Recent Advances in Silica-Based Nanomaterials for Energy and Environmental Applications
A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Crystalline Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 348
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Silica and silica-based composite nanomaterials are an important class of functional materials that have been widely employed due to their unique and tailorable physicochemical characteristics, which include large surface areas and excellent chemical, thermal, and mechanical stabilities. Silica has a wide range of conventional uses in industrial and engineering materials to make consumer products to improve quality of life. Exploiting nature’s principles of silica biomimicry via advanced characterization techniques has led to unprecedented insights into the mechanisms and capabilities in the design and development of novel synthetic methods. Predictive capabilities provided by new approaches to modeling have, in turn, served as a guide for improving synthesis. Recent advances in synthetic techniques such as microemulsion, sol-gel, in situ casting, flame-based, and hydrothermal methods have made it possible to synthesize silica and silica-based composite materials with well-defined sizes, shapes, and morphologies. Their geometries and the precise control of immobilizing functional groups that provide the intra- and intermolecular interactions depend on the nanoscale architectures that dictate their functions. These insights afforded by the experimental and modeling efforts have led to the realization of these materials for energy storage and harvesting, optoelectronics, sensing, functional membrane, catalytic, biomedical, environmental, and biotechnological applications.
This Special Issue will address recent advances in this field and cover the wide range of research into silica and silica-based composite nanomaterials, from the fundamentals to potential applications. The topics addressed in this Special Issue (which is not limited to these) are listed in the keywords.
Prof. Dr. Sungwook Chung
Guest Editor
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. Crystals 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 2600 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
- silica
- silica-based composites
- nanostructured materials
- novel syntheses and chemical functionalization techniques
- advanced characterizations
- theory and modeling of nanostructured material formation
- energy storage devices
- battery electrode materials
- photonic and electronic devices
- sensing devices
- catalysis
- membranes
- drug delivery
- environmental remediation
- biomass
- biorefinery
