Polymeric Materials for Sustainable Catalysis and Energy Applications

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Crystalline Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2026 | Viewed by 1132

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry and Biology “Adolfo Zambelli”, University of Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy
Interests: design, synthesis and characterization of organometallic compounds and transition metal complexes; design, synthesis and characterization of heterogeneous catalysts; H2 production; photocatalysis; ring-opening polymerization

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry and Biology “Adolfo Zambelli”, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084 Fisciano, Italy
Interests: nanoparticles; polymers; catalysts; hydrogen; carbon dioxide; biomass
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Institute of Organometallic Chemistry (ICCOM)–National Research Council (CNR), Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Firenze, Italy
Interests: electrocatalysis; hydrogen; fuel cells; electrolysis; carbon capture and storage

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to bring together a collection of high-quality bibliographies focused on the development of polymeric materials for sustainable catalysis and energy applications. Polymeric materials represent one of the classes of supports that can be used for anchoring and stabilizing metal nanoparticles to obtain heterogeneous catalysts. The development of heterogeneous catalysts has always been a topic of great interest, in particular for industrial applications where they are preferred to homogeneous catalysts as they are easier to recycle. Unlike inorganic supports, polymers can be chemically functionalized to control hydrophobic/hydrophilic and acidity/basicity character, as well as the permeability of certain substrates. Their swelling with appropriate solvents can modulate the access of reactants to the catalyst, thereby improving, for example, the entry of organic compounds over others to direct or enhance the regio- and chemoselectivity of the catalyst system.

The aim is precisely to create a Special Issue that acts as a platform to share current and new knowledge in the field of polymeric materials for sustainable catalysis and energy applications. All studies, both experimental and theoretical, in the form of articles, reviews, and short beginnings, are welcome.

Dr. Salvatore Impemba
Dr. Antonio Buonerba
Dr. Olga Sacco
Dr. Marco Bellini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • polymer
  • catalyst
  • biomass
  • energy
  • hydrogen
  • nanoparticles
  • electrocatalysis

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 2500 KB  
Article
Mesoporous Structure and N-Doped Carbon Coating Skeleton Boosting High-Performance Nickel Phosphide Nanosheet-Based Electrocatalysts for Highly Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution
by Yixuan Tang, Xiaowei Niu, Zhengjun Guan, Chengxin Wang, Xinyu Ma, Haonan Wang and Hongyuan Pan
Crystals 2026, 16(2), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst16020100 - 30 Jan 2026
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 646
Abstract
Earth-abundant nickel phosphide electrocatalysts show great potential for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), yet their efficiency requires further enhancement for practical applications. Herein, a novel in situ strategy is developed to synthesize a high-performance electrocatalyst on nickel foam (NF), composed of N-doped carbon-coated [...] Read more.
Earth-abundant nickel phosphide electrocatalysts show great potential for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), yet their efficiency requires further enhancement for practical applications. Herein, a novel in situ strategy is developed to synthesize a high-performance electrocatalyst on nickel foam (NF), composed of N-doped carbon-coated Ni5P4–Ni3P heterostructures. This is achieved through the phosphidation and subsequent carbon coating of hydrothermally grown Ni(OH)2 nanosheets. The resulting catalyst exhibits excellent HER activity in acidic media, requiring a low overpotential of only 63 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2. The superior performance stems from the synergistic effects of multiple factors: the porous nanosheet architecture and multi-phase interfaces provide abundant active sites, while the conductive N-doped carbon network significantly enhances charge-transfer kinetics and catalyst stability. This work presents an effective approach for designing efficient non-precious metal HER electrocatalysts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymeric Materials for Sustainable Catalysis and Energy Applications)
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