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Nanomaterials
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Inkjet Printing of Nanomaterials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy
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Inkjet Printing of Nanomaterials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy and Catalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 8072

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Rumen I. Tomov

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Interests: nanomaterials; material characterization; printed electronics; ink printing technology; thin films and nanotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The true beginning of inkjet printing technology (IJP) commercialization began in the second half of the 20th century, when IJP was implemented for industrial computer graphics applications. Graphical representation still remains its main conventional use today. In recent years, however, different inkjet printing technologies have been utilized to facilitate the functionalization of various energy-related nanomaterials. The effort was driven by the obvious advantages of IJP:

  • Delivery of inks in precisely controlled small amounts (from picoliters to nanoliters).
  • Suitability for dispensing a wide range of materials – inorganic (e.g., metals, ceramics, sealants) and organic (e.g., polymers, tissues, adhesives, enzymes).
  • Elimination of expensive ink wastage due to the computerized (i.e., drop-on-demand (DoD)) method of delivery.
  • Non-contact nature, allowing work on a variety of substrates (including fragile, flexible, patterned, or reactive) and with nanomaterials sensitive to mechanical pressure.
  • Reduction of production and capital costs due to avoidance of high vacuum methods and high-resolution lithography.
  • Accurate positional placement permitting creation of high-resolution 2D and 3D patterning.

The ever-increasing demand for renewable and sustainable energy requires the development of more efficient and accessible technologies for energy generation, storage, control, and utilization achievable through the use of nanotechnology. Nanomaterials have shown remarkable potential to add targeted functionality to the original material systems, e.g., enhancing catalytically performances, mechanical strength, high surface area, tailored anisotropy, improved sinterability, biocompatibility, etc.

Illustrating the inherent advantages of the combination of IJP and nanomaterials, this Special Issue focuses on inkjet printing of nanomaterials for renewable and sustainable energy application, including but not restricted to:

  • Fuel cells, photovoltaics, and thermoelectric generation
  • Batteries and supercapacitor storage
  • Photo- and electrocatalytic processes for hydrogen evolution and fuel conversion
  • Flexible and van der Waals electronics, 2D materials
  • Nanoscale semiconductor applications
  • Superconducting transmission lines, cryoelectronics, and energy storage

We invite authors to contribute original research articles, short communications, or comprehensive reviews covering the recent progress in the application of inkjet printing of nanomaterials, offering feasible solutions to global energy and sustainability challenges.

Dr. Rumen I. Tomov
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. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2900 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

  • inkjet printing
  • nanomaterials
  • energy devices
  • commercialization

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 4988 KiB  
Article
Solid Oxide Cell Electrode Nanocomposites Fabricated by Inkjet Printing Infiltration of Ceria Scaffolds
by Simone Anelli, Luis Moreno-Sanabria, Federico Baiutti, Marc Torrell and Albert Tarancón
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(12), 3435; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11123435 - 18 Dec 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2542
Abstract
The enhancement of solid oxide cell (SOC) oxygen electrode performance through the generation of nanocomposite electrodes via infiltration using wet-chemistry processes has been widely studied in recent years. An efficient oxygen electrode consists of a porous backbone and an active catalyst, which should [...] Read more.
The enhancement of solid oxide cell (SOC) oxygen electrode performance through the generation of nanocomposite electrodes via infiltration using wet-chemistry processes has been widely studied in recent years. An efficient oxygen electrode consists of a porous backbone and an active catalyst, which should provide ionic conductivity, high catalytic activity and electronic conductivity. Inkjet printing is a versatile additive manufacturing technique, which can be used for reliable and homogeneous functionalization of SOC electrodes via infiltration for either small- or large-area devices. In this study, we implemented the utilization of an inkjet printer for the automatic functionalization of different gadolinium-doped ceria scaffolds, via infiltration with ethanol:water-based La1−xSrxCo1−yFeyO3−δ (LSCF) ink. Scaffolds based on commercial and mesoporous Gd-doped ceria (CGO) powders were used to demonstrate the versatility of inkjet printing as an infiltration technique. Using yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) commercial electrolytes, symmetrical LSCF/LSCF–CGO/YSZ/LSCF–CGO/LSCF cells were fabricated via infiltration and characterized by SEM-EDX, XRD and EIS. Microstructural analysis demonstrated the feasibility and reproducibility of the process. Electrochemical characterization lead to an ASR value of ≈1.2 Ω cm2 at 750 °C, in the case of nanosized rare earth-doped ceria scaffolds, with the electrode contributing ≈0.18 Ω cm2. These results demonstrate the feasibility of inkjet printing as an infiltration technique for SOC fabrication. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inkjet Printing of Nanomaterials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy)
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14 pages, 3642 KiB  
Article
Inkjet Printing Infiltration of the Doped Ceria Interlayer in Commercial Anode-Supported SOFCs
by Rumen I. Tomov, Thomas B. Mitchel-Williams, Eleonora Venezia, Michal Kawalec, Mariusz Krauz, Ramachandran Vasant Kumar and Bartek A. Glowacki
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(11), 3095; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11113095 - 16 Nov 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1754
Abstract
Single-step inkjet printing infiltration with doped ceria Ce0.9Ye0.1O1.95 (YDC) and cobalt oxide (CoxOy) precursor inks was performed in order to modify the properties of the doped ceria interlayer in commercial (50 × 50 × [...] Read more.
Single-step inkjet printing infiltration with doped ceria Ce0.9Ye0.1O1.95 (YDC) and cobalt oxide (CoxOy) precursor inks was performed in order to modify the properties of the doped ceria interlayer in commercial (50 × 50 × 0.5 mm3 size) anode-supported SOFCs. The penetration of the inks throughout the La0.8Sr0.2Co0.5Fe0.5O3−δ porous cathode to the Gd0.1Ce0.9O2 (GDC) interlayer was achieved by optimisation of the inks’ rheology jetting parameters. The low-temperature calcination (750 °C) resulted in densification of the Gd-doped ceria porous interlayer as well as decoration of the cathode scaffold with nanoparticles (~20–50 nm in size). The I–V testing in pure hydrogen showed a maximum power density gain of ~20% at 700 °C and ~97% at 800 °C for the infiltrated cells. The latter effect was largely assigned to the improvement in the interfacial Ohmic resistance due to the densification of the interlayer. The EIS study of the polarisation losses of the reference and infiltrated cells revealed a reduction in the activation polarisations losses at 700 °C due to the nano-decoration of the La0.8Sr0.2Co0.5Fe0.5O3−δ scaffold surface. Such was not the case at 800 °C, where the drop in Ohmic losses was dominant. This work demonstrated that single-step inkjet printing infiltration, a non-disruptive, low-cost technique, can produce significant and scalable performance enhancements in commercial anode-supported SOFCs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inkjet Printing of Nanomaterials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy)
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16 pages, 3280 KiB  
Article
Direct Fabrication of Micron-Thickness PVA-CNT Patterned Films by Integrating Micro-Pen Writing of PVA Films and Drop-on-Demand Printing of CNT Micropatterns
by Jun Luo, Zhixuan Zhao, Lehua Qi, Hongcheng Lian and Yufang Zhao
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(9), 2335; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11092335 - 08 Sep 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2244
Abstract
The direct fabrication of micron-thickness patterned electronics consisting of patterned PVA films and CNT micropatterns still faces considerable challenges. Here, we demonstrated the integrated fabrication of PVA films of micron-thickness and CNT-based patterns by utilising micro-pen writing and drop-on-demand printing in sequence. Patterned [...] Read more.
The direct fabrication of micron-thickness patterned electronics consisting of patterned PVA films and CNT micropatterns still faces considerable challenges. Here, we demonstrated the integrated fabrication of PVA films of micron-thickness and CNT-based patterns by utilising micro-pen writing and drop-on-demand printing in sequence. Patterned PVA films of 1–5 μm in thickness were written first using proper micro-pen writing parameters, including the writing gap, the substrate moving velocity, and the working pressure. Then, CNT droplets were printed on PVA films that were cured at 55–65 °C for 3–15 min, resulting in neat CNT patterns. In addition, an inertia-pseudopartial wetting spreading model was established to release the dynamics of the droplet spreading process over thin viscoelastic films. Uniform and dense CNT lines with a porosity of 2.2% were printed on PVA substrates that were preprocessed at 55 °C for 9 min using a staggered overwriting method with the proper number of layers. Finally, we demonstrated the feasibility of this hybrid printing method by printing a patterned PVA-CNT film and a micro-ribbon. This study provides a valid method for directly fabricating micron-thickness PVA-CNT electronics. The proposed method can also provide guidance on the direct writing of other high-molecular polymer materials and printing inks of other nanosuspensions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inkjet Printing of Nanomaterials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy)
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8 pages, 3863 KiB  
Article
Additive-Enhanced Exfoliation for High-Yield 2D Materials Production
by Dinh-Tuan Nguyen, Hsiang-An Ting, Yen-Hsun Su, Mario Hofmann and Ya-Ping Hsieh
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(3), 601; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11030601 - 28 Feb 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2510
Abstract
The success of van-der-Waals electronics, which combine large-scale-deposition capabilities with high device performance, relies on the efficient production of suitable 2D materials. Shear exfoliation of 2D materials’ flakes from bulk sources can generate 2D materials with low amounts of defects, but the production [...] Read more.
The success of van-der-Waals electronics, which combine large-scale-deposition capabilities with high device performance, relies on the efficient production of suitable 2D materials. Shear exfoliation of 2D materials’ flakes from bulk sources can generate 2D materials with low amounts of defects, but the production yield has been limited below industry requirements. Here, we introduce additive-assisted exfoliation (AAE) as an approach to significantly increase the efficiency of shear exfoliation and produce an exfoliation yield of 30%. By introducing micrometer-sized particles that do not exfoliate, the gap between rotor and stator was dynamically reduced to increase the achievable shear rate. This enhancement was applied to WS2 and MoS2 production, which represent two of the most promising 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides. Spectroscopic characterization and cascade centrifugation reveal a consistent and significant increase in 2D material concentrations across all thickness ranges. Thus, the produced WS2 films exhibit high thickness uniformity in the nanometer-scale and can open up new routes for 2D materials production towards future applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inkjet Printing of Nanomaterials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy)
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