Application of Nanoporous Carbon in Energy

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "2D and Carbon Nanomaterials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2025 | Viewed by 1168

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang University, Xinjiang 830049, China
Interests: materials chemistry; inorganic nanomaterials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nanoporous carbon materials have been applied as catalysts in many fields, especially for producing energy by using thermal chemistry, electrochemistry, and photolytic chemistry. These materials possess a high surface area and broad pore size distribution, providing the possibility for doping heteroatoms on their surface or encapsulating active elements in the pore channels. With functionalized porous carbon, a specific catalytic reaction can be achieved through certain mechanisms. Different strategies to create porous carbon with an enlarged surface area have been explored through physical and chemical methods. Accompanied by an adjusted pore volume and surface functional groups, the carbon framework needs to retain its mechanical properties to maintain stability and re-utilization. The ongoing exploration of the best activity and stability available are still underway.

This Special Issue in ‘Nanomaterials’ focuses on the application of nanoporous carbon in energy, such as biomass based carbon, coal char, polymer carbon, and fossil carbon for energy production. The hydrogen from hydrogen-containing precursors, such as water, ammonia, methane, etc., catalyzed by porous carbon are preferable. Research work on the equilibrium of energy conversion by porous carbon is welcome.

We also invite interdisciplinary researchers to join our journal and submit your manuscript. Let us meet through your research work to thoroughly understand the functional properties of porous carbon.

Prof. Dr. Tie-Zhen Ren
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • porous carbon
  • design strategy
  • functionalization
  • energy conversion
  • structural feature
  • hybridization
  • encapsulation
  • doping

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 6788 KiB  
Article
NaOH as an Aqueous Electrolyte to Improve the Performance of Electric Double-Layer Capacitors—A Molecular Dynamics Study
by Lifeng Ni and Jin Yu
Nanomaterials 2025, 15(9), 649; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano15090649 (registering DOI) - 25 Apr 2025
Viewed by 152
Abstract
Aqueous electrolytes are widely used in supercapacitors (SCs) because of their high stability, wide voltage window, and safety features at elevated temperatures. Among alkaline electrolytes, KOH is most commonly used, and other electrolytes are less addressed. In this work, we meticulously investigated the [...] Read more.
Aqueous electrolytes are widely used in supercapacitors (SCs) because of their high stability, wide voltage window, and safety features at elevated temperatures. Among alkaline electrolytes, KOH is most commonly used, and other electrolytes are less addressed. In this work, we meticulously investigated the diffusion behavior of Na+ and K+ in aqueous electrolytes going through hierarchical porous activated carbon materials by employing molecular dynamic simulations. Our results show that the diffusion coefficient of NaOH is much larger than that of KOH under different concentrations, electric fields, and temperatures. We attributed this to the radical of ions going through the mesopores with layered structures. The advantage of high diffusion and low cost of NaOH electrolyte suggests that it could be a potential candidate to improve the performance of SCs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Nanoporous Carbon in Energy)
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13 pages, 7772 KiB  
Article
Structural Parameters on the Effective Transport Properties of Carbon Cloth Gas Diffusion Layers: Random Walk Simulations
by Qingrong Jia, Hao Wang and Guogang Yang
Nanomaterials 2025, 15(4), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano15040259 - 9 Feb 2025
Viewed by 601
Abstract
One of the key challenges in optimizing the transfer characteristics of carbon cloth gas diffusion layers (GDLs) is accurately evaluating their effective transport properties. In this work, a stochastic reconstruction algorithm based on structural parameters was developed to generate virtual carbon cloth GDLs [...] Read more.
One of the key challenges in optimizing the transfer characteristics of carbon cloth gas diffusion layers (GDLs) is accurately evaluating their effective transport properties. In this work, a stochastic reconstruction algorithm based on structural parameters was developed to generate virtual carbon cloth GDLs with varying porosities, carbon fiber diameters, and length-to-thickness ratios. A pore-scale random walk model was also developed to predict the permeability, tortuosity, and effective diffusivity of the GDLs with well-validated accuracy. The results show that higher porosity and larger carbon fiber diameters enhance the diffusion and transfer of oxygen through the GDL, and when the length-to-thickness ratio exceeds 2, the permeability stabilizes. The model developed in this study offers the advantages of low computational cost, accurate representation of the material’s microstructure, and broad applicability, making it a powerful and convenient tool for predicting the transport properties of porous media. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Nanoporous Carbon in Energy)
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