Overview
- The peer-reviewed study, published April 30 in Nature Communications, identifies previously unknown in-between phases that appear as molecular precursors are heated.
- The team reports a kinetically stabilized beta-BiVO4 with a larger band gap, the light energy needed to excite electrons, which changes how the material absorbs sunlight for solar-fuel chemistry.
- Another intermediate showed high lithium storage capacity, pointing to possible use in next-generation battery materials.
- By designing single-source precursors that bundle all required elements and monitoring changes with solid-state NMR, X-ray diffraction, and pair distribution function analysis, the researchers steered which structures formed.
- The authors call the work an early proof of principle based on a small set of precursors and say broader screens, reproducibility checks, and device tests will be needed to gauge practical performance.