Sustainable Polymeric Electrolytes for Batteries

Dear Colleagues,

The growing demand for high-energy, high-performance, safe, and sustainable energy storage solutions is among the most important research topics in mobile electronic applications and electromobility. In this context, lithium and sodium ion batteries have become the most investigated solutions, with recent studies on improving their performance. Among all components that require improvements, electrolytes are the most challenging, requiring advances in safety, flammability, electrode compatibility, cost-effectiveness, and overall performance. While liquid electrolytes remain the most commonly used, issues related to safety, fire risks, and potential leakage in the event of accidents remain unresolved. Solid-state electrolytes are emerging as promising alternatives, addressing many of these concerns, but challenges related to their lower electrochemical performance and the use of toxic organic solvents in their production are still to be overcome. Biodegradable polymers and sustainable processes, like solvent-free extrusion and UV-curing, are some possible alternatives to reach green and environmentally friendly methods of electrolyte production.

We invite you to share your results on sustainable electrolytes for energy storage devices in this Special Issue. This Special Issue is broadly focused on sustainable materials for batteries, emphasizing their production processes and the strategy to make them greener and eco-friendly. This framework includes binders, cathodes, or anodes from renewed resources or processes to reduce environmental impact, reuse end-of-life materials, perform life-cycle assessments, and recycle.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the latest innovations and upcoming addressed challenges in the field of sustainable polymer electrolytes for batteries, including production methods, reuse or recycling of end-of-life materials, and evaluation of processes not only related to small lab-scale but also with a possible industrial scale up.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) research scientific articles, reviews related to very narrow topics, and communications.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Claudio Gerbaldi
Dr. Giuseppe Antonio Elia
Guest Editors

Dr. Matteo Gastaldi
Dr. Alessandro Piovano
Dr. Hamideh Darjazi
Guest Editor Assistans

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Sustainable Chemistry is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1000 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.