Special Issue "Functionalized Carbon-Based Nanomaterials for Emerging Applications in Optoelectronics, Clean Energy, and Environmental Monitoring"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2024 | Viewed by 2557

Special Issue Editors

Institute of Chemistry “Coriolan Dragulescu” of Romanian Academy, Mihai Viteazul Ave., No. 24, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Interests: porphyrins; metalloporphyrins; porphyrin-based hybrid materials; AuNPs, AgNPs, PtNPs; chemical and electrochemical sensors; detection of analytes with medical relevance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
National Institute for Research and Development in Electrochemistry and Condensed Matter, Plautius Andronescu Street 1, 300224 Timisoara, Romania
Interests: pseudo-binary oxides; corrosion measurements; AFM microscopy; luminescence properties; optical properties; hydrothermal method; solid-state method; undoped and doped oxide nanomaterials
Center of Organic Chemistry "C.D. Nenitescu" of Romanian Academy, Splaiul Independenței 202B, Bucharest, Romania
Interests: density functional theory; computational chemistry; electrocatalysis; carbon electrochemistry; oxygen reduction reaction; water splitting
Nano-SAE Research Centre, University of Bucharest, Atomistilor 405, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Interests: carbon materials for energy and environmental applications; semiconductor electrochemistry; electrochemical stability of nanomaterials; circular economy approaches for precious metals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to their remarkable chemical stability and suitable electrical properties, functionalized carbon materials with different inorganic/organic moieties are required materials for emerging applications. This is especially true in the generation of hydrogen via electrocatalytic water splitting, overcoming the performance of fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, graphene or carbon dots alone. Among these, heteroatom (e.g., nitrogen)-doped carbon nanomaterials are efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs). It is now known that the carbons in vicinity of nitrogen atoms (although not those directly linked to nitrogen) promote the HER most actively. On the other hand, binary metal-oxide-based catalysts have been proven to be more effective for water splitting catalyzed reactions than their single metal oxide counterparts for both oxygen evolution reactions (OERs) and HERs. In addition, the combination of carbon-based materials and binary oxides to make composite nanostructures is interesting not only because they display the individual properties of both components, but they also exhibit synergistic properties that are advantageous for both water-splitting catalysis (photoanode materials) and gas sensing applications. This Special Issue also covers applications in optoelectronic field/field emission displays, because undoped and doped oxide nanomaterials have strong luminescence, thermo-stability, and thermo-responsive emission properties. According to the successful results that have been obtained, oxide-carbon-based complexes are much stronger adsorbents than carbon materials in gas adsorption (the charge transfers to the NO2 and CO gas molecules from these complexes are much more significant compared to those from carbon materials). Finally, synergistic effects between porphyrins (as versatile organic macrocycles) and carbon-based materials are offering the best molecular electrocatalysts with regard to oxygen reduction reactions (ORRs) yet reported, and are also acting as high-performance gas sensors. Metalloporphyrins have been shown to be an exceptionally efficient supported homogeneous catalysts for the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to CO in water once inserted in a flow cell. As a notable result, electronics fabricated from organic materials are much less toxic, easier to recycle, and scalable. This Special Issue also invites papers that envisage advances in methods and technologies used to realize porous multicomponent surface layers consisting of bimetallic oxide nanoparticles/porphyrins and carbon nanomaterials. Special attention will be dedicated to computational chemistry techniques employing density functional theory (DFT) to achieve a fundamental understanding of the relationships between structure, morphology and (electro)catalytic, sensing and luminescence properties of these composites. Usually, the revised Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof functional is used for DFT calculations. Reactions involving a concerted proton-electron transfer will lead to surface intermediates. DFT has been proven successful in calculating and using the free energy of adsorption of reaction intermediates to determine the efficiency of electrocatalysts for reactions such as the oxygen evolution reaction. A constant energy difference between different key reaction intermediates will lead to scaling relationships which can be used to discover electrocatalytically active materials.

Dr. Eugenia Fagadar-Cosma
Dr. Mihaela Birdeanu
Dr. Isabela Costinela Man
Dr. Serban Stamatin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 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

  • carbon nanomaterials covered in this issue include: graphene, multi-walled nanotubes (MWCNTs), single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), graphene quantum dots, nanodiamonds, carbon nanofibers, carbon nitride and fullerenes
  • doped and undoped binary oxides
  • macrocyclic compounds (porphyrin derivatives and corroles)
  • optical and luminescent properties
  • metal-free carbon–nitrogen (N–C) composites
  • transition-metal-incorporated carbon–nitrogen matrices
  • cathode catalyzed membrane with porphyrins and carbon powder for ORR
  • doped carbon xerogels functionalized with binary transition metal oxides for electrochemical activity for ORR
  • oxygen reduction reaction mechanism and kinetics for fuel cell technologies
  • binary oxides (Co–Ni, Sn-Co, Fe-Co)/carbon materials as supercapacitor electrode materials
  • binary metal oxide electrocatalysts for efficient overall water splitting
  • electrocatalytic water splitting
  • density functional theory

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
MWCNTs Decorated with TiO2 as Highly Performing Filler in the Preparation of Nanocomposite Membranes for Scalable Photocatalytic Degradation of Bisphenol A in Water
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(16), 2325; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13162325 - 13 Aug 2023
Viewed by 411
Abstract
Bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine-disrupting compound with estrogenic behavior, is of great concern within the scientific community due to its high production levels and increasing concentration in various surface aquifers. While several materials exhibit excellent capacity for the photocatalytic degradation of BPA, their [...] Read more.
Bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine-disrupting compound with estrogenic behavior, is of great concern within the scientific community due to its high production levels and increasing concentration in various surface aquifers. While several materials exhibit excellent capacity for the photocatalytic degradation of BPA, their powdered nature and poor chemical stability render them unsuitable for practical application in large-scale water decontamination. In this study, a new class of nanocomposite membranes based on sulfonated polyethersulfone (sPES) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes decorated with TiO2 nanoparticles (MWCNTs-TiO2) were investigated as efficient and scalable photocatalysts for the photodegradation of BPA in aqueous solutions. The MWCNTs-TiO2 hybrid material was prepared through a facile and inexpensive hydrothermal method and extensively characterized by XRD, Raman, FTIR, BET, and TGA. Meanwhile, nanocomposite membranes at different filler loadings were prepared by a simple casting procedure. Swelling tests and PFG NMR analyses provided insights into the impact of filler introduction on membrane hydrophilicity and water molecular dynamics, whereas the effectiveness of the various photocatalysts in BPA removal was monitored using HPLC. Among the different MWCNTs-TiO2 content nanocomposites, the one at 10 wt% loading (sP-MT10) showed the best photoactivity. Under UV irradiation at 254 nm and 365 nm for 240 min, photocatalytic oxidation of 5 mg/L bisphenol A by sP-MT10 resulted in 91% and 82% degradation, respectively. Both the effect of BPA concentration and the membrane regenerability were evaluated, revealing that the sP-MT10 maintained its maximum BPA removal capability over more than 10 cycles. Our findings indicate that sP-MT nanocomposite membranes are versatile, scalable, efficient, and highly reusable photocatalysts for the degradation of BPA, as well as potentially for other endocrine disruptors. Full article
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Article
Polymeric Carbon Nitrides for Photoelectrochemical Applications: Ring Opening-Induced Degradation
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(7), 1248; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13071248 - 31 Mar 2023
Viewed by 803
Abstract
Active and stable materials that utilize solar radiation for promoting different reactions are critical for emerging technologies. Two of the most common polymeric carbon nitrides were prepared by the thermal polycondensation of melamine. The scope of this work is to investigate possible structural [...] Read more.
Active and stable materials that utilize solar radiation for promoting different reactions are critical for emerging technologies. Two of the most common polymeric carbon nitrides were prepared by the thermal polycondensation of melamine. The scope of this work is to investigate possible structural degradation before and after photoelectrochemical testing. The materials were characterized using synchrotron radiation and lab-based techniques, and subsequently degraded photoelectrochemically, followed by post-mortem analysis. Post-mortem investigations reveal: (1) carbon atoms bonded to three nitrogen atoms change into carbon atoms bonded to two nitrogen atoms and (2) the presence of methylene terminals in post-mortem materials. The study concludes that polymeric carbon nitrides are susceptible to photoelectrochemical degradation via ring opening. Full article
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Article
The pH Influence on the Water-Splitting Electrocatalytic Activity of Graphite Electrodes Modified with Symmetrically Substituted Metalloporphyrins
Nanomaterials 2022, 12(21), 3788; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12213788 - 27 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 831
Abstract
Hydrogen, considered to be an alternative fuel to traditional fossil fuels, can be generated by splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen via the use of electrical energy, in a process whose efficiency depends directly on the employed catalytic material. The current study [...] Read more.
Hydrogen, considered to be an alternative fuel to traditional fossil fuels, can be generated by splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen via the use of electrical energy, in a process whose efficiency depends directly on the employed catalytic material. The current study takes part in the relentless search for suitable and low-cost catalysts relevant to the water-splitting field by investigating the electrocatalytic properties of the O2 and H2 evolution reactions (OER and HER) of two metalloporphyrins: Zn(II) 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-pyridyl)-porphyrin and Co(II) 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3-hydroxyphenyl)-porphyrin. The TEM/STEM characterisation of the porphyrin samples obtained using different organic solvents revealed several types of self-assembled aggregates. The HER and OER experiments performed on porphyrin-modified graphite electrodes in media with different pH values revealed the most electrocatalytically active specimens. For the OER, this specimen was the electrode manufactured with one layer of Co-porphyrin applied from dimethylsulfoxide, exhibiting an overpotential of 0.51 V at i = 10 mA/cm2 and a Tafel slope of 0.27 V/dec. For the HER, it was the sample obtained by drop casting one layer of Zn-porphyrin from N,N-dimethylformamide that displayed a HER overpotential of 0.52 V at i = −10 mA/cm2 and a Tafel slope of 0.15 V/dec. Full article
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