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Two-dimensional transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXenes) have shown potential in biosensors, cancer theranostics, microbiology, electromagnetic interference shielding, photothermal conversion, and thermal energy storage due to their unique electronic structure, ability to absorb a wide range of light, and tunable surface chemistry. In spite of the growing interest in MXenes, there are relatively few studies on their applications in phase-change materials for enhancing thermal conductivity and weak photo-responsiveness between 0 °C and 150 °C. Thus, this study aims to provide a current overview of recent developments, to examine how MXenes are made, and to outline the combined effects of different processes that can convert light into heat. This study illustrates the mechanisms that include enhanced broadband photon harvesting through localized surface plasmon resonance, electron–phonon coupling-mediated nonradiative relaxation, and interlayer phonon transport that optimizes thermal diffusion pathways. This study emphasizes that MXene-engineered 3D thermal networks can greatly improve energy storage and heat conversion, solving important problems with phase-change materials (PCMs), like poor heat conductivity and low responsiveness to light. This study also highlights the real-world issues of making MXene-based materials on a large scale, and suggests future research directions for using them in smart thermal management systems and solar thermal grid technologies.

The issue of solar curtailment and generation limitations, driven by insufficient grid absorption capacity, is becoming increasingly severe, significantly reducing the capacity factor and economic returns of photovoltaic (PV) power plants. The present study proposes a scenario-based simulation framework, developed using PVsyst software (version 7.4), with a view to investigating the impact of collaborative optimisation using different energy storage capacities on PV integration. The construction of an optimisation model is undertaken with the dual objectives of minimising curtailment losses and maximising the capacity factor. Through the implementation of scenario simulations, a coordinated control strategy is devised for divergent storage capacities, incorporating a charging approach during periods of photovoltaic over-generation and a discharging approach during instances of under-generation. Such an approach is coupled with marginal benefit analysis to simulate system performance under a range of technical conditions. The findings of the present study demonstrate that the implementation of storage coordination optimisation has the potential to result in a substantial reduction in curtailment losses and enhancement of the capacity factor. As energy storage capacity increases from 0 MWh to 10 MWh, curtailment losses decrease by approximately 52%, and capacity factors improve by about 11%. However, as storage capacity increases, the marginal benefits decrease. When storage capacity reaches 9 MWh, and the marginal rate of return exhibits a distinct critical point with increasing storage capacity per unit. The most critical parameter influencing the MRR (Marginal Rate of Return) is the Power Curtailment, which is the primary source of losses, and increasing the Power curtailment can immediately liberate substantial amounts of high-value, otherwise-curtailed solar energy.

Rising global population, socioeconomic development, industrialisation, lifestyle changes, mobility, and transportation all depend on fossil fuels. This reliance creates environmental pollution, CO2 emissions, depletion of fossil fuel resources, energy insecurity, and increased financial and environmental costs. Renewable energy sources, especially wind, provide a viable alternative to fossil fuels, decreasing reliance on them and mitigating environmental impacts. Despite considerable advances in the use of renewable wind energy for power generation, significant challenges persist in realising the full potential of this promising energy source. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to thoroughly examine global wind power generation, its distribution by region, and the challenges associated with using wind energy, such as issues with the global supply chain, equipment manufacturers, rare earth materials required for wind turbines, and a lack of skilled workforces in the wind energy sector. The major finding and novelty of the study includes a national action plan for wind power generation that encompasses diverse tasks and activities, which can be tailored to the specific requirements of a country. Additionally, the study proposed a classification of countries into six groups based on the availability of specific energy types within their national jurisdictions, aiming for an optimal energy mix to achieve energy security, sustainability, and climate impact mitigation. The other contribution of the study is outlining present difficulties, their origins, and potential solutions that governments, legislators, and other wind power stakeholders encounter while formulating strategies for wind power generation.

Copper antimony sulfide (Cu-Sb-S) has recently been proposed as an attractive alternative photovoltaic material due to the earth-abundant and non-toxic nature of the elements, high absorption coefficients and band gaps commensurate with efficient harvesting of solar photonic flux across multiple phases of Cu-Sb-S. These materials are therefore highly desirable and sustainable and scalable deposition techniques to produce them are of interest. In this paper, we demonstrate two facile, low-temperature and inexpensive techniques (solventless thermolysis and aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD)) for the preparation of binary digenite (Cu 1.8 S), chalcocite (Cu 2 S) and stibnite (Sb 2 S 3 ) and several phases of ternary copper-antimony-sulfide (Cu 2x Sb 2(1−x) S y , where 0 ≤ x ≤ 1). It was found that by utilising these different techniques and varying the ratio of Cu:Sb, pure phases of ternary chalcostibite (CuSbS 2 ), fematinite (Cu 3 SbS 4 ) and tetrahedrite (Cu 12 Sb 4 S 13 ) can be achieved. Two single-source precursors were investigated for this purpose, namely the diethyldithiocarbamate (DTC) complexes of copper and antimony Cu(DTC) 2 and Sb(DTC) 3 . These were decomposed both individually (to produce binary materials) and combined (to produce ternary materials) at different ratios. From the solventless thermolysis and AACVD methods, either particulate or thin film material was formed, respectively. These materials were then characterised by powder XRD, SEM, EDX and Raman spectroscopies to determine the crystalline phase, material morphology and uniformity of elemental composition. This analysis demonstrated that as the Cu-content increases, the phase of the ternary material changes from chalcostibite (CuSbS 2 ) and fematinite (Cu 3 SbS 4 ) at a low Cu:Sb ratio to tetrahedrite (Cu 12 Sb 4 S 13 ) at a high Cu:Sb ratio.

Formamidinium lead iodide (CH(NH 2 ) 2 PbI 3 , FAPI) thin films have been deposited on glass substrates at 150 °C using ambient pressure aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD). The films have been analysed by a range of techniques including powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, and UV–Vis–NIR absorption spectroscopy. Sharp reflections in the pXRD pattern can be indexed to the α-phase of FAPI which confirms the crystallinity of the as-deposited film and reveals a preferred growth orientation along the (002) plane with respect to the substrate. High magnification SEM images show that the thin film is comprised of a network of intimately connected FAPI crystallites which form a mesoporous architecture. EDX mapping of lead and iodine emission peaks show that the Pb and I within these films are spatially co-localised. Optical measurements show as-deposited FAPI films have absorption onsets in the near infra-red with a direct bandgap value of 1.46 eV, suitable for single junction solar cells. Four-point probe measurement of as deposited films show that the electrical conductivity (σ) of the FAPI thin film is 5.2 × 10 –7  S/cm, which is similar to FAPI thin films deposited by spin coating technique.

Passenger cars, sports utility vehicles (SUVs), and light trucks/vans, constituting the overwhelming majority of all road vehicles globally, burn about 25% of all fossil fuels, emit significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2), and deteriorate the environment. Nearly three-quarters of the engine power generated by burning fossil fuels is required to overcome aerodynamic resistance (drag) at highway driving speeds. Streamlining the body shape, especially the projected frontal area, can lead to a decrease in aerodynamic drag. Even though drag coefficients have plateaued since the late 1990s, further altering body shape might worsen vehicle cooling. Thus, the primary objective of this study is to explore the potential for aerodynamic drag reduction and improved cooling performance through careful component design unaffected by stylistic restraints. A variety of strategies for protecting the cooling intakes to reduce the drag coefficient are considered. The potential cooling drag reduction was found to be around 7% without compromising the cooling performance, which is in line with predictions for roughly 2.9% and 1.7% fuel consumption reductions for highway and city driving conditions, respectively. The study also reveals that passenger electric cars designed for city driving conditions possess a battery-to-kerb weight ratio of around one-quarter of the kerb weight, and vehicles designed for higher ranges have significantly higher ratios (nearly one-third), resulting in higher rolling resistance and energy consumption. The reduction of battery weight for EVs, streamlining vehicle shapes, and applying active and passive airflow management can help reduce aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance further, enhance driving range, and reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Renewable power generation is unpredictable due to its intermittency, making grid-connected microgrids difficult to operate, control, and manage. Currently used prediction models for electricity, heat, gas, and hydrogen multi-energy complementary microgrids with the carbon trading mechanism are inefficient as they cannot account for all eventualities and are not well studied. Therefore, a two-stage robust optimisation model based on Bidirectional Temporal Convolutional Networks (BiTCN) and Transformer prediction for electricity, heat, gas, and hydrogen multi-energy complementary microgrids with a carbon trading mechanism is proposed to solve this problem. First, BiTCN extracts implicit wind speed and wind power output sequences from historical data and feeds it into the Transformer model for point prediction using the attention mechanism. Ablation computation modelling is then performed. The proposed prediction model’s Mean Absolute Error (MAE) is found to be 1.3512, and its R2 is 0.9683, proving its efficacy and reliability. Second, the proposed model is used to perform interval prediction in two typical scenarios: high wind power and low wind power. After constructing the robust optimisation model uncertainty set based on the prediction results, simulation experiments are performed on the proposed optimisation model. The simulation results suggest that the proposed optimisation model enhances renewable energy use, emissions reductions, microgrid operating costs, and system reliability. The study also reveals that the total system cost and carbon emission cost in the low wind scenario are 283% (2.83 times) and 314% (3.14 times) higher than in the high wind scenario; hence, a significant percentage of renewable energy is needed for microgrid stability.

High temperatures in photovoltaic (PV) modules lead to the degradation of electrical efficiency. To address the challenge of reducing the temperature of photovoltaic modules and enhancing their electrical power output efficiency, a simple but efficient photovoltaic cooling system based on heat pipes (PV-HP) is introduced in this study. Through experimental and numerical investigations, this study delves into the temperature characteristics and power output performance of the PV-HP system. Orthogonal tests are conducted to discern the influence of different factors on the PV-HP system. The experimental findings indicate that the performance of the PV-HP system is superior to that of the single system without heat pipes. The numerical simulation shows the effects of system structural parameters (number of heat pipes, angle of heat pipe condensation section) on system temperature and power output performance. The numerical simulation results show that increasing the angle of the heat pipe condensation section and the number of heat pipes leads to a significant drop in system temperature and an increase in the efficiency of the photovoltaic cells.

Silver(I) ethylxanthate [AgS 2 COEt] ( 1 ) and antimony(III) ethylxanthate [Sb(S 2 COEt) 3 ] ( 2 ) have been synthesised, characterised and used as precursors for the preparation of AgSbS 2 powders and thin films using a solvent-free melt method and spin coating technique, respectively. The as-synthesized AgSbS 2 powders were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The crystalline AgSbS 2 powder was investigated using XRD, which shows that AgSbS 2 has cuboargyrite as the dominant phase, which was also confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. SEM was also used to study the morphology of the resulting material which is potentially nanostructured. EDX spectra gives a clear indication of the presence of silver (Ag), antimony (Sb) and sulfur (S) in material, suggesting that decomposition is clean and produces high quality AgSbS 2 crystalline powder, which is consistent with the XRD and Raman data. Electronic properties of AgSbS 2 thin films deposited by spin coating show a p-type conductivity with measured carrier mobility of 81 cm 2  V −1  s −1 and carrier concentration of 1.9 × 10 15  cm −3 . The findings of this study reveal a new bottom-up route to these compounds, which have potential application as absorber layers in solar cells.

Tin(II) sulfide (SnS) is an attractive semiconductor for solar energy conversion in thin film devices due to its bandgap of around 1.3 eV in its orthorhombic polymorph, and a band gap energy of 1.5–1.7 eV for the cubic polymorph—both of which are commensurate with efficient light harvesting, combined with a high absorption coefficient (10−4 cm−1) across the NIR–visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, leading to theoretical power conversion efficiencies >30%. The high natural abundance and a relative lack of toxicity of its constituent elements means that such devices could potentially be inexpensive, sustainable, and accessible to most nations. SnS exists in its orthorhombic form as a layer structure similar to black phosphorus; therefore, the bandgap energy can be tuned by thinning the material to nanoscale dimensions. These and other properties enable SnS applications in optoelectronic devices (photovoltaics, photodetectors), lithium- and sodium-ion batteries, and sensors among others with a significant potential for a variety of future applications. The synthetic routes, structural, optical and electronic properties as well as their applications (in particular photonic applications and energy storage) of bulk and 2D tin(II) sulfide are reviewed herein.