Application of Nanomaterials as Catalysts for Energy Storage and Conversion

Dear Colleagues,

There is an unprecedented global energy crisis due to the limited sources of fossil fuels and related pollution and conversion issues. The need for energy is increasing like never before due to global economic development. This situation forces us to concentrate on renewable sources like solar, wind and hydrogen energies to mitigate environmental changes. In this regard, the development of new highly efficient, low-cost, and durable materials is required for energy storage and conversion to ensure sustainable economic growth. Nanoparticles have great significance in energy generation, conversion, and storage as they are efficient catalysts for accelerating chemical reactions.

Nanomaterials prepared via simple procedures exhibit efficient catalytic activities compared with bulk counterparts produced using expensive techniques. Nanoparticles of different composite materials can have high surface areas with high dispersion ability, and consequently, the catalytic activities are increased. These nanoparticles are synthesized without agglomeration, and uniform size distribution is key for the preparation of efficient catalytic materials. As these nanoparticles provide more active sites due it their high specific surface areas, they can increase the rates of chemical reactions and related efficiencies. Moreover, nanoparticles can be tailored to be comprehensively suitable for specific applications, and the highly selective control of reactions can be achieved by precisely manipulating the sizes, shapes, and compositions of nanoparticles. This case-dependent selective preparation of nanoparticles with improved catalytic performance reduces the generation of unnecessary by-products, minimizing cost and time. In very small nanoparticles, quantum confinement effects take place, which can further improve catalytic performance. In addition, the surface modification of nanoparticles with different functional groups provides multifunctional catalysts such as electro, photo, magneto, and photo-electro catalysts with recovery and reuse properties. More recently, nanoparticles have been widely used in various advanced and new applications due to their improved and highly efficient catalytic activities. The exploration of nanoparticles is expected to promote science and technology in future. These improved catalytic activities of nanoparticles are very much required in energy, environmental, and pharmaceutical fields to speed up research.

In this present Special Issue, we invite research and review articles from various groups working on related studies to contribute a collection of research outcomes that benefit society in state-of-the-art areas of the field. It will mainly focus on various efficient and affordable materials for batteries, supercapacitors, and solar and fuel cells and related designs and developments. Further, it will study the synthesis and characterization of materials encompassing energy-related physical and chemical property measurements and the fabrication and evaluation of different devices for energy storage and conversion applications and their evaluations. Alternative materials such as renewable or waste materials and their processing and properties for efficient electrode materials can also be considered to be sustainable materials.

Dr. Kathalingam Adaikalam
Dr. K. Karuppasamy
Guest Editors

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• metal and oxide nanoparticles
• complex nanoparticles
• nanoparticle catalysts
• materials for energy storage and conversion
• solar energy
• water splitting
• hydrogen energy
• sustainable material management