospinning technology was incorporated into the fabrication process of porous carbon materials. The fabrication process involved electrospinning a blend of polyacrylonitrile and hyper-cross-linked polymers (HCPs) with fiber structure, resulting in nanofiber membranes characterized by a continuous architecture. Following high-temperature carbonization, this nanofiber membrane developed a uniform porous structure and demonstrated outstanding electrochemical performance. Experimental results indicate that the porous carbon nanofiber membrane exhibits optimal specific capacitance performance when the HCPs content is 40 mg, achieving a specific capacitance of 311 F g-1 at a current density of 0.5 A g-1. Moreover, it retains 88.7% of its capacitance performance after 10,000 charge-discharge cycles. This porous carbon nanofiber membrane not only eliminates the need for binders required by traditional powder electrode materials but can also be directly used as a flexible electrode, demonstrating significant application potential in the field of flexible energy storage devices.

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction offers a green strategy to alleviate climate change and address the energy crisis. In this work, indium oxysulfide subnanocoils with a thickness of 0.9 nm were successfully synthesized via a facile solvothermal method. Adjusting the sulfur content not only modulates the band structure and energy level positions but also enables precise control over the morphology of the as-prepared products. The optimized indium oxysulfide subnanocoils exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity for CO2 reduction, with a CO evolution rate of 61.731 μmol h-1 g-1, which ranks among the best performances for indium-based materials reported to date. The enhancement of photocatalytic performance can be attributed to the exceptionally high surface atomic exposure ratio of the unique subnanometer coiled structure. Meanwhile, the sulfur substitution-induced S-O coordination significantly reduces the average valence state of indium, narrows the band gap, and improves the reduction capability of photogenerated electrons. This study provides a feasible approach for the development of high-performance subnanoscale photocatalysts for CO2 reduction.

In the context of full-scale war, the energy crisis has become one of the key factors in the transformation of Ukraine's economic security, directly affecting macroeconomic and social stability and the state's institutional capacity. The destruction of energy infrastructure, systemic supply disruptions and rising energy costs have created complex risks that extend beyond the energy sector and have become systemic. Therefore, this study is relevant because it aims to understand the energy crisis as a structural factor of economic security rather than a temporary shock. This article aims to provide a comprehensive political and economic analysis of the impact of the energy crisis on economic security transformation in modern Ukraine. The study focuses on the structural, macroeconomic, socio-economic and institutional-political consequences of energy instability in times of war and prolonged uncertainty. The study's methodology is based on political-economic, systemic and structural-functional approaches, enabling economic and energy security to be considered interrelated elements of national security. Methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison, generalisation and logical modelling were employed to trace the relationship between energy constraints, macroeconomic dynamics and changes in economic behaviour patterns. The study found that the energy crisis reduces economic security by decreasing production volumes, increasing inflationary pressure and the budget deficit, and worsening conditions for human capital reproduction. The mass transition of businesses and households to autonomous energy sources, such as generators, ensured minimal operational stability of the economy. However, it also created long-term risks of economic fragmentation and the consolidation of a crisis-based development model. Thus, the energy crisis is viewed as a catalyst for change in state economic policy, institutional priorities and economic behaviour models. The results obtained have practical value in that they can be used to develop strategies to enhance Ukraine's economic security. This can be achieved by strengthening the institutional management of the energy sector, combining anti-crisis and long-term measures, and transitioning to a sustainable model of economic development in conditions of prolonged instability.

As the global response to climate change and energy crises accelerates, the large-scale integration of heterogeneous distributed energy resources (DERs) is rapidly transforming traditional passive distribution networks into active distribution networks. However, the massive quantity and high stochasticity of these underlying devices trigger a severe “curse of dimensionality,” creating significant computational and communication bottlenecks for coordinated system dispatch. To overcome these challenges, the “clustering followed by equivalence” aggregation modeling paradigm has emerged as a critical technical pathway. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art clustering and aggregation methodologies for distribution networks with high DER penetration. The review begins by synthesizing multi-dimensional feature extraction techniques and cutting-edge clustering algorithms that establish the foundation for dimensionality reduction. It then delves into refined aggregation models tailored to heterogeneous resources, including dynamic data-driven equivalence for renewable generation, Minkowski sum-based boundary approximations for energy storage, and thermodynamic alongside Markov chain mapping methods for flexible loads. Building upon these models, the paper comprehensively discusses the practical applications of generalized aggregators, such as microgrids and virtual power plants, in feasible region error evaluation, coordinated network control, multi-agent market games, and privacy-preserving architectures. Finally, the review outlines future research trajectories, emphasizing hybrid data-model-driven architectures for real-time dispatch, distributionally robust optimization (DRO) for enhancing grid resilience and self-healing, and decentralized trading ecosystems to ensure equitable system-level surplus allocation. This review aims to provide a systematic theoretical reference for the coordinated management and aggregated trading of flexibility resources in novel power systems.

South Africa's grid remains unstable and characterized by frequent power cuts. This paper examines the implications of South Africa's electricity crisis on jobs, capital investment, and exporting across manufacturing firms. Exploiting sectoral differences-in-exposure to the crisis, we find robust evidence that the electricity crisis has destroyed jobs, lowered capital investments, and upended export activities of manufacturing firms, with this adverse effect severe for firms in energy-intensive vulnerable sectors. Furthermore, we find that differing sources of firm heterogeneity vis-à-vis ownership structure, age, and financial status modulate the effect of electricity crisis on firm performance. Overall, these results indicate that policies aimed to help firms cope with the effect of the electricity crisis must consider the unique differences across and between manufacturing firms in South Africa. • Examines how electricity crisis affects jobs, investments and exports at the firm level. • Examines how firm heterogeneity shapes the impact of electricity crisis. • Identifies the electricity crisis effect by exploiting cross-sectoral variation in energy vulnerability.

A green, connected future Britain: Would you share your energy to protect your local hospital during an energy crisis?

High absorption broadband solar energy device and thermal emitter based on titanium metamaterials

The mammalian brain relies primarily on glucose for its energy needs. Delivery of this nutrient to the brain is mediated by the glucose transporter-1 (GLUT1) protein. Low GLUT1 thwarts glucose entry into the brain, causing an energy crisis and triggering, in one instance, the debilitating neurodevelopmental condition known as GLUT1 deficiency syndrome (GLUT1DS). Current treatments for GLUT1DS are suboptimal, as none address the root cause — low GLUT1 — of the condition. Levels of this transporter must respond rapidly to the brain’s changing energy requirements. This necessitates fine tuning its expression. Here, we describe a long-noncoding RNA (lncRNA) antisense to GLUT1 (SLC2A1) and show that it is involved in such regulation. Raising levels of the lncRNA had a concordant effect on GLUT1 in cultured human cells and transgenic mice; reducing levels elicited the opposite effect. Delivering the lncRNA to GLUT1DS model mice via viral vectors induced GLUT1 expression, enhancing brain glucose levels to mitigate disease. Direct delivery of such a lncRNA to combat disease has not been reported previously and constitutes, to our knowledge, a unique therapeutic paradigm. Moreover, considering the importance of maintaining homeostatic GLUT1 levels, calibrating transporter expression via the lncRNA could become broadly relevant to myriad conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, wherein GLUT1 is perturbed.

mTOR-siRNA-conjugated and Gboxin-loaded micelles for mitochondrial dysfunction-driven synergistic glioblastoma therapy.

The growing energy crisis and environmental challenges have spurred the development of sustainable energy storage solutions. This study synthesizes 3D porous Orange Peel-Lignin activated carbon (OPLAC) from orange peel waste and lignin using a two-step pyrolysis process with KOH activation. The OPLAC was combined with styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS) and SUPER P conductive carbon black to create stretchable electrode composites with varying compositions (70:20:10, 60:30:10, and 50:40:10). Mechanical testing revealed that increasing the SIS content improved stretchability, with the 50:40:10 composition achieving 300% strain and retaining 95% durability after 100 cycles. However, higher SIS content reduced electrical conductivity, with the 70:20:10 composition showing the highest conductivity (12 S/cm) and the 50:40:10 the lowest (7 S/cm). The 60:30:10 composition offered a balance between flexibility and conductivity. These results demonstrate the potential of biomass-derived activated carbon for sustainable, high-performance supercapacitor electrodes, particularly for flexible electronics and wearable devices, while highlighting the valorization of agricultural and industrial waste in energy storage applications. Keywords: Stretchable electrode, activated carbon, orange peel waste, Lignin, flexible electronics

European energy crisis: Did electricity prices shock real estate markets?