{"id":462963,"date":"2026-05-01T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/462963\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T09:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:00:12","slug":"a-clean-energy-future-hidden-in-between-materials-to-build-solar-fuels-and-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/462963\/","title":{"rendered":"A clean energy future: Hidden &#8220;in-between&#8221; materials to build solar fuels and batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.openaccessgovernment.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/iStock-498170668-scaled.jpg\" data-caption=\"image: \u00a9akinshin | iStock \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/iStock-498170668-696x464.jpg\"   alt=\"Fragment of the solar battery\" title=\"Fragment of the solar battery\"\/><\/a>image: \u00a9akinshin | iStock<br \/>\n            University of Warwick scientists have uncovered a \u201chidden\u201d version of a clean-energy material (\u03b2-BiVO4) and new battery-friendly structures by studying the intermediate stages of chemical heating<\/p>\n<p>These \u201cin-between\u201d materials, previously overlooked by science, offer new ways to tune the efficiency of solar hydrogen production and increase the storage capacity of future batteries.<\/p>\n<p>Published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-71702-7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Nature Communications, the study reveals that the transition<\/a> from a starting chemical (A) to a final product (B) contains several intermediate stages that possess unique, useful properties for solar fuels and batteries.<\/p>\n<p>\u03b2-BiVO4<\/p>\n<p>One of the most significant finds is a previously unknown form of bismuth vanadate, dubbed BiVO4. Bismuth vanadate is a superstar in the clean energy world because its \u201cband gap\u201d allows it to absorb sunlight efficiently enough to split water and create hydrogen fuel.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Atomic structure:\n<ul>\n<li>The new \u03b2-variant has a different atomic arrangement than the standard form.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Tuning performance:\n<ul>\n<li>It possesses a significantly larger band gap, which changes how it interacts with light. This discovery provides scientists with a new \u201cdial\u201d to tune the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.openaccessgovernment.org\/molecular-catapult-discovery-could-transform-solar-energy-technology\/205931\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> performance of solar cells<\/a> and electronic devices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Beyond solar fuels: A boost for batteries<\/p>\n<p>The study\u2019s implications extend into the world of energy storage. One of the other \u201cin-between\u201d materials identified during the heating process demonstrated a remarkable ability to store large amounts of lithium. This suggests that these intermediate phases, which were previously ignored or unseen, could be key components for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.openaccessgovernment.org\/?s=battery#:~:text=The%20CO2%20redox%20flow%20battery%3A%20Bridging%20energy%20resilience%2C%20decarbonization%2C%20and%20sustainability\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">next-generation battery technologies.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Seeing the invisible<\/p>\n<p>To capture these fleeting \u201cstepping stone\u201d materials, the team combined several advanced imaging and analysis techniques:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Solid-state NMR spectroscopy:\n<ul>\n<li>Used to look at the local environment of atoms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>X-ray diffraction and pair distribution function analysis:\n<ul>\n<li>Used to map out the physical structure of the materials as they changed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By carefully controlling the chemistry of the starting molecules (precursors) and the temperature at which they are heated, the team proved they can \u201cfreeze\u201d these kinetic stages that are otherwise impossible to create using standard manufacturing methods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image: \u00a9akinshin | iStock University of Warwick scientists have uncovered a \u201chidden\u201d version of a clean-energy material (\u03b2-BiVO4)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[74],"tags":[90547,18,19,17,8917,82],"class_list":["post-462963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-battery-research","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-solar-energy","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116498505950004993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}