Dear Colleagues,

The progress of human civilization is accompanied by the development of materials science. In recent years, the global issues of environment and climate have become restrictive factors affecting the development of human civilization. Climate change and environmental pollution have driven people to find facile, eco-friendly, and cost-effective routes of material synthesis and application with the aim of resolving these problems. Due to the potential applications in energy storage, catalysis, adsorption, and gas separation and storage, biomass-based materials are considered as ideal candidates for resolving many of the practical issues encountered (e.g., environmental pollution and global warming). Some routes, such as chemical vapor deposition, arc discharge synthesis, and carbonization of synthetic or natural polymers, have been used for the synthesis of crystalline carbon nanotubes/nanofibers and graphene, as well as amorphous carbon, activated carbon, and carbon black materials with controllable properties and functionalities. An important advantage of biomass-based materials is that they have abundant surface functional groups, such as C-O, C=O, -COOH, and -OH, etc., which being highly modifiable act as a platform for the synthesis of various functionalized carbon materials. In addition, biomass-based materials are also rich in some minerals such as N, P, S, Ca, Mg, and K. These properties allow biomass-based materials to be directly applied as an adsorbent, catalyst, and catalyst support. More importantly, the easily tuned surface functionality and porosity make biomass-based material a promising platform for the synthesis of many other functional materials. 

Indeed, although the material functionalization is still at the infant stage, applications of biomass-based functional materials have been found in the fields of catalysis, energy storage, pollutant removal, and CO₂ capture. The aim of this Special Issue is to advance and disseminate knowledge in all the related areas of biomass conversion and utilization, especially the synthesis and application of biomass-based materials. Of course, the articles presented in this Special Issue cover all areas of biomass conversion and are not limited to the above areas. Editors encourage innovative ideas and methods to be displayed in this Special Issue.

Dr. Lei Shi
Guest Editor

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• biomass conversion and utilization
• biomass-based materials
• biotransformations and bioresource systems analysis
• biomass catalysis
• energy storage
• pollutant removal
• CO₂ capture