Oxide materials for energy applications

Oxygen Defects and Surface Chemistry of Reducible Oxides

“…In the application of photovoltaic solar energy, as it is widely abundant, such devices may in principle provide more sustainable clean, green energy without toxic or dangerous gases (Nunes et al, 2018). The designed materials for these applications have increased a lot in recent years, which has transformed the total cost of this technology, likely is due to the fast increase in efficiency as well as the simplicity of fabrication of these devices.…”

“…More recently, several strategies have widely been adopted to the development of the next generation of photovoltaic devices, especially based on emerging materials (Protesescu et al, 2015;Brenner et al, 2016;Manser et al, 2016;Saliba et al, 2016). These novel emerging materials are chemically and thermally stables with incredible potential for many applications and, in some cases, can widely be compatible with a huge variety of low-cost manufacturing (Masi et al, 2018;Nunes et al, 2018;Fernandes et al, 2019;Ramirez et al, 2019). Such emerging materials, however, have its chemistry still very little explored, which may in principle be an option interesting for the appearance of many technologies.…”

“…Fundamentally, by drawing attention to DSSC application, when dye molecules (also known as photosensitizers) capture the photons of sunlight. Consequently, the photoelectrons move directly from the LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital), which is the excited state of the dye (a liquid redox electrolyte, usually I − /I 3− non-aqueous solution), to the CB of the semiconductor material as electron selective contact and therefore diffuse to the electrode conductor (da Fonseca et al, 2018;Nunes et al, 2018). Hence, the ionized dye molecules are, in turn, reduced by the reducible oxide charge on the electrolyte.…”

“…Hence, the ionized dye molecules are, in turn, reduced by the reducible oxide charge on the electrolyte. Additionally, the dye is electrochemically regenerated in this process (Nunes et al, 2018).…”

Nanoarchitectonics of metal oxide materials for sustainable technologies and environmental applications

“…Among the possible material classes, metal oxide based-nanosystems offer an extremely attractive playground bridging together the variety of properties of inorganic materials and the unique features of nanostructures. 5,[37][38][39] A careful modification of the latter by suitable preparation techniques represents a valuable tool to underpin advanced applications linked to safety and sustainability. Among the different routes, inherent advantages are offered by hydrothermal approaches, 13,40,41 liquid phase processes, 32,42,43 chemical vapor deposition (CVD), 9,19,44 and template syntheses, [45][46][47] the latter providing a unique way to produce nanoarchitectures with uniform dimensions.…”