Energy gels: A bio-inspired material platform for advanced energy applications

Abstract

Energy conversion and storage systems with high efficiency have attracted great research interest in recent years. To improve the performance of energy devices, nanomaterials with delicately controlled structures and interfaces have been applied. However, low-dimensional nanomaterials suffer from inhomogeneous aggregation, severe re-stacking, and the formation of bottlenecks and poor contacts during the processing and assembly, thus hindering the transport of electrons or ions in energy devices. Gel materials, a special class of bio-inspired materials, are emerging as promising candidates to overcome the drawbacks of low-dimensional nanomaterials. The 3D nanostructured gel network promotes electron transport along the backbone while facilitating the diffusion of ions through hierarchical pores, as well as providing high surface area for interfacial reactions. In addition, the properties of gels can be facilely tuned, thereby further extending their applications and improving their performance. To date, various synthesis strategies have been developed for the preparation of gel materials, including carbon-based gels, conductive polymer gels, ionically conductive gels and inorganic gels. These gel materials have successfully served as

Revising the Concept of Pore Hierarchy for Ionic Transport in Carbon Materials for Supercapacitors

“…[18] Until very recently, the direct assessment of the ion transport characteristics within the pores of carbon materials was not reported. [18] Until very recently, the direct assessment of the ion transport characteristics within the pores of carbon materials was not reported.…”

Nature-inspired thermo-responsive multifunctional membrane adaptively hybridized with PNIPAm and PPy

“…[9][10][11][12] To enhance the electrical functionality of stimulus-responsive hydrogels, conducting materials such as fillers, graphene and polymers can be incorporated into hydrogels. [13][14][15][16][17][18] For instance, conductive polymer (CP) hydrogels contain conjugated conductive backbones to promote charge transport and exhibit semiconducting electrical properties. 19 Thus, CP hydrogels have the distinctive properties of a hydrogel and the electrical properties of CPs.…”

Hydrogels for Medical and Environmental Applications

“…In the past, there were some good review articles of hydrogels and other 3D porous structures for various applications with most of them individually describing energy, environment and health applications. [4,6,8,21,22] However, considering the urgent need for efficient healthcare solutions, as described earlier, we address hydrogels, draw understandings and provide discussions on their use in the health and environment sectors and propose a holistic way to combine these understandings to come up with the multifunctional use of these hybrid hydrogels. We have compiled data from very recent literature in the proposed areas of research and this will add value to the paper, attracting wide readership.…”