Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions likely entails not only lowering emissions but 事迷also deploying carbon dioxide (CO2) removal technologies. We explored the annual potential to store CO2in building materials. We found that fully replacing conventional building materials with CO2-storing alternatives in new infrastructure could store as much as 16.6 ± 2.8 billion tonnes of CO2each year—roughly 50% of anthropogenic CO2emissions in 2021. The total storage potential is far more sensitive to the scale of materials used than the quantity of carbon stored per unit mass of materials. Moreover, the carbon storage reservoir of building materials will grow in proportion to demand for such materials, which could reduce demand for more costly or environmentally risky geological, terrestrial, or ocean storage.
Wafer-scale monolayer MoS2film integration for stable, efficient perovskite solar cells
Accurately modeling the deformation of temperate glacier ice, which is at its pressure-melting temperature and contains liquid water at grain boundaries, is essential for predicting ice sheet discharge to the ocean and associated sea-level rise. Central to such modeling is Glen’s flow law, in which strain rate depends on stress raised to a power of n = 3 to 4. In sharp contrast to this nonlinearity, we found by conducting large-scale, shear-deformation experiments that temperate ice is linear-viscous (n ≈ 1.0) over co妹妹on ranges of liquid water content and stress expected near glacier beds and in ice-stream margins. This linearity is likely caused by diffusive pressure melting and refreezing at grain boundaries and could help to stabilize modeled responses of ice sheets to shrinkage-induced stress increases.
Thermoelectrics have been limited by the scarcity of their constituent elements, especially telluride. The earth-abundant, wide-bandgap (Eg ≈ 46 kBT) tin sulfide (SnS) has shown promising performance in its crystal form. We improved the thermoelectric efficiency in SnS crystals by promoting the convergence of energy and momentum of fo
ur valance bands, termed quadruple-band synglisis. We introduced more Sn vacancies to activate quadruple-band synglisis and facilitate carrier transport by inducing SnS2in selenium (Se)–alloyed SnS, leading to a high dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) of ~1.0 at 300 kelvin and an average ZT of ~1.3 at 300 to 773 kelvin in p-type SnS crystals. We further obtained an experimental efficiency of ~6.5%, and our fabricated cooler demonstrated a maximum cooling temperature difference of ~48.4 kelvin at 353 kelvin. Our observations should draw interest to earth-abundant SnS crystals for applications of waste-heat recovery and thermoelectric cooling.
质料迷信Materials Science
Building materials could store more than 16 billion tonnes of CO2annually
修筑质料每一年可贮存逾越160亿吨的CO2
▲ 作者：ELISABETH VAN ROIJEN, SABBIE A. MILLER AND STEVEN J. DAVIS
Axions, hypothetical elementary particles that remain undetectable in nature, can arise as quasiparticles in three-dimensional crystals known as axion insulators. Previous implementations of axion insulators have largely been limited to two-dimensional systems, leaving their topological properties in three dimensions unexplored in experiment. Here, we realize an axion insulator in a three-dimensional photonic crystal and probe its topological properties. Demonstrated features include half-quantized Chern numbers on each surface that resembles a fractional Chern insulator, unidirectional chiral hinge states forming topological transport in three dimensions, and arithmetic operations between fractional and integer Chern numbers. Our work experimentally establishes the axion insulator as a three-dimensional topological phase of matter and enables chiral states to form complex, unidirectional three-dimensional networks through braiding.
Quadruple-band synglisis enables high thermoelectric efficiency in earth-abundant tin sulfide crystals
四能带分解使地球储量丰硕的硫化锡晶体具备高热电功能
▲ 作者：SHAN LIU, SHULIN BAI, YI WEN, JING LOU, YONGZHEN JIANG, YINGCAI ZHU, ET AL.
One of the primary challenges in co妹妹ercializing perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is achieving both high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and sufficient stability. We integrate wafer-scale continuous monolayer MoS2buffers at the top and bottom of a perovskite layer through a transfer process. These films physically block ion migration of perovskite into carrier transport layers and chemically stabilize the formamidinium lead iodide phase through strong coordination interaction. Effective chemical passivation results from the formation of Pb-S bonds, and minority carriers are blocked through a type-I band alignment. Planar p-i-n PSCs (0.074 square centimeters) and modules (9.6 square centimeters) with MoS2/perovskite/MoS2configuration achieve PCEs up to 26.2% (certified steady-state PCE of 25.9%) and 22.8%, respectively. Moreover, the devices show excellent damp heat (85°C and 85% relative humidity) stability with <5% PCE loss after 1200 hours and notable high temperature (85°C) operational stability with <4% PCE loss after 1200 hours.
化学Chemistry
BFluorine-rich poly(arylene amine) membranes for the separation of liquid aliphatic compounds
富氟聚芳胺膜助力分说液态脂肪族化合物
▲ 作者：YI REN, HUI MA, JINSU KIM, MOHAMMED AL OTMI, PING LIN, CHANGHUI DAI, ET AL.
We explored the potential for membrane materials to reduce energy and carbon requirements for the separation of aliphatic hydrocarbon feedstocks and products. We developed a series of fluorine-rich poly(arylene amine) polymer membranes that feature rigid polymer backbones with segregated perfluoroalkyl side chains. This combination imbues the polymers with resistance to dilation induced by hydrocarbon i妹妹ersion without the loss of solution-based membrane fabrication techniques. These materials exhibit good separation of liquid-phase alkane isomers at ambient temperatures. The integration of these polymeric membranes into fuel and chemical feedstock separation processes was investigated in a series of experiments. Technoeconomic analyses based on these experiments indicate that the best-performing membrane materials can substantially reduce the energy costs and associated carbon emissions of hydrocarbon separations (two to 10 times, depending on product specifications).
地球迷信Earth Science
Linear-viscous flow of temperate ice
温带冰的线性粘性行动
▲ 作者：COLLIN M. SCHOHN, NEAL R. IVERSON, LUCAS K. ZOET, JACOB R. FOWLER AND NATASHA MORGAN-WITTS
