Mesoporous materials for clean energy technologies

Abstract

Alternative energy technologies are greatly hindered by significant limitations in materials science. From low activity to poor stability, and from mineral scarcity to high cost, the current materials are not able to cope with the significant challenges of clean energy technologies. However, recent advances in the preparation of nanomaterials, porous solids, and nanostructured solids are providing hope in the race for a better, cleaner energy production. The present contribution critically reviews the development and role of mesoporosity in a wide range of technologies, as this provides for critical improvements in accessibility, the dispersion of the active phase and a higher surface area. Relevant examples of the development of mesoporosity by a wide range of techniques are provided, including the preparation of hierarchical structures with pore systems in different scale ranges. Mesoporosity plays a significant role in catalysis, especially in the most challenging processes where bulky molecules, like those obtained from biomass or highly unreactive species, such as CO2 should be transformed into most valuable products. Furthermore, mesoporous materials also play a significant role as electrodes in fuel and solar cells and in thermoelectric devices, technologies which are benefiting from improved accessibility and a better dispersion of materials with controlled porosity.

Magnetically Separable and Sustainable Nanostructured Catalysts for Heterogeneous Reduction of Nitroaromatics

“…Inorganic solid supports, such as metal oxides, carbon, zeolite, zirconia, hydrotalcite and clay, generally show higher thermal and mechanical resistances compared with their organic counterparts. Mesoporous silica and alumina supports are probably the most popular matrixes as inorganic solid supports due to the cost, large surface area and porosity, availability, mechanical robustness and facile synthesis [29][30][31]. Supporting the highly active nanocatalysts can avoid the problem of recycling and reusability.…”

Highly ordered Nanomaterial Functionalized Copper Schiff Base Framework: Synthesis, Characterization, and Hydrogen Peroxide Decomposition Performance

“…They exhibit highly-ordered porous and size-controlled structures, large specific surface areas, and they also present major accessibility and potential to be functionalized with different functional chemical groups on their surface [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Due to their remarkable properties, these catalysts have found a significant variety of applications in catalysis, e.g., gas adsorption [12][13][14][15][16], energy conversion [17,18], organo-optoelectronics [19][20][21][22], energy storage [23,24], gas sensors [25,26], and drug delivery [27][28][29]. A common and very effective procedure for the synthesis of PMOs relates to the co-condensation of silica with precursors such as tetraalkoxysilane and trialkoxyorganosilane in the presence of a structure-directing agent (templating agent), which determines the structure features of the resulting materials.…”

Effects of nanostructure on clean energy: big solutions gained from small features

“…Advanced materials and nanotechnology related to clean coal and fossil fuels, biofuels and biomass conversion, biosystem, and bioinspired system for energy conversion, piezoelectric conversion, and CO 2 capture, storage, and utilization, as well as hydrogen storage, have been researched intensively for clean energy applications in recent decades [48,[61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69]. For example, synthesis of methane (CH 4 ) from syngas (CO ?…”

“…Besides sodium and lithium-ion batteries, nanostructuring has also proved to be an effective way to enhance the performance of other energy storage systems, such as supercapacitors [4,47,48], Li-S batteries [49], Li-air batteries [50], microbial fuel cells [51], and solid oxide fuel cells [52].…”