GoKawiilSince the 2015 Paris climate agreement, increasing efforts have been made to minimize greenhouse-gas emissions and to conduct research into ways to provide green energy reliably. Wind and solar energy could power the world electrically, but the intermittency of these sources remains a challenge, and existing energy infrastructure would need to be electrified to replace fossil fuels. Another solution is to use hydrogen as a fuel, producing it directly from water in a catalytic process driven by sunlight. Polymer catalysts hold great promise for this, but their efficiency at harnessing sunlight has lagged behind that of inorganic materials. Writing in Nature, Zhuzhang et al.1 report how high efficiency can be achieved and sustained using polymer catalysts.
Nature 656, 569-570 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02373-z
References Zhuzhang, H. et al. Nature 656, 624–629 (2026). Hisatomi, T., Yamada, T., Nishiyama, H., Takata, T. & Domen, K. Nature Rev. Mater. 10, 769–782 (2025). Savateev, O., Antonietti, M. & Wang, X. (eds) Carbon Nitrides: Structure, Properties and Applications in Science and Technology (Walter DeGruyter, 2023). Kosco, J. et al. Nature Energy 7, 340–351 (2022). Download references
Competing Interests The author declares no competing interests.
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