Nanostructures and Nanomaterials for Advanced Catalysis and Energy Conversion Applications

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanostructured Catalysts".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2022) | Viewed by 6969

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
2. Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
3. College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Interests: advanced functional nanomaterials; electrochemistry; electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies; next-generation batteries

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Guest Editor
Institute for Advanced Study, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong, China
Interests: nanostructures and nanomaterials; catalysis; electrochemical energy conversion and storage

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Guest Editor
Institute for Tropical Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology 18 Hoang Quoc Viet Road, Caugiay, Hanoi, Vietnam
Interests: nanomaterials; advanced catalysis; electrochemistry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Presently, green energy is a key parameter for measuring global progress. This is due to the reduction in the use of fossil fuels, increase in oil prices, and the growing effect of human activities on the Earth's ecological system and, more importantly, high energy demand. Crises are enabling a shift in market interest from conventional fossil fuels to environmentally friendly and sustainable energy resources. Today, utilization of renewable energy resources is considered a promising avenue to enable the economic and social development of society. Therefore, advances in sustainable and renewable energy conversion and storage technologies with low-cost and remarkable efficiency are regarded as more important than ever. From this perspective, the search for low-cost, efficient and eco-friendly catalyst materials for these key photo- and/or electrocatalytic reactions is a potential area of research for the development of sustainable energy resources.

Material science and electrochemistry are two of the major branches in modern science, which support each other in terms of consistent development. Advances in nanomaterial synthesis and its usage in photo- and/or electrocatalysis has attracted noteworthy attention from researchers around the world. In this context, tuning the physicochemical properties of the nanostructures and nanomaterial significantly increases the rate of reaction during photo and/or electrocatalysis. The unique properties of nanostructures and nanomaterials, such as electrical conductivity, porosity, topography, surface area to volume ratio and type/nature of catalytic active centers, directly affects the intermediate adsorption free energy, charge-transfer kinetics, and reaction kinetics of electrochemical reactions.

The topics in this Special Issue, entitled “Nanostructures and Nanomaterials for Advanced Catalysis and Energy Conversion Applications”, mainly comprise the design and development of the new nanoscale functional materials for advanced catalysis and next-generation energy conversion applications. The main purpose is to obtain an in-depth scientific understanding of the novel synthesis strategies and application of nanostructured materials with unique morphologies and inimitable properties for high-performance catalytic and various energy conversion reactions.

Original research and review articles for this Special Issue include but are not limited to the following potential topics:

  • Photo- and/or electrocatalysis;
  • Energy conversion reactions: oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR), nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), CO2 reduction reaction (CO2 RR), etc.;
  • Photo- and/or electrochemical water splitting;
  • Fuel cells: solid oxide fuel cells, phosphoric acid fuel cells, alkaline fuel cells, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, etc.;
  • Advanced catalysts for lithium–sulfur batteries, Zn-CO2 batteries, metal-air batteries, etc.

We gladly invite you to submit an article to this Special Issue, which offers a great opportunity to publish your latest findings in the relevant research directions. Full papers, communications, and/or review articles will be considered in this Special Issue. We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. Ghulam Yasin
Dr. Shumaila Ibraheem
Dr. Tuan Anh Nguyen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nanoscale functional materials
  • new synthesis strategies
  • electrocatalysis
  • photocatalysis
  • water splitting
  • hydrogen production
  • energy conversion reactions
  • fuel cells
  • metal–air batteries
  • lithium–sulfur batteries

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 5040 KiB  
Article
Antibacterial Activity Assessment of Bi2WO6/Ag3PO4/Ag Photocatalyst and Persian Oak fruit Phytobiotic
by Mohsen Azizi, Kheibar Dashtian, Fereshteh Amourizi, Asghar Sharifi, Mehrorang Ghaedi, Vahid Pezeshkpour, Arsalan Azizi, Shapor Aghaee, Seyed Abdolmajid Khosravani and Ghulam Yasin
Catalysts 2022, 12(9), 1027; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12091027 - 09 Sep 2022
Viewed by 1392
Abstract
The antibacterial effect of the previously reported Bi2WO6/Ag3PO4/Ag Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst compared with a phytobiotics named, aqueous extract of Persian Oak fruit. The impact of both materials on the expression of the urease gene [...] Read more.
The antibacterial effect of the previously reported Bi2WO6/Ag3PO4/Ag Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst compared with a phytobiotics named, aqueous extract of Persian Oak fruit. The impact of both materials on the expression of the urease gene was checked in two kinds of samples such as clinical and standard Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). The gene expression differences were collected by real-time PCR from clinical strains and the standard of H. pylori as well as the MIC and MBC were found to be 3.1 and 0.8 mg/mL, and 6.2 and 1.6 mg/mL, for Bi2WO6/Ag3PO4/Ag photocatalyst and Oak fruit Phytobiotics, respectively. Due to the impact of Oak fruit extract on the urease gene of H. pylori, it is possible to use it as a disinfector against this bacterium and the proposed photocatalyst, for efficiently purifying H. pylori bacteria from contaminated environment. Full article
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19 pages, 3424 KiB  
Article
Effect of Different Iron Phases of Fe/SiO2 Catalyst in CO2 Hydrogenation under Mild Conditions
by Paphatsara Sirikulbodee, Monrudee Phongaksorn, Thana Sornchamni, Tanakorn Ratana and Sabaithip Tungkamani
Catalysts 2022, 12(7), 698; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12070698 - 25 Jun 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2612
Abstract
The effect of different active phases of Fe/SiO2 catalyst on the physio-chemical properties and the catalytic performance in CO2 hydrogenation under mild conditions (at 220 °C under an ambient pressure) was comprehensively studied in this work. The Fe/SiO2 catalyst was [...] Read more.
The effect of different active phases of Fe/SiO2 catalyst on the physio-chemical properties and the catalytic performance in CO2 hydrogenation under mild conditions (at 220 °C under an ambient pressure) was comprehensively studied in this work. The Fe/SiO2 catalyst was prepared by an incipient wetness impregnation method. Hematite (Fe2O3) in the calcined Fe/SiO2 catalyst was activated by hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen followed by carbon monoxide, to form a metallic iron (Fe/SiO2-h), an iron carbide (Fe/SiO2-c), and a combination of a metallic iron and an iron carbide (Fe/SiO2-hc), respectively. All activated catalysts were characterized by XRD, Raman spectroscopy, N2 adsorption–desorption, H2-TPR, CO-TPR, H2-TPD, CO2-TPD, CO-TPD, NH3-TPD, and tested in a CO2 hydrogenation reaction. The different phases of the Fe/SiO2 catalyst are formed by different activation procedures and different reducing agents (H2 and CO). Among three different activated catalysts, the Fe/SiO2-c provides the highest CO2 hydrogenation performance in terms of maximum CO2 conversion, as well as the greatest selectivity toward long-chain hydrocarbon products, with the highest chain growth probability of 0.7. This is owing to a better CO2 and CO adsorption ability and a greater acidity on the carbide form of the Fe/SiO2-c surface, which are essential properties of catalysts for polymerization in FTs. Full article
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9 pages, 6059 KiB  
Article
Sulfur Vacancies Enriched 2D ZnIn2S4 Nanosheets for Improving Photoelectrochemical Performance
by Sujuan Hu, Li Jin, Wangyu Si, Baoling Wang and Mingshan Zhu
Catalysts 2022, 12(4), 400; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12040400 - 05 Apr 2022
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 2353
Abstract
Vacancies engineering based on semiconductors is an effective method to enhance photoelectrochemical activity. Herein, we used a facile one-step solvothermal method to prepare sulfur vacancies modified ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) ZnIn2S4 nanosheets. The photon-to-current efficiency of sulfur vacancies modified ultrathin 2D [...] Read more.
Vacancies engineering based on semiconductors is an effective method to enhance photoelectrochemical activity. Herein, we used a facile one-step solvothermal method to prepare sulfur vacancies modified ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) ZnIn2S4 nanosheets. The photon-to-current efficiency of sulfur vacancies modified ultrathin 2D ZnIn2S4 nanosheets is 1.82-fold than ZnIn2S4 nanosheets without sulfur vacancies and 2.04-fold than multilayer ZnIn2S4. The better performances can be attributed to the introduced sulfur vacancies in ZnIn2S4, which influence the electronic structure of ZnIn2S4 to absorb more visible light and act as the electrons trapping sites to suppress the recombination of photo-generated carriers. These results provide a new route to designing efficient photocatalyst by introducing sulfur vacancies. Full article
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