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Advanced Energy Materials for Sustainability
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Advanced Energy Materials for Sustainability

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 4046

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sumanta Kumar Karan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Interests: piezoelectric and triboelectric energy harvester; magneto piezoelectric devices; bio-inspired materials; wireless power transfer; multienergy harvester; implantable devices
Prof. Dr. Bhanu Bhusan Khatua

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Materials Science Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India
Interests: energy harvesting and storage; supercapacitors; polymer blends; nanocomposites
Dr. Sagar Shirsath

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: ferrites; magnetic materials; ferro/piezoelectric materials; interface engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Growing energy demands, limited fossil fuel availability, and environmental concerns have promoted the study and development of new ecofriendly sustainable technologies that could provide humanity with a safe and sustainable future. Advanced materials with novel structures and new application directions have the greatest potential impact on the energy society. Bioinspired advanced materials can provide clean energy resources as well as a sustainable environment, which can play a crucial role in providing new strategies to accumulate different energies using different green resources. The current Special Issue is devoted to advanced-material-based energy harvesting and storage applications using different technologies, such as piezoelectric, triboelectric, solar, supercapacitors, etc., for sustainable society developments. The motivation of the present Special Issue is to explore future strategies in the abovementioned areas using bioinspired materials, which are of great interest to the scientific community, including academic researchers, environmentalists, materials scientists, and industrialists.

Dr. Sumanta Kumar Karan
Prof. Dr. Bhanu Bhusan Khatua
Dr. Sagar Shirsath
Guest Editors

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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • energy harvesting
  • bioinspired materials
  • piezoelectric
  • triboelectric
  • ferroelectric
  • supercapacitors
  • photovoltaics

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3555 KiB  
Article
Practice of Ecological Aesthetics in Green Production of Bimetallic Carbide Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction: Integrating Technological Development with Ecological Protection
by Meiping Zhang, Kailun Wang and Zaoxue Yan
Sustainability 2024, 16(11), 4398; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16114398 - 23 May 2024
Viewed by 777
Abstract
This work summarizes the disciplinary connotation of ecological aesthetics, discusses the social and philosophical background of the origination of ecological aesthetics, and applies ecological aesthetics to the research on the production processes of catalytic materials. It is found that compared with conventional chemical [...] Read more.
This work summarizes the disciplinary connotation of ecological aesthetics, discusses the social and philosophical background of the origination of ecological aesthetics, and applies ecological aesthetics to the research on the production processes of catalytic materials. It is found that compared with conventional chemical processes, catalytic materials synthesized using green chemical processes that conform to ecological aesthetics have advantages in raw material cost, energy consumption, environmental protection, operational complexity, and product performance. Based on this, it is proposed that, as green chemical processes develop to a certain extent, they will unify anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, and meet both human needs and ecological protection requirements. The mentioned green chemical processes adopt biomass lotus leaf stems as a carbon source to produce non-noble metal bimetallic carbide (C19Cr7Mo24)-based catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Its initial half-wave potential (E1/2) for catalyzing ORR in an alkaline medium is 0.903 V, the E1/2 retention rate after 50,000 cycles is 98.9%, and its peak power density in H2/O2 fuel cell reaches 1.47 W cm−2, making it one of the most active non-noble metal catalysts for ORR reported so far; its stability is unparalleled. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Materials for Sustainability)
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19 pages, 6979 KiB  
Article
Electrospun Microstructured Biopolymer Fibers Containing the Self-Assembled Boc–Phe–Ile Dipeptide: Dielectric and Energy Harvesting Properties
by Adelino Handa, Rosa M. F. Baptista, Daniela Santos, Bruna Silva, Ana Rita O. Rodrigues, João Oliveira, Bernardo Almeida, Etelvina de Matos Gomes and Michael Belsley
Sustainability 2023, 15(22), 16040; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152216040 - 17 Nov 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1073
Abstract
Hybrid biomaterials were engineered using the electrospinning technique, incorporating the dipeptide Boc–L-phenylalanyl–L-isoleucine into microfibers composed of biocompatible polymers. The examination by scanning electron microscopy affirmed the morphology of the microfibers, exhibiting diameters ranging between 0.9 and 1.8 µm. The dipeptide self-assembles into spheres [...] Read more.
Hybrid biomaterials were engineered using the electrospinning technique, incorporating the dipeptide Boc–L-phenylalanyl–L-isoleucine into microfibers composed of biocompatible polymers. The examination by scanning electron microscopy affirmed the morphology of the microfibers, exhibiting diameters ranging between 0.9 and 1.8 µm. The dipeptide self-assembles into spheres with a hydrodynamic size between 0.18 and 1.26 µm. The dielectric properties of these microfibers were characterized through impedance spectroscopy where variations in both temperature and frequency were systematically studied. The investigation revealed a noteworthy rise in the dielectric constant and AC electric conductivity with increasing temperature, attributable to augmented charge mobility within the material. The successful integration of the dipeptide was substantiated through the observation of Maxwell–Wagner interfacial polarization, affirming the uniform dispersion within the microfibers. In-depth insights into electric permittivity and activation energies were garnered using the Havriliak–Negami model and the AC conductivity behavior. Very importantly, these engineered fibers exhibited pronounced pyroelectric and piezoelectric responses, with Boc–Phe–Ile@PLLA microfibers standing out with the highest piezoelectric coefficient, calculated to be 56 pC/N. These discoveries help us understand how dipeptide nanostructures embedded into electrospun nano/microfibers can greatly affect their pyroelectric and piezoelectric properties. They also point out that polymer fibers could be used as highly efficient piezoelectric energy harvesters, with promising applications in portable and wearable devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Materials for Sustainability)
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13 pages, 6037 KiB  
Article
In Situ Ni-Doped Hierarchically Porous Carbon Nanofibers Derived from Polyacrylonitrile/Pitch for Hydrogen Storage at Ambient Temperature
by Fuquan Song, Lintao Huang, Heying Ding, Shiming Zhang and Jinbiao Yu
Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8722; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118722 - 29 May 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1522
Abstract
Porous carbon nanofibers doped with nickel (Ni) were successfully fabricated through electrospinning, carbonization, and CO2 activation techniques using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and petroleum pitch as carbon sources and nickel acetate as the dopant. During the activation process, Ni was reduced and dispersed in [...] Read more.
Porous carbon nanofibers doped with nickel (Ni) were successfully fabricated through electrospinning, carbonization, and CO2 activation techniques using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and petroleum pitch as carbon sources and nickel acetate as the dopant. During the activation process, Ni was reduced and dispersed in situ on the carbon matrix. The effects of Ni doping content on the morphology and structure of the carbon nanofibers were systematically investigated using SEM, TEM, XPS, XRD, Raman, and BET analyses. The experimental results revealed that the prepared materials had a hierarchically porous structure and that Ni nanoparticles played multiple roles in the preparation process, including catalyzing pore expansion and catalytic graphitization. However, particle agglomeration and fiber fracture occurred when the Ni content was high. In the adsorption/desorption experiments, the sample with 10 wt% Ni doping exhibited the highest specific surface area and micropore volume of 750.7 m2/g and 0.258 cm3/g, respectively, and had the maximum hydrogen storage capacity of 1.39 wt% at 298 K and 10 MPa. The analyses suggested that the hydrogen adsorption mechanism contributed to enhanced H2 adsorption by the spillover effect in addition to physisorption. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Materials for Sustainability)
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