This review explores the crystallographic versatility of niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) at the nanoscale, showcasing enhanced catalytic efficiency for cutting-edge sustainable energy and environmental applications. The synthesis strategies explored encompass defect engineering, doping engineering, s-scheme formation, and heterojunction engineering to fine-tune the physicochemical attributes of diverse dimensional (0-D, 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D) Nb2O5 nanosystems as per targeted application. In addressing escalating environmental challenges, Nb2O5 emerges as a semiconductor photocatalyst with transformative potential, spanning applications from dye degradation to antibiotic and metal removal. Beyond its environmental impact, Nb2O5 is pivotal in sustainable energy applications, specifically in carbon dioxide and hydrogen conversion. However, challenges such as limited light absorption efficiency and scalability in production methods prompt the need for targeted research endeavors. The review details the state-of-the-art Nb2O5 nanosystems engineering, tuning their physicochemical properties employing material engineering, and their high catalytic performance in environment remediation and energy generation. It outlines challenges, potential mitigation strategies, and prospects, urging for developing greener synthesis routes, advanced charge transfer techniques, targeted optimization for specific pollutants, and application for micro/nano plastics photocatalytic reduction. As researchers and environmental stewards collaborate, Nb2O5 stands poised at the intersection of environmental remediation, energy harvesting, and nanomaterial advancements, offering a beacon of progress toward a cleaner, more sustainable future.

Plastics are widely used in daily lives, but unfortunately, their inadequate recycling practices have led to the accumulation of microplastics in the environment, posing a threat to public health. The existing methods for treating microplastics are energy-intensive and environmentally damaging. In this context, photoreforming has emerged as a sustainable solution to address the microplastic crisis by simultaneously recycling them into value-added chemicals. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the application of photoreforming for upcycling microplastic. The underlying mechanisms of photoreforming reaction are discussed, followed by the exploration of recent advancements and innovative strategies in photoreforming techniques with particular emphasis on their real-world applications and potential for large-scale implementation. Also, critical factors influencing the efficiency of microplastic photoreforming are identified, providing guidance for further research and optimization.

In the quest for effective solutions to address Environ. Pollut. and meet the escalating energy demands, heterojunction photocatalysts have emerged as a captivating and versatile technology. These photocatalysts have garnered significant interest due to their wide-ranging applications, including wastewater treatment, air purification, CO2 capture, and hydrogen generation via water splitting. This technique harnesses the power of semiconductors, which are activated under light illumination, providing the necessary energy for catalytic reactions. With visible light constituting a substantial portion (46%) of the solar spectrum, the development of visible-light-driven semiconductors has become imperative. Heterojunction photocatalysts offer a promising strategy to overcome the limitations associated with activating semiconductors under visible light. In this comprehensive review, we present the recent advancements in the field of photocatalytic degradation of contaminants across diverse media, as well as the remarkable progress made in renewable energy production. Moreover, we delve into the crucial role played by various operating parameters in influencing the photocatalytic performance of heterojunction systems. Finally, we address emerging challenges and propose novel perspectives to provide valuable insights for future advancements in this dynamic research domain. By unraveling the potential of heterojunction photocatalysts, this review contributes to the broader understanding of their applications and paves the way for exciting avenues of exploration and innovation.

We introduced a new class of gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) with adjustable pore morphology. We fabricated intrinsically conductive polymer-composite membranes containing carbon filler, enabling a pore structure variation through film casting cum phase separation protocols. We further selectively functionalized specific pore regions of the membranes with Cu by a NaBH4-facilitated coating strategy. The as-obtained GDEs can facilitate the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) at Cu active sites that are presented inside a defined and electrically conductive pore system. When employing them as free-standing cathodes in a CO2 flow electrolyzer, we achieved >70% Faradaic efficiencies for CO2RR products at up to 200 mA/cm2. We further demonstrated that deposition of a dense Cu layer on top of the membrane leads to obstruction of the underlying pore openings, inhibiting an excessive wetting of the pore pathways that transport gaseous CO2. However, the presentation of Cu inside the pore system of our novel membrane electrodes increased the C2H4/CO selectivity by a factor of up to 3 compared to Cu presented in the dense layer on top of the membrane. Additionally, we found that gaseous CO2 could still access Cu in macropores after wetting with electrolyte, while CO2RR was completely suppressed in wetted nm-scale pores.

In this paper, the effect of doping and nanostructuring on the electrostatic potential across the electrochemical interface between a transition metal oxide and a water electrolyte is investigated by means of the Poisson-Boltzmann model. For spherical nanoparticles and nanorods, compact expressions for the limiting potentials at which the space charge layer includes the whole semiconductor are reported. We provide a quantitative analysis of the distribution of the potential drop between the solid and the liquid and show that the relative importance changes with doping. It is usually assumed that high doping improves charge dynamics in the semiconductor but reduces the width of the space charge layer. However, nanostructuring counterbalances the latter negative effect; we show quantitatively that in highly doped nanoparticles the space charge layer can occupy a similar volume fraction as in low-doped microparticles. Moreover, as shown by some recent experiments, under conditions of high doping the electric fields in the Helmholtz layer can be as high as 100 mV/Å, comparable to electric fields inducing freezing in water. This work provides a systematic quantitative framework for understanding the effects of doping and nanostructuring on electrochemical interfaces, and suggests that it is necessary to better characterize the interface at the atomistic level.

The aim of this study is to establish an effective modeling technique for simulating the performance of photovoltaic modules by calculating their electrical parameters based on the two-diode model. The suggested methodology involves reducing the scope of the study from seven unknown parameters to only three, and that without resorting to any approximations. The first four parameters are calculated analytically based on the data representing the crucial positions on the current-voltage graph and using a new expression of the fill-factor derived from the two-diode equivalent circuit. The remaining parameters are established numerically based on a simple iterative technique adaptable with two sites of data availability. The photovoltaic modeling begins by utilizing the values of key-points. Subsequently, to ensure the proposed approach\'s adaptability to various scenarios of available information about PV generators, it is invested and applied for an optimization process. The accuracy is evaluated for diverse types of photovoltaic modules, and the results are weighed against widely reviewed numerical methods and evolutionary optimization algorithms in the literature. As a result, the new method demonstrates superior performance, yielding the smallest values for the utilized statistical indicators and reducing compilation time. These findings underscore its flexibility and high efficiency in simulating photovoltaic devices.

Biological photoresponsive ion transport systems consistently attract researchers\' attention owing to their remarkable functions of harvesting energy from nature and participating in visual perception systems. Designing and constructing artificial light-driven ion transport devices to mimic biological counterparts remains a challenge owing to fabrication limitations in nanoconfined spaces. Herein, a typical conjugated polyelectrolyte (PFN-Br) was assembled onto a laminated MoS2M using simple solution-processing vacuum filtration, resulting in a heterogeneous three- and two-dimensional nanoporous membrane. The designed band alignment between PFN-Br and MoS2 enables effective directional ion transport under irradiation in an equilibrium solution, even against a 30-fold concentration gradient. The staggered energy structure of PFN-Br and MoS2 enhances charge separation and establishes a photogenerated potential as the driving force for ion transport. Additionally, the activation energy barrier for ion transport across the heterogeneous membrane decreased by 60% after light irradiation, considerably improving ion transport flux. The easy fabrication and high performance of the membrane in light-powered ion transport provide promising approaches for designing nanofluidic devices with possible applications in energy conversion, light-enhanced biosensing, and photoresponsive ionic devices.

Despite recent revolutionary advancements in photovoltaic (PV) technology, further improving cell efficiencies toward their Shockley-Queisser (SQ) limits remains challenging due to inherent optical, electrical, and thermal losses. Currently, most research focuses on improving optical and electrical performance through maximizing spectral utilization and suppressing carrier recombination losses, while there is a serious lack of effective opto-electro-thermal coupled management, which, however, is crucial for further improving PV performance and the practical application of PV devices. In this article, the energy conversion and loss processes of a PV device (with a specific focus on perovskite solar cells) are detailed under both steady-state and transient processes through rigorous opto-electro-thermal coupling simulation. By innovatively coupling multi-physical behaviors of photon management, carrier/ion transport, and thermodynamics, it meticulously quantifies and analyzes energy losses across optical, electrical, and thermal domains, identifies heat components amenable to regulation, and proposes specific regulatory means, evaluates their impact on device efficiency and operating temperature, offering valuable insights to advance PV technology for practical applications.

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) as an avant-garde technology that transforms mechanical energy into electrical energy, offering a new direction for green energy and sustainable development. By means of high-efficiency TENGs, conventional materials as new triboelectric materials have exhibited multi-attribute characteristics, achieving innovative applications in the field of micro-nano energy harvesting and self-powered sensing. The progress of TENGs technology with the triboelectric materials is complementary and mutually promoting. On the one hand, one of the cruxes of TENGs lies in the triboelectric materials, which have a decisive impact on their performance. On the other hand, as the research and application of TENGs continue to deepen, higher demands are placed on triboelectric materials, which in turn promotes the advancement of the entire material system as well as the fields of materials science and physics. This work aims to delve into the characteristics, types, preferred choices, and modification treatments of triboelectric materials on the performances of TENGs, hoping to provide guidance and insights for future research and applications.

Co-digestion has been considered a promising method to improve methane yield. The effect of the proportion of dominant substrate on the performance and microbial community of anaerobic digestion of Pennisetum hybrid (PH) and livestock waste (LW) was investigated. An obvious synergistic effect was obtained with an increase of 15.20%-17.45% in specific methane yield compared to the predicted value. Meanwhile, the dominant substrate influenced the relational model between methane yield enhancement rate and mixture ratio. For the LW-dominant systems, a parabolic model between enhancement rate and mixture ratio was observed with a highest value of 392.16 mL/g VS achieved at a PH:LW ratio of 2:8. While a linear pattern appeared for PH-dominant systems with the highest methane yield of 307.59 mL/g VS. Co-digestion selectively enriched the relative abundance of Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, Terrisporobacter, Syntrophomonas, Methanosarcina and Methanobacterium, which boosted the performance of hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis processes.