Submit to Nanomaterials Review for Nanomaterials Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

Hydrothermal Synthesis and Application of Nanomaterials

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Synthesis, Interfaces and Nanostructures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2022) | Viewed by 7394

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Edward H. Lester

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Interests: hydrothermal; continuous flow; reactor design; scale up
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There are numerous ways to make nanomaterials, and hydrothermal synthesis is one example. Whilst some have viewed hydrothermal synthesis as a novel but emerging technology, it is clear that this is no longer the case. Hydrothermal synthesis is no longer in its infancy but is, instead, emerging as a very valuable and flexible platform technology from which multiple classes of materials can be manufactured, including metals, oxides, sulfides, carbonates, oxyhydroxides, hydroxides, layered double hydroxides, and even metal–organic frameworks.

Hydrothermal synthesis can be both a continuous and a batch processing method.

For some laboratories, the focus has been on the production and control of high-quality products, whilst the driving force for others has been the scale-up or improvement of the sustainability of the process itself. There are also many research groups where the synthesis of nanomaterials (through hydrothermal synthesis) has been a “means to an ends” whereby the synthesis is merely an intermediate step prior to their implementation or integration into a device or downstream process.

This is where initial synthesis, functionality, formulation, performance, and characterization overlap.

The format of welcomed articles includes full papers, communications, and reviews. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Nanomaterials development, synthesis, and fabrication for a specific application.
Nanoparticles functionalization—where downstream functionalization is carried out on nanomaterials, either inline or offline, to make them usable in an application.
Innovative nanomaterials, nanocomposites, and nanohybrids for specific applications, all derived from hydrothermal synthesis.
The scale-up of hydrothermal synthesis from bench scale and beyond.
Sustainability assessment of the materials from the hydrothermal synthesis, either in their whole life cycle or just in their manufacture, relative to materials from other routes.

Prof. Dr. Edward H. Lester
Guest Editor

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. Nanomaterials 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 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

sustainability
application
formulation
performance
nanomaterials
characterization

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

15 pages, 4033 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Efficient Oxygen Vacancy Defect Engineering for Enhancing Visible-Light Photocatalytic Performance over SnO_2−x Ultrafine Nanocrystals

by Tiekun Jia, Chenxi Sun, Nianfeng Shi, Dongsheng Yu, Fei Long, Ji Hu, Jilin Wang, Binbin Dong, Jili Li, Fang Fu, Shujing Hu and Joong Hee Lee

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(19), 3342; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12193342 - 25 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1462

Abstract

Regardless of its good electron-transfer ability and chemical stability, pure Zn₂SnO₄ (ZSO) still has intrinsic deficiencies of a narrow spectral response region, poor absorption ability, and high photo-activated carrier recombination rate. Aiming to overcome the deficiencies above-mentioned, we designed a facile hydrothermal route for etching ZSO nanoparticles in a dilute acetic acid solution, through which efficient oxygen vacancy defect engineering was accomplished and SnO_2−x nanocrystals were obtained with an ultrafine particle size. In comparison with the untreated ZSO nanoparticles, the specific surface area of SnO_2−x nanocrystals was substantially enlarged, subsequently leading to the notable augmentation of active sites for the photo-degradation reaction. Aside from the above, it is worth noting that SnO_2−x nanocrystals were endowed with a broad spectral response, enhancing light absorption capacity and the photo-activated carrier transfer rate with the aid of oxygen vacancy defect engineering. Accordingly, SnO_2−x nanocrystals exhibited significantly enhanced photoactivity toward the degradation of the organic dye rhodamine B (RhB), which could be imputed to the synergistic effect of increasing active sites, intensified visible-light harvesting, and the separation rate of the photo-activated charge carrier caused by the oxygen vacancy defect engineering. In addition, these findings will inspire us to open up a novel pathway to design and prepare oxide compound photocatalysts modified by oxygen vacancy defects in pursuing excellent visible-light photoactivity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrothermal Synthesis and Application of Nanomaterials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 5630 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of Binder-Free Three-Dimensional Honeycomb-like Porous Ternary Layered Double Hydroxide-Embedded MXene Sheets for Bi-Functional Overall Water Splitting Reactions

by Sajjad Hussain, Dhanasekaran Vikraman, Ghazanfar Nazir, Muhammad Taqi Mehran, Faisal Shahzad, Khalid Mujasam Batoo, Hyun-Seok Kim and Jongwan Jung

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(16), 2886; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12162886 - 22 Aug 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2432

Abstract

In this study, a honeycomb-like porous-structured nickel–iron–cobalt layered double hydroxide/Ti₃C₂T_x (NiFeCo–LDH@MXene) composite was successfully fabricated on a three-dimensional nickel foam using a simple hydrothermal approach. Owing to their distinguishable characteristics, the fabricated honeycomb porous-structured NiFeCo–LDH@MXene composites exhibited outstanding bifunctional electrocatalytic activity for pair hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions in alkaline medium. The developed NiFeCo–LDH@MXene electrocatalyst required low overpotentials of 130 and 34 mV to attain a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² for OER and HER, respectively. Furthermore, an assembled NiFeCo–LDH@MXene‖NiFeCo–LDH@MXene device exhibited a cell voltage of 1.41 V for overall water splitting with a robust firmness for over 24 h to reach 10 mA cm⁻² current density, signifying outstanding performance for water splitting reactions. These results demonstrated the promising potential of the designed 3D porous NiFeCo–LDH@MXene sheets as outstanding candidates to replace future green energy conversion devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrothermal Synthesis and Application of Nanomaterials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 16339 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Bimetallic Cu/Fe MOF-Based Nanosheet Film via Binder-Free Drop-Casting Route: A Highly Efficient Urea-Electrolysis Catalyst

by Supriya A. Patil, Nabeen K. Shrestha, Akbar I. Inamdar, Chinna Bathula, Jongwan Jung, Sajjad Hussain, Ghazanfar Nazir, Mosab Kaseem, Hyunsik Im and Hyungsang Kim

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(11), 1916; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12111916 - 03 Jun 2022

Cited by 33 | Viewed by 3104

Abstract

Developing efficient electrocatalysts for urea oxidation reaction (UOR) can be a promising alternative strategy to substitute the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER), thereby producing hydrogen at a lower cell-voltage. Herein, we synthesized a binder-free thin film of ultrathin sheets of bimetallic Cu-Fe-based metal–organic frameworks (Cu/Fe-MOFs) on a nickel foam via a drop-casting route. In addition to the scalable route, the drop-casted film-electrode demonstrates the lower UOR potentials of 1.59, 1.58, 1.54, 1.51, 1.43 and 1.37 V vs. RHE to achieve the current densities of 2500, 2000, 1000, 500, 100 and 10 mA cm⁻², respectively. These UOR potentials are relatively lower than that acquired by the pristine Fe-MOF-based film-electrode synthesized via a similar route. For example, at 1.59 V vs. RHE, the Cu/Fe-MOF electrode exhibits a remarkably ultra-high anodic current density of 2500 mA cm⁻², while the pristine Fe-MOF electrode exhibits only 949.10 mA cm⁻². It is worth noting that the Cu/Fe-MOF electrode at this potential exhibits an OER current density of only 725 mA cm⁻², which is far inconsequential as compared to the UOR current densities, implying the profound impact of the bimetallic cores of the MOFs on catalyzing UOR. In addition, the Cu/Fe-MOF electrode also exhibits a long-term electrochemical robustness during UOR. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrothermal Synthesis and Application of Nanomaterials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

26 pages, 2980 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperReview

Recent Advancements in Two-Dimensional Layered Molybdenum and Tungsten Carbide-Based Materials for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reactions

by K. Karuppasamy, A. Nichelson, Dhanasekaran Vikraman, Jun-Hyeok Choi, Sajjad Hussain, C. Ambika, Ranjith Bose, Akram Alfantazi and Hyun-Seok Kim

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(21), 3884; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12213884 - 03 Nov 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2159

Abstract

Green and renewable energy is the key to overcoming energy-related challenges such as fossil-fuel depletion and the worsening of environmental habituation. Among the different clean energy sources, hydrogen is considered the most impactful energy carrier and is touted as an alternate fuel for clean energy needs. Even though noble metal catalysts such as Pt, Pd, and Au exhibit excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity in acid media, their earth abundance and capital costs are highly debatable. Hence, developing cost-effective, earth-abundant, and conductive electrocatalysts is crucial. In particular, various two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides and their compounds are gradually emerging as potential alternatives to noble metal-based catalysts. Owing to their improved hydrophilicity, good conductivity, and large surface areas, these 2D materials show superior stability and excellent catalytic performances during the HER process. This review article is a compilation of the different synthetic protocols, their impact, effects of doping on molybdenum and tungsten carbides and their derivatives, and their application in the HER process. The paper is more focused on the detailed strategies for improving the HER activity, highlights the limits of molybdenum and tungsten carbide-based electrocatalysts in electro-catalytic process, and elaborates on the future advancements expected in this field. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrothermal Synthesis and Application of Nanomaterials)

► Show Figures