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Advances in Hydrogen Production and Storage

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "D: Energy Storage and Application".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (21 August 2023) | Viewed by 6809

Special Issue Editors

Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 400714, China
Interests: electrochemical sensors; fluorescent sensors; bio-imaging; electrical engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 400714, China
Interests: electrocatalysis; including nitrogen/nitrate reduction reactions; hydrogen evolution reaction; and oxygen reduction/evolution reactions
Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
Interests: fuel cell; CO2 capture; electrocatalysis; polymer materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With climate change due to the excessive use of fossil fuels, a low-carbon energy transition is permeating many industrialized countries, which stresses the importance of hydrogen energy in optimizing their energy structures. Currently, hydrogen production is regarded as a clean and green energy, coming mainly from the splitting decomposition of natural gas/coal with a 60% share of all hydrogen sources, accompanied by a large amount of CO2 emissions. It is necessary to develop high-end technology of H2 production, storage, and conversion (H2PSC) to meet all kinds of scenario requirements. Moreover, safe hydrogen storage materials with a high hydrogen capacity and improved kinetics of hydrogen generation are required. Hence, identifying ways to reduce the cost of hydrogen production R&D technologies is essential—for example, developing low-cost and high-performance electrocatalysts for water splitting is of vital importance. Moreover, hydrogens storage is another challenge due to the high liquefaction pressure. Selecting suitable hydrogen-storage carriers, such as ammonia, organic hydride, metal hydride, and so on, may be a promising strategy for the development of various hydrogen fuel cell technologies.

It is my pleasure to invite researchers from H2PSC to submit contributions that will help to identify the main trends for the future of revolutionary technologies in the H2PSC, which will be published in this Topical Collection. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome. I look forward to receiving your work.

Dr. Shun Lu
Dr. Xiaohui Yang
Dr. Yucheng Wang
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. Energies 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 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

  • hydrogen production
  • hydrogen storage materials
  • clean energy
  • electrocatalysis
  • energy storage and conversion

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 6020 KiB  
Article
Heteroatom-Doped Nickel Sulfide for Efficient Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution Reaction
by Xingqun Zheng, Ling Zhang, Wei He, Li Li and Shun Lu
Energies 2023, 16(2), 881; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16020881 - 12 Jan 2023
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 1474
Abstract
Heteroatom doping is an effective strategy to regulate electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Nonmetal heteroatoms can effectively engineer geometric and electronic structures and activating surface sites of catalysts due to their unique radius and the electronegativity of nonmetal atoms. Hence, the [...] Read more.
Heteroatom doping is an effective strategy to regulate electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Nonmetal heteroatoms can effectively engineer geometric and electronic structures and activating surface sites of catalysts due to their unique radius and the electronegativity of nonmetal atoms. Hence, the surface geometric and electronic structure and activity of nonmetal atoms (X, X = B, C, N, O, P)-doped Ni3S2 (X-Ni3S2) were studied to screen high-performance Ni3S2-based OER electrocatalysts through density functional theory calculation. Theoretical results demonstrated that dopants in X-Ni3S2 can alter bond length and charge of surface, modify active sites for intermediates adsorption, and adjust the theoretical overpotential. Among all dopants, C can effectively modulate surface structure, activate surface sites, weaken the adsorption of key intermediates, decrease theoretical overpotential, and enable C-Ni3S2 with the best theoretical OER activity among all X-Ni3S2 with the lowest theoretical overpotential (0.46 eV). Further experimental results verified that the synthesized C-Ni3S2 performed an improved OER activity in the alkaline condition with a considerably enhanced overpotential of 261 mV at 10 mA cm−2 as well as a Tafel slope of 95 mV dec−1 compared to pristine Ni3S2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Hydrogen Production and Storage)
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16 pages, 3934 KiB  
Article
Microscopic Analysis of Hydrogen Production from Methane Sono-Pyrolysis
by Aissa Dehane and Slimane Merouani
Energies 2023, 16(1), 443; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010443 - 30 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1039
Abstract
The sonolysis of certain substrates in water has proved its effectiveness for the enhancement of the sonochemical production of hydrogen. In this study, the sonolysis of methane has been investigated for the first time in a single acoustic bubble (microreactor) over a frequency [...] Read more.
The sonolysis of certain substrates in water has proved its effectiveness for the enhancement of the sonochemical production of hydrogen. In this study, the sonolysis of methane has been investigated for the first time in a single acoustic bubble (microreactor) over a frequency from 140 to 515 kHz. The obtained findings have been compared to those available in the literature. Independently of the methane dose (inside the bubble), the yield of H2 was improved especially with the decrease in wave frequency (from 515 to 140 kHz). For the driving frequencies 140, 213, 355, and 515 kHz, the production of hydrogen was maximized at 20, 15, 10, and 10% CH4, respectively. For 213 kHz, and the presence of 10% methane, the yield of hydrogen goes up by 111 fold compared to the case where the gas atmosphere is saturated only by argon. On the other hand, the highest methane conversions (~100% for 2, 5 and 7% CH4) were retrieved at 140 and 213 kHz. In terms of hydrogen formation and methane decay, the use of 140 kHz was found to be the best choice, whereas for a multi-bubble system, the number of acoustic bubbles should be taken into account for an optimal choice of frequency. Interestingly, it was observed that at 140 and 213 kHz and for methane mole fractions lower than or equal to 30 and 10%, respectively, a maximal formation of H2 and a relatively important production of OH could result simultaneously. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Hydrogen Production and Storage)
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13 pages, 2748 KiB  
Article
Construction of Glutinous Rice Potpourri-like MOTT−Schottky Ni/CeO2 Heterojunction Nanosheets for Robust Electrochemical Water Reduction
by Guangqiang Zhang, Hong Su and Yan Zhang
Energies 2022, 15(24), 9443; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15249443 - 13 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1176
Abstract
The development of efficient non-precious metal electrocatalysts through more economical and safe methods is consistent with the goals of sustainable development and accelerating the achievement of “carbon neutrality” in the 21st century but remains potentially challenging. Mott–Schottky heterojunction interfaces generated from metal/semiconductor have [...] Read more.
The development of efficient non-precious metal electrocatalysts through more economical and safe methods is consistent with the goals of sustainable development and accelerating the achievement of “carbon neutrality” in the 21st century but remains potentially challenging. Mott–Schottky heterojunction interfaces generated from metal/semiconductor have been a hot topic of recent research because of the unique built-in electric field effect which allows the preparation of more superior catalysts for water electrolysis. Herein, a glutinous rice potpourri-like Mott–Schottky two-dimensional (2D) nanosheet (abbreviated as Ni/CeO2 HJ-NSs) electrocatalyst composed of metal nickel (Ni) and cerium oxide (CeO2) hetero-nanoparticles was synthesized by a simple and scalable self-assembly and thermal reduction strategy. The experimental results and mechanistic analysis show that the Mott–Schottky heterojunction interface composed of metallic Ni and n-type semiconductor CeO2 with built-in electric field induces the electron redistribution at the interface to accelerate the dissociation of water and the binding of reaction intermediates, thus achieving lower water dissociation energy and more thermoneutral ΔGH* value to expedite the kinetics of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Thus, the prepared Ni/CeO2 HJ-NSs exhibit excellent HER catalytic performance in 1 M KOH electrolyte with an overpotential of only 72 mV at 10 mA cm−2, as well as a moderate Tafel slope of 65 mV dec−1 and an extraordinary long-term stability over 50 h, laying a solid foundation for further in-depth investigation. The synthesis of splendid electrocatalysts by exploiting the metal/semiconductor interface effect provides an innovative way for the future generation of Mott–Schottky-based heterostructures with three or more heterocompositions with two or more heterojunction interfaces. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Hydrogen Production and Storage)
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11 pages, 2938 KiB  
Article
Formation of Yolk–Shell MoS2@void@Aluminosilica Microspheres with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
by Li Li, Yuanyuan Zhao, Nanli Qiao, Zhengbao Yu and Yongxing Zhang
Energies 2022, 15(23), 9031; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15239031 - 29 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 918
Abstract
The development of low-cost electrode materials with enhanced activity and favorable durability for hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs) is a great challenge. MoS2 is an effective electrocatalyst with a unique layered structure. In addition, aluminosilica shells can not only provide more hydroxyl groups [...] Read more.
The development of low-cost electrode materials with enhanced activity and favorable durability for hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs) is a great challenge. MoS2 is an effective electrocatalyst with a unique layered structure. In addition, aluminosilica shells can not only provide more hydroxyl groups but also improve the durability of the catalyst as a protective shell. Herein, we have designed a hard-template route to synthesize porous yolk–shell MoS2@void@Aluminosilica microspheres in a NaAlO2 solution. The alkaline solution can directly etch silica (SiO2) hard templates on the surface of MoS2 microspheres and form a porous aluminosilica outer shell. The electrocatalytic results confirm that the MoS2@void@Aluminosilica microspheres exhibit higher electrocatalytic activity for HERs with lower overpotential (104 mV at the current density of −10 mA cm−2) and greater stability than MoS2 microspheres. The superior electrocatalytic activity of MoS2@void@Aluminosilica microspheres is attributed to the unique structure of the yolk@void@shell geometric construction, the protection of the aluminosilica shell, and the greater number of active sites offered by their nanosheet subunits. The design of a unique structure and new protection strategy may set up a new method for preparing other excellent HER electrocatalytic materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Hydrogen Production and Storage)
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Review

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22 pages, 12950 KiB  
Review
Ice-Templated Method to Promote Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion: A Review
by Yucheng Wang, Yanan Wu, Xingqun Zheng and Shun Lu
Energies 2023, 16(9), 3865; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16093865 - 01 May 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1342
Abstract
The ice-templated method (ITM) has drawn significant attention to the improvement of the electrochemical properties of various materials. The ITM approach is relatively straightforward and can produce hierarchically porous structures that exhibit superior performance in mass transfer, and the unique morphology has been [...] Read more.
The ice-templated method (ITM) has drawn significant attention to the improvement of the electrochemical properties of various materials. The ITM approach is relatively straightforward and can produce hierarchically porous structures that exhibit superior performance in mass transfer, and the unique morphology has been shown to significantly enhance electrochemical performance, making it a promising method for energy storage and conversion applications. In this review, we aim to present an overview of the ITM and its applications in the electrochemical energy storage and conversion field. The fundamental principles underlying the ITM will be discussed, as well as the factors that influence the morphology and properties of the resulting structures. We will then proceed to comprehensively explore the applications of ITM in the fabrication of high-performance electrodes for supercapacitors, batteries, and fuel cells. We intend to find the key advances in the use of ITM and evaluate its potential to overcome the existing challenges in the development of efficient energy storage and conversion systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Hydrogen Production and Storage)
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