The Eco-Friendly Nano-Candidate for Energy Storage and Conversion

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 July 2024 | Viewed by 4171

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
Interests: alkaline metal-ion batteries; organic electrode; supercapacitors; electrocatalysis

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Guest Editor
School of Chemistry and Physics, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Interests: 2D materials; bioinspired materials; energy storage and conversion; electrocatalysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the continuous development of battery technologies, energy consumption efficiency can be improved and more electrical devices can be better utilized. One promising device is the electrical car, which is poised to replace the traditional fossil-used car in the near future. Among the several parameters used to determine battery properties, the choice of electrode material is always the most important factor. Various emerging eco-friendly materials with new structural designs have been proposed to increase the energy density and improve the cyclic life and rate performance.

The present Special Issue of Nanomaterials aims to present the current state of the art in the use of eco-friendly nanocandidates in batteries. Green nanocandidates can facilitate ion/charge transfer, increase the electrochemical redox reaction kinetics, and improve the capability of large and reversible energy storage. To this end, we invite contributions from global leading groups, with the goal to provide a balanced summary of future development trends or insights into the current state of the art in this research field.

Prof. Dr. Yong Wang
Prof. Dr. Ziqi Sun
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • lithium-ion batteries
  • sodium/potassium-ion batteries
  • nanomaterials
  • electrochemical properties

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 10243 KiB  
Article
Effect of Nitrogen Dopant Agents in the Performance of Graphene-Based Cathodes for Li-S Batteries
by Adrián Licari, Almudena Benítez, Juan Luis Gómez-Cámer, Rafael Trócoli and Álvaro Caballero
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(6), 489; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14060489 - 8 Mar 2024
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Abstract
Lithium-sulphur (Li-S) batteries offer high energy density compared to lithium-ion batteries, emerging as a promising technology for the next generation of energy storage systems. The ongoing challenge is to improve their electrochemical performance, extend their useful life and mitigate some problems that persist [...] Read more.
Lithium-sulphur (Li-S) batteries offer high energy density compared to lithium-ion batteries, emerging as a promising technology for the next generation of energy storage systems. The ongoing challenge is to improve their electrochemical performance, extend their useful life and mitigate some problems that persist in this technology, by the investigation in materials with diverse properties. This work seeks to elucidate the importance and repercussions associated with functionalisation of graphene-based materials through nitrogen incorporation (more than 9 wt.% N), employing different chemical agents such as ethylenediamine and ammonia. Herein, differences in both the textural properties and the chemical environment of nitrogen within the carbonaceous network are identified, resulting in distinct electrochemical behaviours. The electrochemical performance of electrodes prepared from ammonia-functionalised samples surpasses that of ethylenediamine-functionalised samples in terms of both efficiency and rate performance. Conversely, the ethylenediamine-functionalised samples excel in stability, showing exceptional values in capacity retention per cycle. The outcomes exceeded expectations in energy performance, allowing the Li-S cells to be subjected to ultra-high rate cycling while maintaining appropriate capacity values. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Eco-Friendly Nano-Candidate for Energy Storage and Conversion)
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16 pages, 5666 KiB  
Article
Eco-Friendly Cerium–Cobalt Counter-Doped Bi2Se3 Nanoparticulate Semiconductor: Synergistic Doping Effect for Enhanced Thermoelectric Generation
by Jamal-Deen Musah, Siu Wing Or, Lingyan Kong, Vellaisamy A. L. Roy and Chi-Man Lawrence Wu
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(20), 2738; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13202738 - 10 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1120
Abstract
Metal chalcogenides are primarily used for thermoelectric applications due to their enormous potential to convert waste heat into valuable energy. Several studies focused on single or dual aliovalent doping techniques to enhance thermoelectric properties in semiconductor materials; however, these dopants enhance one property [...] Read more.
Metal chalcogenides are primarily used for thermoelectric applications due to their enormous potential to convert waste heat into valuable energy. Several studies focused on single or dual aliovalent doping techniques to enhance thermoelectric properties in semiconductor materials; however, these dopants enhance one property while deteriorating others due to the interdependency of these properties or may render the host material toxic. Therefore, a strategic doping approach is vital to harness the full potential of doping to improve the efficiency of thermoelectric generation while restoring the base material eco-friendly. Here, we report a well-designed counter-doped eco-friendly nanomaterial system (~70 nm) using both isovalent (cerium) and aliovalent (cobalt) in a Bi2Se3 system for enhancing energy conversion efficiency. Substituting cerium for bismuth simultaneously enhances the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity via ionized impurity minimization. The boost in the average electronegativity offered by the self-doped transitional metal cobalt leads to an improvement in the degree of delocalization of the valence electrons. Hence, the new energy state around the Fermi energy serving as electron feed to the conduction band coherently improves the density of the state of conducting electrons. The resulting high power factor and low thermal conductivity contributed to the remarkable improvement in the figure of merit (zT = 0.55) at 473 K for an optimized doping concentration of 0.01 at. %. sample, and a significant nanoparticle size reduction from 400 nm to ~70 nm, making the highly performing materials in this study (Bi2xCexCo2x3Se3) an excellent thermoelectric generator. The results presented here are higher than several Bi2Se3-based materials already reported. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Eco-Friendly Nano-Candidate for Energy Storage and Conversion)
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13 pages, 4456 KiB  
Article
Microwave-Assisted Metal-Organic Frameworks Derived Synthesis of Zn2GeO4 Nanowire Bundles for Lithium-Ion Batteries
by Chaofei Guo, Shuangqiang Chen, Junaid Aslam, Jiayi Li, Li-Ping Lv, Weiwei Sun, Weimin Cao and Yong Wang
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(8), 1432; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13081432 - 21 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1575
Abstract
Germanium-based multi-metallic-oxide materials have advantages of low activation energy, tunable output voltage, and high theoretical capacity. However, they also exhibit unsatisfactory electronic conductivity, sluggish cation kinetics, and severe volume change, resulting in inferior long-cycle stability and rate performance in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). To [...] Read more.
Germanium-based multi-metallic-oxide materials have advantages of low activation energy, tunable output voltage, and high theoretical capacity. However, they also exhibit unsatisfactory electronic conductivity, sluggish cation kinetics, and severe volume change, resulting in inferior long-cycle stability and rate performance in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). To solve these problems, we synthesize metal-organic frameworks derived from rice-like Zn2GeO4 nanowire bundles as the anode of LIBs via a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method, minimizing the particle size and enlarging the cation’s transmission channels, as well as, enhancing the electronic conductivity of the materials. The obtained Zn2GeO4 anode exhibits superior electrochemical performance. A high initial charge capacity of 730 mAhg−1 is obtained and maintained at 661 mAhg−1 after 500 cycles at 100 mA g−1 with a small capacity degradation ratio of ~0.02% for each cycle. Moreover, Zn2GeO4 exhibits a good rate performance, delivering a high capacity of 503 mA h g−1 at 5000 mA g−1. The good electrochemical performance of the rice-like Zn2GeO4 electrode can be attributed to its unique wire-bundle structure, the buffering effect of the bimetallic reaction at different potentials, good electrical conductivity, and fast kinetic rate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Eco-Friendly Nano-Candidate for Energy Storage and Conversion)
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