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Phase Change Foam Sustains Solar Desalination Through Low Light And Darkness
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 01, 2026
Researchers from Ocean University of China and Huzhou University have developed a phase-change photothermal foam that continues to produce freshwater after sunlight fades, addressing one of the core limitations of solar-driven desalination technology.
The material, designated PPy-CS/PF@DDA, is constructed by confining dodecylamine inside a polypyrrole-coated chitosan/phenolic resin foam. P
Researchers from Ocean University of China and Huzhou University have developed a phase-change photothermal foam that continues to produce freshwater after sunlight fades, addressing one of the core limitations of solar-driven desalination technology.
The material, designated PPy-CS/PF@DDA, is constructed by confining dodecylamine inside a polypyrrole-coated chitosan/phenolic resin foam. P 
A new study published in the journal Biochar demonstrates that combining biochar with advanced polyzwitterionic hydrogels can sharply improve the performance of solar-driven water evaporation systems, offering a practical pathway toward low-energy desalination and water purification.
Freshwater scarcity continues to intensify globally, with the vast majority of Earth's water locked in ocea 
Perovskite solar cells have emerged as one of the most promising next-generation photovoltaic technologies, but their development still depends heavily on time-consuming trial-and-error synthesis and labor-intensive device fabrication. Researchers from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and collaborating institutions have now reported an agentic robotics system that carries out the full cycle 
Inverted perovskite solar cells are widely considered the future of next-generation photovoltaics due to their high efficiency, low cost, and ease of manufacturing. A collaborative research team from the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has proposed a new approach to stabilizing the delicate interfaces inside these devices, 
Using three-dimensional electron diffraction (3D ED), researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat (FAU) Erlangen-Nurnberg have demonstrated that electrons can provide the averaged structural information previously accessible only with X-rays. For the first time, this allows a comprehensive structural characterization of organic solar cells within a single instrument - a transmission electron 
Researchers have developed a feature selection-based solar irradiance forecasting method to improve the operation of stand-alone photovoltaic systems. The approach uses a bidirectional long short-term memory hybrid network to forecast solar irradiance and then applies the forecasted data to estimate the optimum tilt angle of photovoltaic panels, helping increase PV output power.
Solar irra 
Researchers have developed a fast prediction and suppression method for transient piston displacement overshoot in free piston Stirling generators, addressing a fault condition that can quickly escalate into mechanical damage in solar thermal power systems. The new approach detects dangerous overshoot without relying on displacement sensors and suppresses the fault response early enough to maint 
Researchers have proposed an improved energy management system for a stand-alone hybrid photovoltaic and proton exchange membrane fuel cell microgrid, aiming to maintain DC-link stability while reducing converter count, battery stress, and hydrogen use. The system integrates photovoltaic generation, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, and battery energy storage to improve reliability under cha 
Rice University chemical engineers have developed a method to make perovskite-based photovoltaics more durable by driving the material directly into its desirable black crystal phase while making it harder to degrade into an inactive yellow phase.
Aditya Mohite and collaborators used two key additives in the precursor solution to create perovskite crystalline films that retained 98 percent 
Researchers at Chiba University have developed the first universal model for energy level alignment at electrode, hole-collecting monolayer, and perovskite interfaces in solar cells, establishing a physically consistent framework that explains and provides guidelines for material performance across diverse combinations.
A team led by Professor Hiroyuki Yoshida from the Graduate School of E 
Researchers have achieved a power conversion efficiency of 20.21 percent in pseudo-planar heterojunction organic solar cells by introducing a crystalline polymer buffer layer that shields against solvent-induced erosion during fabrication.
The study, published in Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, addresses a persistent challenge in layer-by-layer deposition. During application of the top 
Researchers have identified previously unknown materials, including a new form of a widely studied clean-energy material, by carefully controlling and tracking how molecular precursors break down during heating. The study, published in Nature Communications, uncovers a series of hidden intermediate stages that appear when molecules are heated to become materials.
Capturing these intermedia 
Chemists at the University of Warwick have identified a series of previously unknown materials formed during the heating of molecular precursors, including a new structural form of bismuth vanadate, a well-studied clean-energy compound with potential roles in solar fuel generation and next-generation batteries.
The findings, published April 30 in Nature Communications, show that the interm 
Researchers at LMU Munich have developed a targeted surface treatment for perovskite solar cell electrodes that improves molecular contact, boosting device efficiency, reproducibility, and long-term stability. The findings, published in Advanced Energy Materials, challenge a widely held assumption about electrode preparation and open new pathways for engineering high-performance photovoltaic con 
Reliable electricity supply is critical in desert environments, where cooling systems must function continuously during heatwaves to protect human health. Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have demonstrated that explicitly accounting for extreme weather events during the design phase of community-scale renewable energy systems can prevent dangerous electri 